- Title
- What are the pertinent intersections in the lives of black women at Rhodes University?
- Creator
- Gushman, Lutho Phinda
- ThesisAdvisor
- Vincent, Louise
- Subject
- Women, Black South Africa Makhanda
- Subject
- Student movements South Africa Makhanda
- Subject
- Intersectionality (Sociology)
- Subject
- Pluralism
- Subject
- Matrix organization South Africa Makhanda
- Subject
- Women, Black Education (Higher) South Africa Makhanda
- Subject
- Social action South Africa Makhanda
- Subject
- Rhodes University
- Date
- 2021-10-29
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190990
- Identifier
- vital:45047
- Description
- After the 2016 #FeesMustFall protest(s), higher education institutions were dramatically altered with respect to their institutional cultures; the narratives of those who were historically side-lined and marginalised took centre stage. At Rhodes University social activism was constitutive of three components; a ‘revolt’ against the fee increment; a contestation of the rape culture; and a rejection of the colonial curriculum. These concerns, in their varied articulations, made up different social and academic realities that define(d) Rhodes University and affected how individuals experienced institutional culture. According to Ndlovu (2017) while these expressed acts (in the form of protests and institutional shutdowns) of resistance against the system of higher education subsided after the fees must fall campaign, these served to centre the narratives of the marginalised. Keeping with this thinking, the argument presented in this thesis explores the experiences of black women in higher education after the call towards coordinated resistance. Using qualitative data in the form of narrative interviews, the thesis documents how the participants continued their academic and social life post-resistance. This rupture of resistance created a complex matrix of individual subjectivity where participants engaged with traditional social academic norms in new spaces of resistance; a phenomenon that enlivened the intersectionality that came to define the higher education landscape of the country. This thesis explores the stories of the participant’s as they engage(d) with what is becoming a new institution—that is the University in South Africa, with a case-in-point being Rhodes University—and to understand the power relations and intersections that define their lived experiences. This study found that the reality of existing within the confines of power—with its fluidity—meant that black women operate both within spaces of privilege and oppression simultaneously. As such, and following Vivian May’s (2015) argument, this study concludes that black women are situated and simultaneously constrained by power. Thus spaces of resistance are constantly in flux and determined by their relations within power.
- Description
- Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Politics and International Studies, 2021
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (164 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Politics and International Studies
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Gushman, Lutho Phinda
- Rights
- Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
RU Department of Political and International Studies
SDG 05. Gender Equality
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | GUSHMAN-MA-TR21-205.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |