Natasha Erlank

BA (Hons) MA University of Cape Town. PhD Cambridge University.

I trained as an historian, doing my undergraduate, honours and master sdegrees at the University of Cape Town (UCT). My doctorate was completed at Cambridge University.

To date, my research interests have focused on the history of the relationship between gender and mainline African Christianity, within the broader context of colonialism. This work has just been published as Convening Black Intimacy: Christianity, Gender, and Tradition in Early-Twentieth Century South Africa (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2022).

My new work is on the history of reproductive health in Africa between the 1940s and the 1990s. This work takes a comparative look at how birth control policies were rolled out across a range of different and newly-independent nation states, and about the ways in which Africans resisted and adopted the agendas of foreign donor agencies in this regard.

After brief teaching stints at UCT and Rhodes University, I have been lecturing and researching at the University of Johannesburg since 1999. From 2007 to 2010 I directed the Centre for Culture and Languages in Africa. In 2011 I moved to head up Historical Studies at UJ, a position I held for five years. I am currently a professor in the department, where I have a particular interest and expertise in supervising and mentoring postgraduates. I am also a senior research associate at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.