Black Academic Voices

The South African Experience

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.