Selina Palm

• PhD, MA, MTh, PGD BSc
• Senior Researcher - Unit for Religion and Development Research at Stellenbosch University

This research report summarises the empirical findings of a 2018 research study with five diverse church congregations in Cape Town, South Africa exploring how local churches can become spaces of inclusion and belonging for people of LGBTIQ+orientation. It draws on the lived experiences of individuals, ministers and LGBTIQ congregants through semi...

This is one brief in a series of two concerning faith-based action to end violence against children. Its purpose is to inform faith actors, practitioners, policymakers, and donors about the global contributions of faith communities to prevent and respond to violence against children. It focuses on faith actors unique contributions here to promote,...

This article draws on Robert Vosloo’s call for an ‘ecclesiology of vulnerability’ in order to bear faithful theological witness to a vulnerable God. He is concerned that prophetic witness avoids a cheap triumphalism and rediscovers painful solidarity with the crises of our times, embodies a hope grounded in lament and mobilises the vulnerable ‘body...

This synthesis review explores intersectional approaches to preventing violence against women and girls by analysing and drawing on practitioner-based knowledge drawn from ten diverse projects around the world. These work across a number of intersecting vulnerabilities - such as disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, conflict settings, oc...

This article explores the task of doing Christian theologies of disability while situated in the South African context. It looks briefly at its historical legacy and then moves to the post 1994 period to note promising contributions emerging and the importance of a post colonial theological lens on disabilities. It identifies and critiques selected...

Researching violence, especially within homes, families or closed community spaces, is often challenging. PhotoVOICE 2.0 is an innovative technology-assisted adaptation of the participatory arts-based research (PABR) method, Photovoice. It was developed and piloted in 2018 by the authors to conduct research on the ways the Anglican Mothers’ Union i...

This research report showcases key research findings from university students around the drivers and responses to gender-based violence at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The research focused on amplifying and learning from diverse student voices of all genders who were equipped as Digital Storytelling Ambassadors through using an...

From 2018 – 2023, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women implemented a special funding window of US$9.5 million to support projects implemented by civil society organizations with the specific aim of preventing and ending violence against women and girls with disabilities. This report provides evidence of the key results of the Special Win...

This article shares key insights from a 2019 global scoping study that explored beliefs across multiple faith traditions that have been used to shape the perpetration of, justification, and/or positive engagement to end violence against children. Violence against children is often shaped by wider social norms which are frequently underpinned by fai...

Violence against children is shaped by social norms frequently underpinned by faith-related beliefs and values. There is increasing recognition of the role of religions in both legitimating or challenging harmful beliefs, attitudes and practices. This article draws on insights from a 2019 Scoping Study by the authors that explored positive and nega...

This report showcases the reach and the impact of the Human Sexuality workshop codesigned by Dr Selina Palm and Rev Laurie Gaum over the 2020-2022 pilot period. It focuses on insights seen through the eyes of many of the 150 participants across South Africa that attended it in this period. It highlights their most significant changes and own insigh...

This research report highlights key lessons learned from the United Nations Trust Fund's Special Window run from 2018-2022 which focused on ending violence against women and girls with disabilities. It draws closely on the practical experiences of twenty two civil society organisations around the world who received programmatic grants to identify f...

This article emphasises a gender-relational lens to reconciliation, post conflict and peacebuilding. While faith leaders can make important contributions here, they can also reiterate problematic gender norms and reinforce risks that the peace secured may perpetuate violence against women. It reflects critically on this gendered reality of peace-bu...

This research report was commissioned by UN Women in 2021 as part of a Prevention Series. It synthesises and showcases practice based knowledge from a selection of ten projects which have been funded by the UN Trust Fund across different geographical contexts that focused on transforming or engaging legal and or policy systems as part of preventing...

Violence against children is a global problem, with at least one billion children experiencing violence every year worldwide. Faith communities can play a crucial role in ending this violence but they can also contribute to its perpetration, perpetuation or invisibility. Many individuals across different countries draw their beliefs around child re...

Élize Féron’s concise book is an important read and includes a synthesis of her empirical fieldwork in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Ireland since 2005. She shines a spotlight on a theme which frequently remains invisible in global research around sexual violence, namely men as victims of sexual abuse in conflict-affected set...

This article highlights several resources developed and applied in South Africa regarding LGBTIQ+ persons and faith. It charts the evolution of human sexuality workshops for faith communities in South Africa; key findings from a 2019 empirical research study with local church congregations around LGBTIQ+; and offers participant feedback from 'safe...

This published research report (commissioned by Inclusive and Affirming Ministries in South Africa) explores the roles of religion and faith in comprehensive sexuality education across four African countries through interviews with teachers within state high schools in South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Malawi. It was completed as part of the wider...

