maki motapanyane

Dr. J. Maki Motapanyane 
Associate Professor, Department of Women’s Studies 
Mount Saint Vincent University

Education 
PhD, Women’s Studies (2009) 
York University, Toronto, Ontario
Dissertation: The Politics of Feminism in South Africa: Gender Consciousness and Political Agency in the Twentieth Century
MA, Women’s Studies (2002) 
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Thesis: Converging in Oral Communion: Black Women on Body Politics and Eros 
BA (Honours, with Distinction), History and Political Science (2000) 
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Honours Thesis: South African Women’s Political Mobilization During Apartheid

Contact 
Email: maki.motapanyane@msvu.ca
Website: www.makimotapanyane.com

Biography 
Dr. J. Maki Motapanyane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her scholarship is situated in African and Black feminist intellectual traditions, with particular interests in feminist epistemology, political resistance, colonialism and decolonization, maternal theory, and the relationship between knowledge production and social change.

Her research examines the intellectual and political contributions of African women to feminist thought and social movements, particularly in South Africa. Across her publications, she engages questions of political agency, feminist consciousness, motherhood and mothering, the political economy of care, and the institutional conditions that shape women’s lives. Her work also considers the politics of race, gender, and representation in popular culture, including Hip-Hop and stand-up comedy, as well as equity, leadership, and institutional practice.

An important dimension of Dr. Motapanyane’s scholarship concerns feminist methodology and the relationship between intellectual form and knowledge production. Her work explores poetry, narrative, and other forms of creative expression as modes of feminist inquiry, particularly in relation to Black feminist epistemologies and transnational research. Dr. Motapanyane’s publications include scholarly articles, book chapters, and edited collections addressing feminist theory, African women’s political activism, motherhood, cultural production, and social justice. Her current editorial projects include Black Motherhoods: Navigating Histories, Realities, and Resilience Across Continents, co-edited with Delicia Tiera Greene, and Silence to Strength: Intersections of Maternal Anger and Feminist Thought, both under contract with Demeter Press.

Her teaching spans undergraduate and graduate courses in feminist theory, African and African diaspora feminisms, feminist epistemology and methodology, global gender studies, colonialism and decolonization, ecological justice, and women’s political resistance.

Community engagement and collective social justice efforts beyond the academy have long been integral to Dr. Motapanyane’s intellectual and professional life. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Together We Rise Project at the Delmore Buddy Daye Learning Institute, an initiative concerned with advancing Black women’s leadership. Her previous public and community service includes chairing the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation, serving as a mediator with the Calgary Provincial Courts Civil Claims Mediation Program, and working with organizations supporting women’s empowerment, immigrant and refugee communities, and African Nova Scotian youth.

Dr. Motapanyane’s academic, professional, and community contributions have received several honours, including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta, 2022), Mount Royal University’s Distinguished Faculty Award (2020) and Knowledge Mobilization Award (2019), and the Alberta Professional of the Year Award (2016), presented through the Obsidian Awards, an initiative recognizing achievement and contributions within Alberta’s Black diaspora communities.

Research Interests

  • African and African diaspora feminist thought
  • Black feminist epistemology and knowledge production
  • Feminist theory, methodology, and research ethics
  • Colonialism, decolonization, and African women’s political resistance
  • Maternal theory, motherhood, and matricentric feminism
  • Maternal anger, political agency, and feminist consciousness
  • Childcare policy, care labour, and the political economy of care
  • Poetry, narrative, and creative expression as feminist inquiry
  • Race, gender, and representation in Hip-Hop and popular culture
  • Feminist humour, stand-up comedy, and social criticism
  • Black women’s leadership, institutional equity, and social change

Teaching Areas

  • African and African Diaspora Feminisms
  • Feminism and Knowledge
  • Feminist Theory and Methodology
  • Gender, Colonization, and Decolonization
  • Global Women and Gender Issues
  • Women, Resistance, and Empowerment
  • Ecofeminism and Ecological Justice
  • Motherhood and Mothering
  • Hip-Hop Culture and Feminist Cultural Studies

Publications 

Books (Peer-Reviewed)

  • Motapanyane, M. (Ed.). (2026). Silence to strength: Intersections of maternal anger and feminist thought. Demeter Press. (Under contract).
  • Motapanyane, M., & Greene, D. T. (Eds.). (2026). Black motherhoods: Navigating histories, realities, and resilience across continents. Demeter Press. (Under contract).
  • Motapanyane, M. (Ed.). (2016). Motherhood and lone-single parenting: A twenty-first century perspective. Bradford: Demeter Press.
  • Badruddoja, R., & Motapanyane, M. (Eds.). (2016). New maternalisms: Tales of motherwork (dislodging the unthinkable). Bradford: Demeter Press.
  • Motapanyane, M. (Ed.). (2012). Mothering in hip-hop culture: Representation and experience. Bradford: Demeter Press.

