Page 22 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

HUMANITIES

#Activist connexions

in the CWGS

Students and postgraduates at Nelson Mandela University play a central role in the CWGS,
advocating for the advancement of gender equality and anti-gender-based violence in higher
education and society. Three of the student drivers in the CWGS are featured here.

Nangamso Nxumalo of Intlambuluko (spiritually cleansing). South African historian,
academic and educator Dr Nomathamsanqa Tisani explains in her
Final year BCom Law, Nelson Mandela work how this process is performed with the intention of healing
University and Operations Intern, DHL Express the body and making whole the inner person.
sub-Saharan Africa
I believe the traumatic experiences of women in this country need
I am interested in the economics of gender, in particular women interventions that go beyond theories: practical interventions that
and class. I draw on economic and legal analysis tools to research are grounded in the ethnographical study of the Eastern Cape girl
how women in the informal sector organise themselves, and how child. Research must start at home with the people at home.
the developmental objectives of urban and rural women in the
Eastern Cape, and across the Nobubele Phuza
African continent, differ in terms
of the communities in which they Sociology PhD student, Nelson Mandela University
live. Ultimately, I want to use my
degree(s) to contribute to policy My doctoral study focuses on the mechanism and architecture
that is appropriate to the informal of protests related to gender and sexual justice in South African
sector, as this is where the majority universities. It traces the divergence of #RUReferenceList,
of people in our country are #RapeAtAzania and #IAmOneInThree, as the most notable
situated. components of the #EndRapeCulture campaign, from the historical
Silent Protest, motherist movements and androcentric #FeesMustFall
Nomtha Menye movement. I want women’s resistance to be taken seriously, on the
ground and in the academic field.
Sociology Master’s student, Nelson Mandela
University Like every other woman, I feel
suffocated by the requirements of
My master’s thesis is grounded in conformity to socially acceptable
exploring the spiritual significance femininity. I am glad to have
of water amongst the amaXhosa. I spaces like the sports field which
was born and bred in the Eastern allow me to walk that line of
Cape province, and at least once athleticism which is neither
a year we used sea water and masculine nor feminine. It would
sacred rivers such as the Isinuka be great to have that feeling spill
springs in Port St Johns as sites over into everyday life.

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