Sarojini Nadar graduated with a BA degree from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1996. Her majors were in English Literature and Religious Studies. She obtained a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in 1997 and her Masters of Arts in 2000 in the area of Biblical Literature, also at UCT. She obtained her PhD in 2003 from the erstwhile University of Natal (now UKZN). While she was still undertaking her PhD, she was the coordinator of the International Network in Advanced Theological Education (INATE) from 2002-2005. The network was based in 8 countries and spanned five continents. In 2008, she was appointed to a permanent position as the Director of the Gender and Religion programme which she co-founded. She returned to this position in 2014 after a two-year tenure as the Dean of Research in the College of Humanities in 2012 and 2013. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2011 and Full Professor in 2014.

As a trans-disciplinary researcher, she has researched, supervised and published widely in the field of feminist biblical hermeneutics with a special focus on HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, masculinity and sexuality. She has also researched and published on theories of feminism in Africa, and has more recently been engaged in research on social justice and Higher Education systems.