Anti-apartheid and gender activist Mikki van Zyl will speak on “A Queer Constitution: The Anomaly of Civil Unions in Africa” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at Wells College in the Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall.

Van Zyl is a lifelong anti-apartheid and gender activist who owns her own business Simply Said and Done, and is a consultant to the NGO sector on gender and sexualities. Returning to feminist and queer theories on sexuality and gender, she will discuss the importance of sexual diversity for attaining and maintaining human rights and equality for women, and outline potential challenges for mobilization by queer and women's movements to secure substantive sexual and reproductive rights.

Van Zyl is presently completing her doctorate on same-sex marriage in South Africa, has an M.Phil. in feminist sexual politics, and has lectured in media studies, sociology, criminology and diversity studies. She has done extensive qualitative research on a variety of topics, including HIV/AIDS on farms, gender and media, gender-based violence, sexualities, gender and land reform, sustainable development, identity-based gender social movements, sexual rights and citizenship, institutional culture and exiles in the anti-apartheid struggle.

For the last 15 years she has worked as a researcher, trainer and writer in gender, sexualities and development, and participatory research methodologies. She is a board member of Engender, an agency focused on changing patterns of violence and inequality in South African society, and an associate of Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA) at the University of Cape Town.

This free lecture is sponsored by Wells' Women's Studies Program and is open to the public.

For more information about van Zyl's lecture, visit www.wells.edu or www.simplysaidanddone.co.za/ for more on van Zyl.