Ulandi du Plessis (PhD, Rhodes) is Senior Researcher and Programme Manager at the CSSR. She started at Rhodes University in 2007 studying towards a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Political and International Studies. For her postgraduate studies she was registered at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER). Her PhD thesis, entitled Governing pregnancy in South Africa: Political and health debate, policy and procedures was supervised by Catriona Macleod. The thesis entails a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of South African health policy with a specific focus on maternal health policy 1994-present. Using the framework of governmentality, it investigates the knowledge/power relationships that belie the current rationality of governing pregnancy shaping maternal health policy and practices in South Africa. She received the British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Women and Equalities Section (POWES) and Feminism and Psychology Postgraduate Award for a paper submitted based on her doctoral thesis.

Her interests include governmentality studies, postcolonialism, health and illness, health policy, and reproductive health issues.

Ulandi supervises students at the CSSR and has been researcher, lead, and/or project coordinator on a variety of local and international quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods projects in social policy, education, and health.

Projects

Project coordinator and researcher: Creating well-trained and supported Life Orientation teachers in teaching comprehensive sexuality education: A research study, funded by the Department of Basic Education and UNESCO.

Project coordinator and researcher: Pregnancy supportability: enabling a holistic health systems response during/following COVID-19, funded by SAMRC

Lead researcher and project coordinator: An assessment of abortion-seeking behaviours and preferences in rural communities of the Eastern Cape, South Africa funded by Marie Stopes South Africa.

Consultant: ‘Building Resilience: Education Opportunities in Fragile and Crisis Affected Environments’, European Commission-funded, University of Sussex-based project.

Consultant: Global Gag Rule Documentation Project, Phase II, funded by International Women’s Health Coalition, New York City.

Researcher: Eastern Cape Liquor Board study on alcohol use during pregnancy in the Eastern Cape.

Project coordinator: Pathways through University and into the Labour Market, Graduate Tracer Study, run by the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU formerly LMRU) and commissioned by the Human Science Resource Council (HSRC) and the National Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).

Researcher: ‘Overcoming poverty through a culture of service: Building a culture of service in the Chris Hani Municipality’, Joint ISER and Chris Hani Institute Study.

Researcher: Effecting social citizenship through social policy: Policies, contestations and practices, SANPAD research project on social citizenship, Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Publications

Du Plessis, U & Macleod, CI (forthcoming). Abortion Services and Reproductive Justice in Rural South Africa. Wits University Press.

Du Plessis, U, & Macleod, CI (2023). Governing pregnancy in the Global South: the case of post-apartheid South Africa, Health, Risk & Society, DOI: 10.1080/13698575.2023.2249943

Du Plessis, U, Macleod, CI, Mavuso, J, Grapsa, E, Sanyangore, A. (2020) An assessment of abortion seeking behaviours and preferences in rural communities of the Eastern Cape, South Africa: Short report. Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, Rhodes University.

Du Plessis, U, Macleod, CI, Mavuso, J, Grapsa, E, Sanyangore, A. (2020) An assessment of abortion seeking behaviours and preferences in rural communities of the Eastern Cape, South Africa: Research Report. Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, Rhodes University.

Du Plessis, U and Macleod, CI. (2020) The CSSR/MSSA mixed methods research toolkit: Abortion-seeking behaviours and preferences. Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, Rhodes University.

Du Plessis, U, Sofika, D, Macleod, CI, Mthethwa, T (2018). Assessing the impact of the Expanded Global Gag Rule in South Africa. Grahamstown, South Africa: Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, International Women’s Health Coalition. Report.

Du Plessis, U, Young, C, & Macleod, CI (2017) Harm Reduction Strategies in Alcohol Use and Abuse: A Critical Review of Interventions. Grahamstown, South Africa: Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction, Rhodes University, Report.

Rogan, M, Reynolds, J, Du Plessis, U, Bally, R and Whitfield, K (2015) ‘Pathways through University and into the Labour Market: Report on a graduate tracer study from the Eastern Cape’, LMIP Report 18. HSRC, Department of Higher Education, South Africa.

Conferences

Du Plessis, U, Macleod, C, Nicholson, M, Mhlongo, S. (2020) Abortion services in rural areas: implications of current research. Paper presented at Centre for Human Rights Colloquium, Overcoming Barriers to Safe Abortion in the African Region. University of Pretoria, Tswane, South Africa, 23-24 January 2020.

Du Plessis, U (2019) Governing pregnancy in the Global South: An analysis of techniques to reduce maternal mortality in the South African public health system. Paper presented at British Psychological Society (BPS) Psychology of Women and Equalities Section (POWES) conference, Windsor, UK, 10-12 July 2019.

Du Plessis, U (2017) Governing pregnant women: The case of alcohol consumption, Paper presented at the first Pan-African Psychology Congress, Durban, South Africa, 18-21 September 2017.

Du Plessis, U (2017) Harm Reduction Strategies in Alcohol Use and Abuse: A Critical Review of Interventions, Paper presented at the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, Provincial Liquor Industry Summit, East London, South Africa, 5-7 March 2017.

Du Plessis, U (2014) The reproduction of inequality in social expenditure: the social division of welfare and state expenditure on health in a democratic South Africa. Paper presented at the workshop on Social Protection in Africa, University of Cape Town, 29 – 30 May 2014.

Du Plessis, U (2011) The Social Division of Welfare and the health care system of South Africa, Paper presented at the 5^th Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, Rhodes University, 23-25 September 2011.

Last Modified: Wed, 13 Sep 2023 12:32:50 SAST