“Outstanding Achievements”: Tembisa Woman Makes Unisa Proud With International Achievement

• A Unisa researcher and lecturer from Tembisa has been awarded the Presidential Fellowship at Northwestern University in the United States
• Natalia Molebatsi has spent over 20 years building her career in the creative industry, and this fellowship is a recognition of that work
• Her selection places her among an elite group of scholars who have shown exceptional promise and impact in their field

A Unisa researcher and lecturer has made the institution proud after receiving one of the most prestigious academic honours in the United States. Natalia Molebatsi, who works in Unisa's Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, was awarded the Presidential Fellowship at Northwestern University in Illinois. The fellowship is the highest honour Northwestern can give to a PhD candidate, reserved for those who show exceptional promise and impact in their area of study.

Who is Natalia Molebatsi?

Molebatsi was born in 1981 in Tembisa Township and has spent more than two decades building her career. She is not just an academic. She is also a published poet and performer who has taken her work to over fifteen countries across five continents. Her published works include the poetry anthology We Are, her debut collection Sardo Dance, and Elephant Woman Song. She has also hosted PoetryLives on Unisa Radio and has facilitated creative writing workshops at universities and festivals in countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Palestine, Germany, Argentina and Italy.

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According to the UCLA African Studies Centre, she played a key role in introducing the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison to the post-apartheid generation in South Africa. Her position at Unisa Press also helped the press become an important platform for scholars and artists exploring South African identity.

At the Presidential Fellows' Induction Ceremony in November 2025, Molebatsi delivered the keynote address. She spoke about poetry as both a powerful tool for communication and a means of ancestral invocation.

Through the fellowship, she will continue her research at Northwestern while connecting with a global academic community focused on creative innovation and social justice. Back at Unisa, she remains part of the Academic Career Building Programme under the College of Human Sciences.

More stories on South African women making history

• Briefly News reported on a KZN woman who became the first person in her entire family to earn a PhD, and the moment she shared her results had people in tears.
• A Unisa PhD student was selected for an exclusive United Nations programme in Switzerland, and the field she was chosen to represent made the achievement even more impressive.
• A young woman became the first Black woman to earn a PhD in aerospace engineering, and where she ended up working after that said everything about how far she had come.

Source: Briefly News