Katharina is a Ph.D. candidate at IEE Bochum and a scholarship recipient from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, researching social control and sexualized violence against gender non-conforming individuals in South Africa. Her qualitative study includes 35 interviews, employing an intersectional analytical framework to understand how social structures influence the acceptance of perceived deviations from norms and how this fosters violence. She adopts a three-step inductive approach, mapping the research field, conducting content analysis, and validating her thesis. She critically examines the extent to which sexual and gender-based violence can be regarded as a mechanism of social control targeting women and those perceived as non-gender conforming. Katharina aims to identify how violence and rejection are embedded in society, particularly targeting gender non-conforming individuals. Integrating critical post-development and feminist research approaches, Katharina’s research yields new perspectives on the legacy of apartheid and the transgenerational transmission of experiences of violence.