Professor Hoppers holds a South African Research Chair in Development Education hosted at the University of South Africa, Pretoria as part of South African Department of Science and Technology’s strategic knowledge and human resource intervention into the higher education landscape in South Africa.

Prior to that, she was a technical adviser on Indigenous Knowledge Systems to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (South Africa) and led the Task Team to draft the national policy on Indigenous Knowledge Systems. She was a Distinguished Professional at the Human Sciences Research Council; an Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria; a visiting Professor at Stockholm University (Sweden); Scientific Coordinator and Campus Director for the Council for the Development of Social Science in Africa (CODESRIA) Annual Social Science Campus (2006); and a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Orebro University (Sweden), and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa.

She was formerly a member of the International Faculty of the United Nations International Leadership Academy (Amman-Jordan); and is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a Member of the Academy of Science Special Panel on the Future of Humanities. She is a distinguished scholar at the Texas State University – San Marcos (US) and Advisory Faculty Member - Centre for Global Citizenship Education & Research, University of Alberta, Canada.

She serves as Co-Director and member of the Board of the PASCAL International Observatory - initiated by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development Countries (OECD). She is a member of the Global Campaign for a Culture of Peace of the Hague Appeal for Peace (New York); was a Co-Convenor of the Global Political Economy Commission, and a member of the Council of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), and of TRANSCEND.

She was part of the team convened by the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs that prepared the UN Study on Disarmament Education submitted and approved by the General Assembly (2002). She was recently listed in the “Marquis Who is Who in the World” 2013 in the Pearl Edition of the Marquis Who is Who (US).

Professor Hoppers is a scholar and policy specialist on International Development, education, North-South questions, disarmament, peace, and human security. She is a UNESCO expert in basic education, lifelong learning, and on Science and society; an expert to the World Economic Forum on benefit sharing and value addition protocols; and the World Intellectual Property Organisation on traditional knowledge and community intellectual property rights.