Melanie Judge

Melanie Judge is a queer feminist activist and scholar, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town. She is co-editor of Unsettling Apologies: Critical Writings on Apology in South Africa (2022), author of Blackwashing Homophobia: Violence and the Politics of Sexuality, Gender and Race (2018), and lead editor of To Have and to Hold: The Making of Same- Sex Marriage in South Africa (2008). She holds a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies and works on strategy, advocacy and research for sexual and gender rights, and has published widely in the field. Judge was the 2016 recipient of the Social Change Award, granted by Rhodes University in recognition of her activism and scholarship on sexuality. Melanie is Senior Policy Advisor on LGBTI Inclusion in Africa for the United Nations Development Programme.