University of Johannesburg (UJ) Professor of Social Development Studies and Director of the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA), Leila Patel will serve as the 2016 Friedlander Lecturer on International Social Welfare at the University of California-Berkeley School of Social Welfare on Monday 4 April.
Prof Patel will be speaking on Gender and Social Welfare in South Africa: Lessons from the South.
In 2015, Prof Patel was announced as the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) chairholder for Welfare and Social Development by the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor.
In 2014, she was awarded the Distinguished Woman Scientist Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences by the Department of Science and Technology, South Africa.
Her research interests are social welfare, social work, social policy, gender, social protection and social development, and her publications include Social Welfare and Social Development in South Africa (Oxford UP Southern Africa, 2005), book chapters, journal articles and research reports.
In 2016, she launched the second volume of the book which discusses social welfare practice in global and regional context, addressing issues of poverty, unemployment and populations at risk within South Africa, and the role of the social welfare system in South Africa in tackling these issues.