Dr Melusi Andile Dlamini is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Rhodes University. His doctoral research on masculinities examined how intimacy, gender, and (hetero)sexuality shape the lives of young men in the townships of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. More broadly, his work focuses on the intersecting lived experiences of young people as they navigate precarity, gender inequality, and violence.

Dlamini’s work uses anthropology as a lens through which he explores men and masculinities, health, intimacy, structural inequalities and urban precarity. He has published on gender, intimacy, and social reproduction, and currently leads the NRF-funded project Healthy Masculinities and Caring Relationships. Alongside this, his Makhanda-based project Working with Waste investigates the experiences of waste pickers, urban ecologies, and precarity through participatory and decolonial Methodologies.

Prior to joining Rhodes University, Dlamini worked in sexual and reproductive health programmes across Eastern and Southern Africa. This background informs his commitment to transformative pedagogies and decolonial epistemologies in higher education. In addition to serving on ASnA’s Executive Council, he is a member of the HELTASA Decoloniality in Higher Education Working Group and sits on the editorial board of Transformation in Higher Education.

Most recently, he was Conference Chair of ASnA 2025, hosted by Rhodes University.