Director of the Children’s Institute
Professor Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town
Shanaaz Mathews, PhD is the director of the Children’s Institute and a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town. She has a PhD in Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has 30 years’ experience in the women’s and children’s sectors and has worked within civil society organisations as an academic and technical advisor to government programs specializing in violence against women and children. She currently serves as an International Advisory Board member for the UNICEF Innocenti Research Office Florence, on the Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence and is amanaging committee member for theDST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests include violence against women and children, as well as pathways to violent masculinities using both qualitative and quantitative approaches.She has led the seminal research into child homicide in South Africa. Her current research is focused on understanding gaps in the child protection system with a focus on alternative models of treating trauma in low-resourced settings. She has led the determinants of violence against women and children study for the South African Inter-ministerial parliamentary committee and has served as a technical advisor on South Africa’s diagnostic review of government programs to address violence against women and children.
Email: shanaaz.mathews@uct.ac.za