Law Nolundi Luwaya
Job history 2019–Present Director Land and Accountability Research Centre at UCT 2017 - 2018 Researcher Centre for Law and Society at UCT 2016 Deputy Director Land and Accountability Research Centre at UCT
Academic history 2018 LLM, UCT 2011 BA LLB, UCT 2008 BA (English, Law and Sociology), UCT
2013-2015 Programme Coordinator of Rural Women’s Action Research Programme Centre for Law and Society at UCT 2012 Junior Researcher Centre for Law and Society at UCT
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Describe your job – what do you do? The Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) is based in the University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Law. The Centre combines research, litigation and advocacy in customary law in order to advance the struggles of South Africans living in the former homelands. LARC forms part of a collaborative network, constituted as the Alliance for Rural Democracy, which provides strategic support to struggles for the recognition and protection of rights in the former homeland areas of South Africa. An explicit concern of LARC is power relations, and the impact of national laws and policy in framing the balance of power within which rural women and men struggle for change at the local level. As Director of the Centre, my role is to provide leadership and strategic direction to the Centre. Together with the LARC team I steward relationships with partner organisations and funders. I serve as the face of the organisation and work to build its public profile.
How have your degrees helped you to get where you are? Having studied both law and sociology has been useful in getting me to where I am currently. These degrees have helped me to develop critical social research skills and the ability to work across disciplines.