Rajen Govender is a researcher and teacher with over thirty years of experience in research and university environments. He holds a BA Honours in Psychology from University of KwaZulu-Natal, a MA in Research Psychology from New York University, and a MA and PhD in Social Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Rajen has considerable experience research in the university, public, and civil society sectors. He has served as a research consultant and advisor to numerous public sector clients (National Governments, SA National Departments and Provincial Governments, DFID, World Bank, GTZ, EU, UNICEF, UNDP, etc.) and science agencies (HSRC, CSIR, MRC, etc.) in locally and abroad. His consultancy work entailed a diversity of social research methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative) and tools and covered numerous content domains including public policy in health, education and foreign affairs, social development, household impact assessment, good governance, peace and justice.

He currently divides his time between UCT (Department of Sociology and Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice) and the South African Medical Research Council (Chief Specialist Scientist). His current research interests are HIV/AIDS, ARV adherence and substance abuse, peace and security, community development, interpersonal violence, and social cohesion and transformative justice. He has published extensively in peer reviewed journals and has a number of articles and books in current production. He also serves as advisor to numerous civil society organisations and initiatives.