Rodreck Mupedziswa PhD, MSc, BSW, DipSW.

Professor Rodreck Mupedziswa was educated at various institutions, including the
London School of Economics (University of London) and the University of Zimbabwe. He
is a previous winner of the prestigious (British) Foreign and Commonwealth Scholarship
(now Chevening). He attained the rank of Full Professor in January 2012, having served
as an Associate Professor since 2000.

He is Coordinator of the Centre for Gender-Based Violence and Empowerment of
Vulnerable Groups. Previous positions held include Head of Department of Social Work
(6 years) and Professor (9 years) at the University of Botswana; Director of the Forced
Migration Studies Programme (offering PhD and Masters degrees in Forced Migration
Studies) in the Graduate School for the Humanities at the University of the
Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg (2002 – 2004). Prior to this he held various
positions (1986- 2001) at the School of Social Work (University of Zimbabwe), including
post of Deputy Director.

Prof Mupedziswa has served as visiting professor to such institutions as Anglia Ruskin
University, Cambridge, UK, Minnesota State University, USA, Turku University (Finland)
and National University of Lesotho. He has served as external examiner with 13
institutions of higher learning including, North West University (South Africa), University
of Mauritius, Makerere University (Uganda), University of Malawi, Midlands State
University, Bindura University of Science Education, Women’s University in Africa
(Zimbabwe), University of Botswana and the National University of Lesotho. He has
been examiner for PhD and Masters degree dissertations/theses for such institutions as
University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, University of Witwatersrand, University
of Western Cape, Stellenbosch University, University of Fort Hare, University of
Johannesburg, and University of KwaZulu Natal.

He is author/co-author of 9 academic books, and has published scores of journal
articles, book chapters, monographs and occasional papers. He has presented
academic papers at over 120 conferences/workshops/symposia in 46 countries across
the world, including in the USA, UK, Sweden, Australia, Italy, Finland, Portugal, the
Netherlands, Canada, Peru, Japan, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda
and Mauritius, among others. He has served as Keynote/Guest speaker at conferences
in Melbourne (Australia); Bologna (Italy); Cambridge (United Kingdom); Kampala
(Uganda); Lisbon (Portugal) Johannesburg (South Africa), and Gaborone (Botswana). A
seasoned researcher, Prof Mupedziswa scooped the University of Botswana Researcher
of the Year Award for 2010. For 10 years he served as Editor-in-Chief of the IBSS
accredited, ProQuest-indexed Journal of Social Development in Africa. Currently he sits
on editorial boards of 4 international scientific journals, including Social Development
Issues. He served for 3 years on the 7-member Executive Committee of the
Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA)

headquartered in Addis Ababa. He is also a very active member of a regional expert
research grouping, the Southern African Social Protection Network (SASPEN). He has
served on the Social Science board of the Pretoria-based National Research Foundation
(NRF) of South Africa, whose brief inter alia, includes rating of researchers, in pursuit of
excellence. Prof Mupedziswa has served as consultant for many international agencies,
including World Health Organisation (WHO); United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD); United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), Help Age International (HAI), Swedish SIDA, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and
Danish DANIDA.

The consultancy work has included action research, project evaluation, editing
manuscripts. Prof Mupedziswa’s research interests focus essentially on themes that aim
to empower vulnerable groups in society, in particular women and children. He recently
won a grant (UN- SDG Fund) to conduct research on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in
Botswana.