Page 9 - Transformation Report

ENGAGEMENT AND practical expression to the ideals of knowledge democracy and epistemic justice. Intellectual humility, relationality, flexibility,
and solidarity are integral operational values for us to co-create and participate in critical yet productive networks and
TRANSFORMATION PORTFOLIO communities of practice.

OVERVIEW: 2020 - 2021 Our work is also animated by the conceptual and programmatic innovation of convergence; the cooperative development of
equalising spaces, physical and otherwise, for society-university deliberations and collaborations. In this way, the University
is trying to respond to a fundamental dilemma facing the higher education sector, nationally and globally. That is, if not
immersed in society, universities will find it near impossible to engage authentically and thus productively with the current
socio-economic, environmental, and political challenges of our time, our place.

The portfolio is constituted by diverse programmes, projects, and entities (see below and at https://www.mandela.ac.za/
Engagement-and-Transformation that share investment in engagement, transformation, and social justice. The SARCHi
Chair in African Feminist Imaginations is located in the Centre for Women and Gender Studies (CWGS).

Engagement and Transformation

Engagement Transformation Hubs of Convergence Centre for the Centre for Women and
Advancement of Non- Gender Studies
racialism and Democracy

Centre for Integrated HIV & AIDS Chair – Critical Studies Chair – Youth Transdisciplinary
Post-School Education Research Unit in Higher Education Unemployment, Institute for
and Training Transformation Employability and Mandela Studies
Empowerment
*iconography adapted with the permission of artist: Pola Maneli

Central to this cluster is the Transformation Office and the Engagement Office. Over the past two years, important work
of the Transformation Office has included the renewal of the University’s equality policy regime; alongside their ongoing
advocacy work on social inclusion and their oversight of discrimination and gender-based violence complaints in the
University. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the Engagement Office has industriously continued work across its various
units. It is a vital cog in the University’s machinery. Its purpose is dynamic; to not only reimagine and renew its engagement
impetus but to do so against the backdrop of furthering engaged scholarship.

The Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) serves as strategic support for the transformation
mandate of the University. Over the past two years, CriSHET has developed a strong research programme around Critical
University Studies and other alternative approaches to studying the University, including mapping the study fields for Higher
Education Studies, Higher Education Transformation Studies, and Critical University Studies.

The Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD) pursues transformation towards a new non-
racial and democratic social and economic order. In 2021 they celebrated their tenth anniversary with a conference entitled
“The State We’re In: Democracy’s Fractures, Fixes and Futures”. The breadth and depth of this conference illustrated the
footprint of the Centre and the deep significance of its work.

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