Prof Kalpana Hiralal

Kalpana Hiralal is an associate professor of History at the University of Kwazulu/Natal, South Africa. She teaches both at undergraduate and graduate level on global history, women in African colonial histories, heritage, culture and tourism. Her Ph.D dissertation focused on the Indian diaspora to Natal in the context of settlement, trade and identity formation. Her current research focus is on the African and South Asian Diaspora, Gender and Migration and gender struggles in Apartheid South Africa. She has published in several local and international academic journals in the context of gender, identity and agency. She has been a recipient of several awards: 2003-2008 awarded National Research Foundation grant (Thuthuka);  2004 University of Kwazulu/Natal, Certificate of Excellence: For making significant progress in the National Research Foundation (Thuthuka); 2004-2005 awarded NRF (Thuthuka) post-doctoral scholarship –engaged in collaborative research at Dalhouise University, Canada; 2007 awarded  the Nordic Institute African Scholarship and in December 2013,guest Lecturer at the Lulea University of Technology, Sweden. Her forthcoming publications (2014): Women and Migration in South Africa, South Asian Diaspora and Rebellious Sisters - Indentured Women and Resistance in Colonial Natal, (eds), Mauritz Hassankhan and Brij V. Lal (Manohar Publications: New Delhi).