Perfil

Professor Dee Smythe studied political science and law at the University of Cape Town, graduating with BA and postgraduate LLB degrees. She obtained her masters (JSM) and doctoral (JSD) degrees in the field of law and society from Stanford University, where she was a Fulbright Fellow. Professor Smythe is the Director of the Centre for Law and Society and Professor of Public Law at the University of Cape Town, and has taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Turin, American University in Cairo and Stanford Law School. In 2022 she is co-chairing the Global Meeting on Law and Society, which will take place in Lisbon. Professor Smythe’s research focuses on law, policy and institutional responses to gendered harms and dignity violations, particularly in transitional contexts. She has written and advised extensively on issues relating to sexual violence, including working with governments, universities and domestic and international NGOs to develop and implement laws and policies. Her books include Rape Unresolved: Policing Sexual Offences in South Africa (UCT Press, 2015); Should We Consent? The Politics of Rape Law Reform in South Africa (co-ed, 2009); the Sexual Offences Commentary (lead editor, 2011, 2019, 2022); In Search of Equality: Women, Law & Society in Africa (co-ed, 2011) and Marriage, Land and Custom: Essays on Law and Social Change in South Africa (co-ed, 2013). She is also the co-author of the encyclopaedic Laws of South Africa (LAWSA): Criminal Procedure (LexisNexis, 2020), the definitive restatement of South African law. In 2022 Bristol University Press will publish Unsettling Apologies: Critical Writings on Apology from South Africa, edited with Melanie Judge. Professor Smythe is currently working with colleagues in Brazil, India and South Africa on a comparative study of autocratic legalism in those three countries. With Sanele Sibanda and Jonathan Klaaren she is convening an International Research Collaborative on Mapping the Pasts and Futures of Law and Society Scholarship in Africa, which includes scholars across the African continent, with a view to building an open access repository of African scholarship and research handbook . Professor Smythe teaches and supervises research on sexual offences, women and law, criminal procedure, qualitative research methods and law and society. She is a Trustee of the Women’s Legal Centre and the Law and Society Association (where she also serves as the inaugural Coordinator of Global Activities) and serves on the Board of the Dullah Omar Institute. She also serves as a member of the Commonwealth Group of Experts on Law Reform to Eliminate Discrimination against LGBT People, Women and Other Marginalised Groups, has convened the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers' focus group on Women, Equality and Constitutionalism, and served for many years as Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Rape Crisis. Recent recognition includes the Law and Society Association’s Stanley Wheeler Award for Mentorship (2020), for her work with graduate students and early career scholars, and the WOZA Women in Law Award: Thought Leader in Academia (2019).