Eliza Govender is an Associate Professor and Head of the Culture, Communication and Media Studies (CCMS) department in the School of Applied Human Sciences (SAHS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban South Africa. Govender is a South African National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher and is internationally recognised in the field of health communication. She was re-appointed for a second term as chair of the Health Communication working group for the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and also serves on the executive committee, and as a convener of the Communication studies group for the South African Communication Association (SACOMM).
Govender’s has a specific research interest in the adoption of entertainment education as a communication strategy for public health, communication for social and behavioural change and participatory culture-centred methodologies for implementation science research. She is the recipient of the NRF Thuthuka grant that utilises a socio-ecological framework to explore a multi-layered tailored communication approach for introducing new biomedical innovations such as oral PrEP. She is currently the South African principal investigator of the Joint NHISS-ICSSR grant between South African and India that explores ways in which India and South Africa can Glocalise prevention efforts to COVID-19. Govender was co-principal investigator for the Oral PrEP Demonstration Project (CAPRISA 084) and she continues to work as an honorary research associate with CAPRISA utilising culturally centred participatory methodologies to advance the promotion of HIV combination prevention; and adoption of human centered design for biomedical innovations.
Govender serves on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health (DOH) committee for developing and implementing the provincial Health Promotion Strategy for HIV/AIDS and later COVID-19, and serves as an advisor on several communication committees and task teams for strategic social and behavior change communication for HIV prevention. She is on the editorial board of Communicare, the Journal for Applied Communication Research and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Communication: Journal of Culture and Communication.
Govender also serves on the NRF review and evaluations committees and continues to have a well-balanced national and international footprint in her area of research and expertise. In her co-edited book Communicating COVID-19 Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2021), with Palgrave MacMillian, Govender with co-editors Dr Monique Lewis from Griffith University and Dr Kate Holland from the University of Canberra, explores the public health responses in different countries, with chapters examining community-driven approaches, communication strategies of governments and political leaders, public health advocacy, and pandemic inequalities. Her second co-edited book, Communicating COVID-19: Media, Trust and community engagement (forthcoming) will be released in Nov 2023.