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

  • Motapanyane, M., & Shankar, I. (2022). Increasing pathways to leadership for Black, Indigenous, and other racially minoritized women. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 43(1), 3–18.
  • Motapanyane, M., & Dobson, K. (Fall/Winter 2015). Interrogating the language of diversity in academe: Motherhood and parenting in view. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, 6(2), 125–139.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2013). Nostalgia and poetry: Reflections on research, creative expression, and fieldwork across borders. Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice, 36(1), 12–21.
  • Motapanyane, M. (Spring 2011). Capitalizing on multiculturalism: Reading the success of Canadian comedian Russell Peters. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 25, 97–113.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2010). Insider/outsider: A feminist introspective on epistemology and transnational research. Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal/Revue d’études sur les femmes, 34(2), 96–103. Special Issue: Across the Generations in Women’s Studies.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2010). Notes on agency, empowerment, and feminist consciousness: A look at South Africa. Nevi Sara Kali: Roma Women’s Journal/Romane зuvleanqe зurnalo, 2, 29–40.
  • Motapanyane, M. (Spring 2006). The Black female body and artist in Canadian hip-hop: The question of femini(st)ne space. New Dawn: Journal of Black Canadian Studies, 1(1), 28–49.

Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)

  • Motapanyane, M. (Accepted for publication). Maternal rage. In D. L. O. B. Hallstein, M. V. Giles, & A. O’Reilly (Eds.), The Routledge companion to motherhood (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
  • Motapanyane, M. (Accepted for publication). Lone/single motherhood. In D. L. O. B. Hallstein, M. V. Giles, & A. O’Reilly (Eds.), The Routledge companion to motherhood (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
  • Motapanyane, M., with McFarlane, A. (2020). Childcare as a public and common good: A Canadian perspective. In C. Zufferey & F. Buchanan (Eds.), Intersections of mothering: Feminist accounts (pp. 57–74). London: Routledge.
  • Calixte, S. L., Johnson, J. L., & Motapanyane, J. M. (2016). Theorizing women’s oppression and social change: Liberal, socialist, radical, and postmodern feminisms. In N. Mandell & J. L. Johnson (Eds.), Feminist issues: Race, class and sexuality (6th ed., pp. 1–34). Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2016). Introduction: Motherhood, mothering, and lone-single parenting in contemporary perspective. In M. Motapanyane (Ed.), Motherhood and lone-single parenting: A twenty-first century perspective (pp. 1–18). Bradford: Demeter Press.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2012). Introduction: Motherhood between invisibility and trope. In M. Motapanyane (Ed.), Mothering in hip-hop culture: Representation and experience (pp. 1–21). Bradford: Demeter Press.
  • Campbell, M. V., & Motapanyane, M. (2012). Mothering the northside: Hip-hop mothers north of the 49th parallel. In M. Motapanyane (Ed.), Mothering in hip-hop culture: Representation and experience (pp. 129–164). Bradford: Demeter Press.
  • Calixte, S. L., Johnson, J. L., & Motapanyane, J. M. (2010). Liberal, socialist and radical feminism: An introduction to three theories about women’s oppression (revised). In N. Mandell (Ed.), Feminist issues: Race, class and sexuality (5th ed., pp. 1–39). Toronto: Prentice Hall.
  • Calixte, S. L., Johnson, J. L., & Motapanyane, M. (2004). Liberal, socialist and radical feminism: An introduction to three theories about women’s oppression. In N. Mandell (Ed.), Feminist issues: Race, class and sexuality (4th ed., pp. 1–34). Toronto: Prentice Hall.

Encyclopaedia Entries

Book Reviews

  • Motapanyane, M. (2026). A poetry of resistance: Transnational girlhood through art and advocacy [Review of Quantum justice: Global girls cultivating disruption through spoken word poetry, by Crystal Leigh Endsley]. Girlhood Studies, 19(1), 123–126. https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2025.190114
  • Motapanyane, M. (2025). [Review of Mothering and mother(work) in the times of Black Lives Matter, edited by Haile Eshe Cole, Shana Calixte Pitawanakwat, and Luciane Rocha]. Herizons, 39(3), 35.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2025). Review of Mothering and mother(work) in the times of Black Lives Matter, edited by H. E. Cole, S. Calixte Pitawanakwat, & L. Rocha. Herizons, 39(3), 35.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2022). Review of We still here: Hip hop north of the 49th parallel, edited by Charity Marsh and Mark V. Campbell. University of Toronto Quarterly, 91(3), 264–266.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2017). Review of Revolutionary mothering: Love on the front lines, edited by A. P. Gumbs, C. Martens, & M. Williams (2016). Journal of Critical Race Inquiry, 4(1), 78–80.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2011). Review of The law and the prophets: Black consciousness in South Africa, 1968–1977, by D. R. Magaziner (2010). New Political Science, 33(3), 384–388.
  • Motapanyane, M. (2011). Review of The joys of motherhood (2nd ed.), by Buchi Emecheta (1979/2008). Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 2(1).
  • Motapanyane, M. (2009). Review of The writing circle, by Rozena Maart (2007). Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal/Revue d’études sur les femmes, 34(1).

Creative Publications

  • Motapanyane, M. (2026). What remains after the fire [Poetry collection]. Friesen Press.

Community-Based Research

  • Jodrey, J., Motapanyane, J. M., & Smith, A. C. (2001). A report on the sexual and reproductive health needs of a sample of young men, young African Nova Scotian women and women over 50. Halifax: Planned Parenthood Metro Clinic.

Selected Awards and Honours

  • 2022 — Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta). Awarded in recognition of contributions to community and public life.
  • 2020 — Distinguished Faculty Award, Mount Royal University.
  • 2019 — Knowledge Mobilization Award, Mount Royal University, recognizing outstanding contributions to research and scholarship.
  • 2016 — Alberta Professional of the Year, Obsidian Awards, recognizing professional achievement within Alberta’s Black diaspora communities.