Dr. Lwandile Nkosi is an interdisciplinary scholar, medical doctor, and social justice advocate whose work sits at the intersection of health, art, and community wellbeing. She earned her MBChB from the University of the Witwatersrand, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health (with Distinction) from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. Her experience in community psychiatry revealed systemic gaps in South Africa’s mental healthcare landscape and sparked her passion for mental health activism.

Awarded a Chevening Scholarship, Lwandile completed an MSc in Creative Arts and Mental Health (with Distinction) at Queen Mary University of London. Her research, grounded in anti-carceral feminism, critical psychiatry, and Mad studies, examined the interplay between criminal justice and mental health systems. During her time in London, she also thrived as a Music Scholar and co-created socially engaged theatre exploring lived-experience driven approaches to care.

Today, Lwandile is a Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry at Wits University. Alongside her academic work, she engages communities through the arts to cultivate mental wellbeing, leading initiatives that create spaces for reflection, dialogue, and collective care. Her ongoing research and broader practice are grounded in reimagining how we understand and respond to mental health, centering creativity, connection, and knowledge from lived realities.  A committed artist, she works across music, poetry, drama, and visual arts, particularly collaging, integrating these practices into her research and community work.