(English below)

Tamara Shefer heldur áttunda fyrirlestur vormisseris í fyrirlestraröð RIKK og Jafnréttisskóla Háskóla Sameinuðu þjóðanna, fimmtudaginn 6. apríl, kl. 12.00-13.00, í fyrirlestrasal Þjóðminjasafns Íslands. Fyrirlestur hennar nefnist: Ungt fólk og samfélagsbreytingar í Suður-Afríku: Kynhneigð, kyngervi og réttlæti.
Tamara Shefer er prófessor í kvenna- og kynjafræðum við Western Cape-háskólann í Höfðaborg í Suður-Afríku. Fræðastörf hennar snúast að miklu leyti um kynjuð valdatengsl í gagnkynhneigðum samböndum ungs fólks, í tengslum við menntun. Hún hefur einnig starfað að rannsóknum á HIV/AIDS, kynbundnu ofbeldi, karlmennsku, félagslegu minni eftir lok aðskilnaðarstefnunnar, kyni og umönnun, kyni og fötlun og menntunarpólitík í háskólum. Þær rannsóknir sem hún fæst við um þessar mundir fjalla um þekkingarsköpun og stefnumótun er varðar kynhneigð og kyngervi ungs í menntakerfinu.

Aktívismi ungs fólks hefur verið einkennandi síðastliðin tvö ár í Suður-Afríku, en upphaf hans má rekja inn í háskólana en líka á meðal almennings. Stúdentahreyfingar eins og #Rhodesmustfall og #feesmustfall hafa kallað eftir róttækum breytingum á háskólamenntun, þar á meðal á afnýlendun námskráa og niðurfellingu skólagjalda og jafnréttis til náms. Þetta ákall snýst líka um félagslegt óréttlæti í víðara samhengi, í samfélagi sem viðheldur að mörgu leyti því óréttlæti og ójafnrétti sem viðgekkst á áratugalöngu tímabili aðskilnaðarstefnunnar. Kerfi sem byggði á stofnanabundinni kynþáttahyggju, feðraveldiskapítalisma og aldalangri nýlendusögu. Eitt af því sem er hrífandi við þessa baráttu er að femínismi og hinsegin-aktívismi hefur verið áberandi og lagt áherslu á mismunabreytur í afnýlendunarferlinu og gjörningabaráttu (ens. performative activism). Í erindi sínu deilir Tamara með okkur nokkrum áhrifamiklum dæmum af aktívisma um aðgerðir tengt kyni og réttlæti á meðal ungs fólks í Suður-Afríku í dag.

Fyrirlesturinn er á ensku og er öllum opinn.

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Hádegisfyrirlestraröð RIKK og Jafnréttisskóla Háskóla Sameinuðu þjóðanna á vormisseri 2017 er haldin í samvinnu við Þjóðminjasafn Íslands.

Gender and sexual justice in South Africa: Young people making a change

Professor Tamara Shefer is the eight lecturer in the 2017 RIKK – Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference at the University of Iceland & UNU-GEST spring lecture series. Her lecture will take place on Thursday 6 April, from 12.00-13.00, in the National Museum’s lecture hall, and is titled: „Gender and sexual justice in South Africa: Young people making a change.“
Tamara Shefer is professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and previous Deputy Dean of Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. Her scholarship focuses predominately on gendered, intersectional power relations in heterosexual relationships among young people and within educational contexts, including school and higher education. She has also researched and published in the areas of HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, masculinities, memory and post-apartheid subjectivities, gender and care, gender and disability, and the politics of higher education and authorship. She has co-edited six academic books, including From boys to men (2007) and The Gender of Psychology (2006), and most recently Books and/or babies: pregnancy and young parenting in schools (2012, HSRC Press, co-edited with R. Morrell and D. Bhana) and Care In Context: Transnational Gender Perspectives (2014, HSRC Press, co-edited with V. Reddy, S. Meyer & T. Meyiwa). Much of her current scholarship is focused on a critique of knowledge production and related policy and programmatic work in educational contexts on young sexualities.

The last two years in South Africa have been characterized by young people’s activism, starting in higher education but also in the public domain more broadly. Student movements such as #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall, amongst others have centred around calls for radical change in higher education, including decolonizing the curriculum and providing free and equal education. Such calls also speak to larger social inequalities in a society that continues to repeat the injustices and inequalities of decades of apartheid, a system of institutionalized racial and patriarchal capitalism, and centuries of colonization. One of the inspiring features of these current struggles has been the presence of strong feminist and queer activist voices which have mobilized around intersectionality within the decolonial project and engaged in particular in what may be termed performative activism.
In this talk, I share some poignant examples of gender and justice activism among young people in current South Africa. Drawing on a number of inspiring events over the last two years, I attempt to show how students’ struggles articulate a nuanced understanding of the challenges facing contemporary South Africa that is cognizant of both past and present injustice. Further, I explore the value of such activist and pedagogical interventions within public spaces, both virtual and material, that disrupt normative gendered, sexual, raced and other social identities and inequalities. I conclude with a reflection on the generative impact of such activism to current orthodoxies and practices in higher education as well as the larger project of sexual and gender justice, both in South Africa and other global Southern countries, but with relevance globally.

The lecture is in English, open to everyone and admission is free.
The event is on Facebook!

The RIKK & UNU-GEST lecture series in the spring semester 2017 is held in collaboration with The National Museum of Iceland.