This synthesis review explores how to engage faith-based and traditional actors by drawing on the experiences of ten civil society organizations implementing projects to prevent violence against women and girls in different countries and contexts. It showcases the unique contributions of different types and sizes of organizations, from small locall...

This article explores the escalating reality of online child sexual abuse around the world and increasing pressure on faith actors to respond effectively. It argues that all faith actors must be equipped to play both social and spiritual roles if they are to disrupt harm and create safer spaces for children. It was first delivered as a paper presen...

COVID-19 is a gendered pandemic. In South Africa it has exacerbated existing risks in the lives of many women and girls to gender-based discrimination and violence. This article explores how resilient habits and practices of hoping can nevertheless be nurtured by women within these times of anxiety and despair. It takes place in conversation with f...

This book addresses different challenges that endanger the lives of children in South Africa from an ethical perspective. The text is meant to position itself as a resource for specialists (and practitioners) in ethics and childhood studies. The content is systematically and intersectionally presented, based on scholarly analyses, insights, reasoni...

This chapter showcases youth voices within a South African local church congregation to reflect with them on how to better cultivate spiritualities for social change. It invites churches to reimagine their doctrines of sin in intersectional ways that engage with the various social oppressions in our world. It puts these voices into conversation wit...

This 10 page practice brief provides reflections and practical tips for practitioners and activists at the frontline of programme implementation, on how to collect, document, analyse, share and apply practice-based knowledge to programming to prevent violence against women and their children (VAW/C). It is published as part of the Prevention Collab...

This is one learning brief in a series of two on faith-based action to end violence against children globally. It is intended for faith actors, development practitioners, policymakers, and donors. It highlights the potential and current roles faith communities play in responding to violence against children, as well as analysing some of the challen...

This evidence brief provides a short summary of quantative evidence collected from a three year project in the Democratic Republic of Congo carried out by Heal Africa in partnership with Tearfund UK. It was accompanied by longitudinal quantative and qualitative research to assess the impact of changes by the program which aimed to transform practic...

This 2019 research report forms part of a Scoping Study commissioned by the Joint Learning Initiative for Local Faith Communities for their End Violence against Children Hub. It examines evidence of ways in which local faith communities across multiple religions across the world are involved in both challenging and perpetuating violence against chi...

This short article was first published in The Conversation and summarises key findings from a research project carried out by the author in 2018 with five local church congregations in Cape Town, South Africa who are partners with Inclusive and Affirming Ministries. The research centred queer storytelling and the voices of allies within local churc...

Contributors from various theological higher education institutions in South Africa and beyond come together to reflect on the best pedagogical practices to teach on often complex issues of gender, sexual orientation, race, and class, and on how they impact on health in our classrooms, in our churches, and in the communities where we live and work.

Myths of the ‘golden city’ have drawn many women. However, a critical gender lens highlights the diversity of women’s experiences in cities and their vulnerability to multiple forms of violence here. Interlinkages between public and private violences are often underpinned by harmful social norms about masculinity and a women’s ‘place’. Urban transf...

In recent years, protests against campus rape culture at South African higher education institutions have attracted public attention. Despite strong constitutional provisions, a culture of sexual and gendered violence remains endemic in South Africa. In the light of the gap between legal forms and social norms, this article argues for building soci...

This report is the outcome of a research study to explore the reality of ongoing resistance by some religious leaders to the task of ending child marriage. It explores the possible roots of this resistance and suggests strategies by which it can be addressed. It draws on both global literature and qualitative data gathered across Christian, Hindu a...

This article explores the post-apartheid call to South African churches to play an ongoing theological role in the shared task of building a human rights culture for all. It seeks a counter-hegemonic human rights praxis and turns to the early insights of German Reformed theologian Jürgen Moltmann on human rights realisation. This points to an impor...

This is a media article that focuses on making academic research more widely accessible. It was first published in The Conversation Africa and was then picked up by various other news channels. It focuses on engaging churches theologically around child corporal punishment

With the gap between constitutional vision and social realities in South Africa and a perceived disconnect between religious and human rights discourses, embodying a liberating theological hermeneutic for human rights within Christianity remains urgent. This is critical if churches are to respond constructively to the post-apartheid call by theolog...

This article highlights the ‘paradox’ of human rights discourse in our contemporary world, showing that it is increasingly framed as both a liberating tool and an oppressive hegemonic ideology of the West. It draws on the South African context to suggest that this country’s own ambiguous experiences, successes and challenges with human rights requi...

The feminist theologian Sharon Welch asks the question, ‘What does it mean to work for social transformation in the face of so much suffering and evil? How can we sustain hope?’ This article searches for a Christian hope that can speak and act meaningfully in a socially-challenged world today. It suggests that theology can offer something construct...