Louise Hagemeier is a senior tutor in the University of the Witwatersrand’s Department of Sociology and Assistant Dean: Student Affairs in the Faculty of Humanities. She co-ordinates the first year foundation programme in the Department of Sociology, with a specific interest in content and skills teaching in sociology. She was the winner of the Faculty of Humanities and Vice Chancellors Team Teaching award (with Dr Samuel Kariuki) in 2003. Her teaching areas include social theory, South African history, poverty and inequality and the welfare state. She is co-author of X-Kit Sociology (Pearson Education 2006), an innovative introductory sociology textbook.