The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Black Academic Voices A

Black Academic Voices captures the personal accounts of lived experiences of black academics at South African universities in the context of the ongoing debate for transformation and decolonization of higher education. This debate has not only raised epistemic, ideological, relational and identity issues in the academy, but also offers possibilities for deconstructing hierarchies of authoritarianism that are racist, sexist, patriarchal and colonial. While many scholars have had the opportunity to explore the challenges of higher education transformation since 1994, very few black academics have had the chance to tell their stories in the biographical form. This book, therefore, seeks to fill this gap with the aim of defining what it means to be black in the South African Academy Post 1994, South Africa has presented us with a plethora of structural and relational challenges that perpetuate the precarious state of black people in many institutions, including the academy.

It has been crafted in such a way that the contributors find themselves oscillating between the different life trajectories as students and as members of faculty in historically white universities where being black seems to be a challenge. While it seemed evidently difficult at this point in the history of the academy for black academics to capture positive experiences of our universities, the emerging consensus among all contributors illustrate that the academy is a worthwhile endeavour. The broader intention of this book is to present evidence demonstrating why black academics leave the academy. Furthermore, to illustrate how subtle and at times overt exclusion continue to be part of the everyday experiences of black academics. Black Academc Voices is in three parts: the misrepresentation of black bodies; the heterogenous black experience; and Affirmation of self through empowering and inspiration of the other.

Product information

Format : 240 mm x 168mm
Pages : 280
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2459-9
Publish Year : April 2019
Rights : World Rights

Preface

Acronyms and Abbreviations

1. Black in the academy: Reframing knowledge, the knower, and knowing

Grace Khunou, Hugo Canham, Katijah Khoza-Shangase and Edith Dinong Phaswana

2. Negotiating the academy: black bodies ‘out of place’ Peace Kiguwa

3. Writing to Stay: Running shoes replaced with high heels

Grace Khunou

4. Intellectual and emotional toxicity: where a cure does not appear to be imminent Katijah Khoza-Shangase

5. Thinking while Black

Grace Musila

6. Black and foreign: negotiating being different in South Africa’s academy

Kezia Batisai

7. The polemic body

Hugo Canham

8. Belonging: Whose word is it anyway?

Advocate René Koraan

9. Valuing/Belonging and Devaluing/Unbelonging in the Academy: An Intersectional Perspective

Pragna Rugunanan

10. Don’t teach me nonsense

Colin Tinei Chasi

11. The limits of being and knowledge in the academy

Edith Phaswana

12. Sitting on One Bum: The Struggle of Survival and Belonging for a Black African Woman in the Academy

Advocate René Koraan

13. Belonging to oneself

Allison Geduld

Index

Grace Khunou is Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Johannesburg. She writes creatively and academically and has published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters; she has also presented papers in international and local conferences. Her research interests are in Gender and Social Policy, The Black Middle Class, Narrative Research and Transformation in Higher Education. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association. She has recently co-edited a Special Issue on Father Connections for the Open Family Studies Journal, 2015. And she has edited a Special Issue on the Emergent Black Middle Class for the journal Development Southern Africa, 2015. She was the President of SASA for the 2015/2016 academic year and was also the Vice Dean research in the Faculty of Humanities at UJ in 2015 to early 2016.

Edith Phaswana is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI) at UNISA, and a Module Facilitator at the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) in the SADEC Region. She obtained her PhD at London South Bank University in the UK. She has previously worked at the University of Johannesburg; served in several leadership positions in South Africa. These include serving as Secretary and Deputy President of the South African Development Studies Association; Deputy Chairperson of the International Fellowship Programme Alumni Association (RSA Chapter); Member of Board of Directors for the UJ/Phumani Paper Partnership. Her research interests include Exploring Blackness in the Academy, Decolonisation of the curriculum; Socially-Just Pedagogies; Youth, Leadership and Development in Africa.

