The deep colour blue: often associated with vastness, the fear of the unknown yet calming, enduring and complete. Continuing from the last episode where we explored the colour Green, our three academic citizens help us explore and expand our understanding behind the symbolism of the colour blue. Our journey takes us from exploring the journey and unpredictability of the ocean with artist and oceanic researcher Meghan Judge, to understanding the noise pollution affecting our seas with zoologist and behavourial ecologist Professor Aliza le Roux and understanding how ocean can play a meaningful role in our food processes and health with artist and PhD candidate Zayaan Khaan.
As universities grapple with what it means to take seriously the imperative to green our campuses and research practice, this episode explodes the colour green: to consider the importance of indigenous knowledge, the relationship between ecological and social diversity and how envy and competition shape our relationship to academic work. In this episode, we think out loud with the colour green with three academic citizens. Our journey takes us from a conversation with a philosopher turned organiser (Dr Alex Lenferna), to reflecting on biodiversity with applied conservationist (Dr Zoe Nhleko) and settle back into our bodies with narrative psychologist (Dr Jill Bradbury). Come with us.
This episode explores the complexities that arise when considering the financial status of our universities and the higher education sector in general. Like any institution in a capitalist economy, universities revolve around money, income, and expenditure. We explore some aspects of the bigger picture of how money makes the university go round.
Animating the Post-Pandemic Academic Experience “You cannot come back to the same thing. You can’t step into the same river twice.” Dr. Carla Tsampiras After a 4 year break, the Academic Citizen podcast, has staged a comeback. In doing so, the team as led by Professors Mehita Iqani and Nosipho Mngomezulu are reanimating the commitment to growing space for the higher education community in South Africa and beyond to explore what we do and why it matters. This 6th season is being curated into inter-disciplinary themed conversations in each episode. In Comebacks we share conversations with a number of academics about their experience and lessons from the return to campus after the period of loss.
Carina Truyts is part of the pioneers at South Africa’s newest university, Sol Plaatje University in Kimberly. She has established the Anthropology department there. Her teaching and research is focused on contextual knowledge production, sharing and engagement. Truyts’ Masters Research was on Nourishment in the 'first thousand days' in the context of precarious livelihoods in a small Cape Winelands town. In this episode she shares with with Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu the excitement, countless opportunities and responsibilities associated with being part of this pioneering exercise. They also speak about institutional cultures and the ethical conundrums faced at such new establishments. Produced, Edited, Researched and Scheduled by: Simbarashe Honde
53: Decolonizing Science by The Academic Citizen
Writing for academic journals is highly competitive. The common saying in academic circles is, “get published or perish!” There’s no simple formula for getting published, expectations vary both between and within subject areas. But there are some challenges that will confront all academic writers regardless of their discipline. How should you respond to reviewer feedback and rejection? Is there a correct way to structure a paper? Why should I pay to get my article published? What is open access publishing and why must I pay for it? Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu explores these above questions and more with Oscar Masinyana, the managing editor of Taylor & Francis South Africa. Taylor & Francis publishes around 70 highly regarded academic and professional journals from the region in collaboration with learned societies, institutions and co-publishers Researched, Edited, Produced and Scheduled by Simbarashe Honde
In the Netherlands, a study revealed that 1 in 3 academics suffer from mental health disorder. This then begs the question if the same applies to Academics here in South Africa? If so what could be the reasons? Is mental wellness an Institutional problem? Is mental health gendered? How can academics cope? Well, this week’s podcast seeks to answer the above questions. Kholeka Shange caught up with Elvis Munatswa, a PhD Candidate in Psychology at Wits and had on the above issues. Produced, Edited, Scheduled and Researched by Simbarashe Honde
Dr. Beth Vale is a researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. She is a Mandela Rhodes and a Rhodes Scholar. Dr. Vale was a postdoctoral fellow under the NRF Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities at Wits University. Her research explored Johannesburg nightclub cultures as sites of identity, attachment and place-making. Vale’s doctoral research completed at Oxford, was an ethnographic study exploring the medication-taking practices of HIV-positive adolescents in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. She worked as part of a mixed-methods team that worked collaboratively with government and local NGOs to inform policy and programming. In this episode, Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu caught up with Dr Vale and they chat on youth research, intimacy, HIV and writing for the public. They also discuss effective ways of engagement, conflict and identity construction in disseminating research.
49: In Conversation With SA's Youngest Dean by The Academic Citizen