Catherine Odora Hoppers


Catherine A. Odora Hoppers is a Ugandan-born Professor in Development Education in South Africa. She has worked in Sweden and now is based in South Africa.

Life

Odora Hoppers was born in Uganda. She studied in Uganda, Zambia and Sweden. She has a doctorate in international pedagogy from Stockholm University. She has worked as an international policy adviser to UNESCO and to World Intellectual Property Organization and the governments of South Africa and Uganda.
In 2008 she was a technical adviser on Indigenous Knowledge Systems to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts, Culture, Science and Technology when she became a Professor as the South African Research Chair in Development Education. This was a national position established by South Africa's Department of Science and Technology in Pretoria.
She is currently living in Gulu, Uganda.

Awards

Odora Hoppers was awarded an honorary doctorate from Örebro University in Philosophy in 2008 and another from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa in 2012. The following year she received The President's Award from Uganda's President on the 50th Anniversary of Uganda's Declaration of Independence. She has also received The National Pioneers Award from " The Elders " for promoting the African knowledge system over the past 20 years since South Africa's democratic liberation.
On July 3, 2015, the Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Award was presented to Odora Hoppers by HE Thabo Mbeki at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, South Africa and that year she was named "Woman of the Year" and "Leading Educationist" by the University of South Africa.
In 2017 she became an honorary fellow of UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning.

Books and anthologies (selected)