Katijah Khoza-Shangase is an Associate Professor and former HOD in Speech Pathology & Audiology at Wits. She is the first; and to date; only Black African to be awarded a PhD in her field; and to be Associate Professor in the Country. She is a member of a number of committees and Boards at Discipline, School, Faculty, University, and National level. She plays an important leadership role in her profession beyond the University; particularly within the Health Professions’ Council of South Africa (HPCSA - Professional Board). Has been nominated for various awards and won numerous, particularly in the area of research and best contribution to her field (Audiology). She has and continues to raise millions of rands in funding for her discipline in the past few years – for research, infrastructure, personnel, equipment (clinical training); over and above her own funding towards her research (e.g. Carnegie, NRF/Thuthuka, URC, DoE, etc). Her research focus is in HIV/AIDS; TB and pharmaco-audiology and early intervention in audiology; and her publications continue to be the main audiological evidence from developing countries. She has a number of peer-reviewed journal publications and technical/research reports/position papers. During the same time period, she has done a number of conference presentations at national and international conferences. Further research impact is also indicated by the number of Journal Reviews, Editorships, and Research Examinations she has and continues to engage in. She has taught several courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level (and extensively supervised research); and has fully engaged in curriculum development of many of the courses that she has taught; and those taught by staff in the department in her previous role as HOD, as well as in her role as Chair of the Education Committee of her HPCSA Professional Board. She obtained all her academic qualifications from Wits, and has been in the Wits employ from March 2006.

Hugo Canham, PhD teaches Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa. Canham is a psychologist and has worked in various capacities including heading transformation and equity initiatives at his university. He obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town, and graduate degrees from the University of Natal and the University of the Witwatersrand. He is an affiliated researcher to the Apartheid Archive Project and has held fellowships in the USA. His research centres on the critical psychology of space and organisational inclusiveness.

Share this

You might also consider these related books

2227

Promoting Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in East and Southern Africa

In Africa, as in many parts of the world, adolescent reproductive health is a controversial issue for policy makers and programme planners. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and to a host of other problems such as sexually transmitted infection, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortions, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation and unsafe circumcision. Yet many countries don't have adolescent health policies and much remains to be done to ensure that adolescents can access appropriate sexual and reproductive health services.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 210mm x 148mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 344
ISBN 10 : 07969-2210-1
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2210-6
Publish Year : 2008
Rights : Africa Rights Only
Price R 209.00
2144  Large

Democracy Compromised
Chiefs and the politics of land in South Africa

2144
Democracy Compromised puts the spotlight on traditional authorities and addresses two main issues: first, how despite their role in the apartheid state, traditional authorities not only survived, but have won unprecedented powers of rural governance in South Africas democracy, and second, how they derive their authority. In this original and compelling study, Lungisile Ntsebeza carefully details the fascinating history of the chieftaincy in the Xhalanga area of the Eastern Cape. He shows how traditional authorities have been dependent on the support of the state since the advent of colonialism and how deeply traditional structures have been contested. Light is shed on the unexpected renaissance of these authorities under ANC rule and the role of traditional leaders in the process of land allocation is clearly explained.

Product information

Format : 159mm x 238mm
Pages : 336
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2130-X
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2130-7
Publish Year : 2006
Price R 265.00
Livestock 9780796925190

The socioeconomics of livestock keeping in two South African communities
A black man's bank

2337

The South African government has prioritized a reduction of poverty and increased food security in rural parts of South Africa through agrarian transformation. As the bearers and beneficiaries of rural development initiatives, smallholder farmers, including those keeping livestock, loom large in this arena. Likewise, on international development agendas steered by bodies such as the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), smallholders are prioritized as the engines of national economies.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm
Pages : 176
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2519-0
Publish Year : March 2016
Rights : World Rights
Price R 190.00
Volchris Hani

Voices of liberation
Chris Hani

The Voices of Liberation series celebrates the lives and writings of South African and African liberation activists and heroes. The human, social and literary contexts presented in this series have a critical resonance and bearing on where we come from, who we are and how we can choose to shape our destiny.

Product information

Format : 210mm x 148mm
Pages : 224
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2443-8
Publish Year : February 2014
Rights : World Rights
Price R 270.00