Dr Lisa Wiebesiek is a researcher with 15 years’ experience doing community-based participatory research. Her research focuses on girlhood, gender and sexuality, rurality, comprehensive sexuality education, and participatory visual methodologies. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where her doctoral research explored girlhood and the construction of femininities among girls and young women in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Lisa has extensive experience in participatory and girl-led research aimed at social and policy change. She coordinated the South African arm of the international Networks for Change and Well-being project, which worked with girls and young women in Canada and South Africa to address sexual and gender-based violence, and has contributed to international research on gender, education and rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa through projects including WE-SAY: Youth, Gender and Education—Changing Landscapes of Work in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa. She is co-editor of Ethical Practice in Participatory Visual Research with Girls: Transnational Approaches and has published on girls’ agency, gender-based violence and feminist approaches to research with young people. Her recent work includes a contribution to the 2026 volume African Feminist Girlhood Studies and Development.
