The Social Cohesion Workshop
The Object Inquiry for Social Cohesion in Public Higher Education Project is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) for 2019-2021. The project, led by Professor Daisy Pillay (UKZN), Professor Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan (UKZN), Professor Inbanathan Naicker (UKZN), Dr Lungile Masinga (UKZN), Professor Theresa Chisanga (WSU) and Dr Anita Hiralaal (DUT), builds on and expands prior research on the study of objects and academic identities. Through collaborative, arts-based inquiry, it explores the applied and theoretical usefulness of objects in response to the national priority to increase social cohesion in South African higher education.
Overall, the project seeks to grow and sustain mutually nourishing connections between academics working in higher education institutions with diverse histories, varied geographical locations (rural and urban), different foci (non/research-intensive), and those bearing unequal resources and administrative support systems.
The July 2019 project symposium was one of many planned opportunities to offer academics hands-on experience working creatively with objects for meaning-making concerning academic identities and social cohesion. The symposium brought together 35 academics who are diverse in academic disciplines, age, gender, language, race, and research and teaching experience in multiple knowledge fields and a range of higher education institutions.
The symposium was inspired by the idea of appreciating the local and everyday in higher education as sites for uncovering human-centred knowledges to challenge hierarchical educational practices that deny people voice and agency. It provided a space for discussion and creative collaboration while displaying object compositions and accompanying “object statements” created during the workshop to express the nexus between individual and shared community visions and values, within an overall focus on social cohesion. Professional artists from the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Dr Chris DeBeer and Ms Lee Scott, worked alongside participants in developing the object compositions.
View Our Gallery Overall, the project seeks to grow and sustain mutually nourishing connections between academics working in higher education institutions with diverse histories, varied geographical locations (rural and urban), different foci (non/research-intensive), and those bearing unequal resources and administrative support systems.
The July 2019 project symposium was one of many planned opportunities to offer academics hands-on experience working creatively with objects for meaning-making concerning academic identities and social cohesion. The symposium brought together 35 academics who are diverse in academic disciplines, age, gender, language, race, and research and teaching experience in multiple knowledge fields and a range of higher education institutions.
The symposium was inspired by the idea of appreciating the local and everyday in higher education as sites for uncovering human-centred knowledges to challenge hierarchical educational practices that deny people voice and agency. It provided a space for discussion and creative collaboration while displaying object compositions and accompanying “object statements” created during the workshop to express the nexus between individual and shared community visions and values, within an overall focus on social cohesion. Professional artists from the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Dr Chris DeBeer and Ms Lee Scott, worked alongside participants in developing the object compositions.
Our Gallery
We acknowledge gratefully grant funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (Human and Social Dynamics in Development Grant Number 118539). We further acknowledge that any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors. Therefore the funders do not accept any liability in regard thereto.