I am a South African scholar with an interest in the social history of sexuality and reproduction, particularly within urban settings in the Global South. For my doctoral research, I am writing an oral history of courtship, sexuality and family planning in three racially distinct working-class areas of Cape Town between 1948 and 1982, i.e. the period between the rise of the apartheid state and the first reported case/s of HIV/Aids in South Africa. The aim of the study is to examine local responses to particular government policies regarding reproduction and family life (e.g. The Family Planning Programme of 1974), whilst also trying to shed light on the complex effects of race, religion, and social class on sexual attitudes and fertility behaviour in a socially and developmentally hybrid environment.
