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The Psychology Social Change Award is awarded to the most prominent contributors in the field of Psychology in South Africa. 

The Social Change Award is in recognition of their contribution, by men and women, in this community to social change. This award further recognises men and women who have used “psychological understandings to take us a step closer to achieving a society that is inclusive, fair and just”. The award also seeks to offer role models to students and illustrating many ways in which they can contribute into the discipline of psychology in South Africa.

This year marked the ninth event of this sort, which is organised by the Psychology Department. The 2016 recipient of the Social Change Award is Professor Melanie Judge.  Professor Judge is the Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for Law & Society at the University of Cape Town. She has done work in policy and law reform, advocacy, training and research in areas of HIV, Gender, and sexuality. She has also made her mark in the efforts of attaining marriage equality in South Africa. Professor Judge is in the process of writing a book, which is approaching completion, the book, is about the Politics of Homophobia- related violence.

Professor Judge gave a talk around the issues surrounding queer psychology and scholarly contributions to queer psychology. 

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic & Student Affairs, Dr Chrissie Boughey presented the award to Professor Melanie Judge and said that the 2016 Social Change Award is awarded to Professor Judge for the manner in which she was able to proficiently bring together her activism and academic contribution in South Africa.

 By Sbusiso Mukhari