The university in question

2007

Abstract This paper sets to work on strategies for forging new and critical humanities at the institutional site of the university that appears to be trapped in the legacies of apartheid. The paper suggests that the university's responses to apartheid might hold the key for the realignment of its critical commitments in the post-apartheid present.

Identity Culture and Politics an Afro Asian Dialogue, 2000

South African journal of higher education, 2019

Journal of the International Institute, 2008

2015

IntroductionRecent protests at South African universities around the question of "race" and identity, particularly as they relate to the question of transformation at the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Rhodes, have brought into sharp focus the debate about the future of the university. What is the new South African university to be? How does the South African university work with its legacy-to continue where it is already engaged in socially transformative work, to begin new initiatives to transform itself in places where it is struggling, and to develop an agenda that shows clearly how it understands itself in relation to the social context in which it finds itself?In this paper, I argue that the contemporary South African university cannot be understood and engaged with outside of an appreciation of its constitutive beginnings. Race is central to these beginnings. But how race takes form, is worked with and deployed in the university is, to be historically ...

The article critically re-interrogates three high profile cases of white racism at South Africa's former 'open universities' to highlight the way in which existing debates around academic freedom fail to come to terms with questions of racial injustice after apartheid. The cases covered are the Makgoba affair at Wits, the Mamdani affair at the University of Cape Town, and the Shell affair at Rhodes. It is argued that the genuine transformation of higher education requires recognizing and addressing the dynamics of systemic white racism.

Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 2009

What sort of expectations of transformation of higher education have been aroused by liberation movements? Has the new South Africa fulfilled such expectations? This paper explores the promises and processes that have enveloped South African universities in recent decades. It focuses on the underlying assumptions shaping academic disciplines in the humanities, the debates contesting them and the socialpolitical-economic movements encompassing them. It traces the impact of marxism, africanism, postmodernism and neoliberalism on the production of knowledge. It concludes that South African universities are caught up in a complex field forces where they are subject to conflicting pressures. The result is a state of contradictory transformations -one stemming from the politics of liberation and the other from the demands of the global market.

Recent South African history has witnessed a period of political conflict in the transition from the hegemony of the apartheid era to the democratisation of South African society after 1994. In the light of the subsequent transformational discourses in South Africa, it has become necessary to pose the question-to what extent have South African universities contributed to the making of a new South Africa, not only in widening participation but, for example, in constitutional reform and the spreading of an era of social openness and civil society? Such a question, however, requires that the idea of the university, as well as its role in society be reflected upon critically. The history of universities is punctuated by periodic debates on the idea of a university and what is considered to be its proper role in society. The Socratic and Platonic claims that virtue is knowledge and that education produces good men-a humanist philosophy of education-are amongst the casualties of the contemporary modern mega-universities. The image of the university as an ivory tower dedicated to the pursuit of truth and knowledge for its own sake-a metaphysical philosophy of education-has been tarnished by radical and activist movements who acknowledge no social obligations except in some instances of bringing about the violent destruction of the society that supports them. In more recent times the movement towards mass and even universal higher education and the emergence of the multiversity have witnessed a categorical shift in the fundamental idea of a university and its role in society. No longer is truth the fundamental category in the role of a university-the essence of its distinctive role is now declared to be utility. In short, the twenty first century has witnessed an important shift in the role of the university in society, in that the university has become a much more influential scientific institution and a less significant cultural and civilising power. The argument in this essay, therefore, is that the role of the university in South African society post 1994 is beleaguered by a climate of utility whose forces are principally those of democratic politics, mass markets and technological prowess.

New Contree a Journal of Historical and Human Sciences For Southern Africa, 2010

In die tydperk na die eerste demokratiese verkiesing in 1994, het die meeste tersiêre opvoedkundige instellings in Suid-Afrika, insluitend die vorige sogenaamde "apartheid" universiteite, weens verskeie redes gepoog om hulle as demokraties en inklusief te bemark. Om 'n instelling op so 'n wyse te bemark dat dit blyk om aan die heersende politieke of sosiale norme te konformeer, is nie 'n nuwe tendens in tersiêre opvoeding nie. Tersiêre opvoedkundige instellings in Suid-Afrika het sedert hulle totstandkoming verskeie vorme van media, insluitend koerantartikels, advertensies, publikasies, film en TV gebruik om hulle openbare beeld te bevorder. Die wyse waarop die Universiteit van Pretoria en sy voorganger, die Transvaal Universiteitskollege, bemarking gebruik het en hoe die invalshoek daarvan gewysig is na gelang die politieke en sosiale omstandighede in Suid-Afrika verander het, word as voorbeeld gebruik om hierdie stelling te illustreer.