Melissa Steyn

Academic Profile & Recent Publications

Melissa Steyn is an Associate Professor in Sociology, and director of Intercultural and Diversity Studies at the University of Cape Town. She has published on many aspects of diversity, including race, gender, culture, and sexuality. She is best known for her work on whiteness and white identity in post-apartheid South Africa, an interest which she is often asked to speak on in the media and at conferences. Her book on this topic, Whiteness just isn’t what is used to be: White identity in a changing South Africa (2001, State University of New York Press) won the 2002 Outstanding Scholarship award from the National Communication Association (USA) in International and Intercultural Communication.

Melissa has co-edited a two volume series Shaping Sexualities in South Africa after 1994 with Mikki van Zyl, of which the first was Per(trans)forming Queer (2005, Kwela,) and the second, The Prize and the Price is in print (2008, HSRC). Other books include Under Construction: Race and identity in South Africa today (2004, Heinemann, with Natasha Distiller) and Cultural Synergy in South Africa: Weaving strands of Africa and Europe (1996, Knowledge Resources, with Khanya Motshabi).

Melissa is currently directing several national research projects related to identities and transformation in postapartheid South Africa, funded by SANPAD and the NRF.