Prof Maxi Schoeman holds a PhD from the University of Wales (Aberystwyth). She joined UP in 2000, and served as professor and head of the Department of Political Sciences. She currently also serves as chair of the Core Social Sciences Cluster in the Faculty of Humanities. She is a member of the University Council and an adjunct professor in the School for Public Policy at George Mason University in the United States. In 2016, Professor Schoeman was appointed as the deputy dean: postgraduate studies and ethics in the Faculty of Humanities (University of Pretoria).

She has held research fellowships with Cambridge University (1995/96), the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (2001), the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (2009) and the Nordic Africa Institute (2009). She was
awarded the 2014 Claude Ake Visiting Chair at the University of Uppsala. She has presented guest lectures and seminars at, amongst others, the universities of Copenhagen, Aalborg, Konstanz, Indiana and Beijing.

She maintains close research ties with the African Leadership Centre in Nairobi and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra. Prof Schoeman is a member of the Advisory Board of the African Peace Network of the Social Sciences Research Council in New York, deputy chairperson of the Institute for Global Dialogue and a trustee of the Institute for Security Studies. She serves on the editorial boards of several local and international journals in the field of international relations. 
 

Research focus:

South African foreign policy, African peace & security Gender & security. Together with Dr ’Funmi Olonisakin (King’s College, London), she is responsible for the Faculty of Humanities’ research theme, ‘Peace and conflict’. She is also involved in the UP research project on Ubuntu, funded by the Templeton Foundation.
 

Recent publications:

• 2017: Special focus on the South African Nation Brand, Strategic Review for Southern Africa, 39(1) (co-editor).

• 2015: ‘South Africa’s symbolic hegemony in Africa’, International Politics, 52, co-authored.         
• 2015: 'South Africa as an emerging power: from label to status consistency?', South African Journal of International Affairs 22 (4).
• 2015: ‘Alliances Beyond BRICS', South African Journal of International Affairs, 22(2) (guest editor).
• 2015: ‘South Africa’s symbolic hegemony in Africa’, International Politics, 52 (co-author).
• 2013: ‘South Africa’s foreign policy: challenges and constraints’, Welt Trends, 21, September/October (co-authored).

• 2013: ‘South Africa in the company of giants: the search for leadership in a transforming global order’, International Affairs, 89(1) (co-authored).

• 2013: Regional integration, regionalism and regionalisation in Africa; an imagined reality?’ in Candice Moore (ed), Regional integration and social cohesion: perspectives from the Developing World, Brussels: Peter Lang.

• 2013: ‘Foreign policy and the military: in service of reconstruction and development?’ in Theo Neethling and Heidi Hudson (eds), Post-conflict reconstruction and development in Africa: concepts, role-players, policy and practice, Cape Town: UCT Press.