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University Students as Storytellers
May 19, 2021 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm UTC+2
May 19, 2021
2:00 pm Johannesburg (UTC+2)
Zoom Webinar - Organized by the Participatory Methods Thematic Group
Register on Eventbrite here
In post-1994 South Africa, history continues to disfigure the social fabric and educational landscape. Slow-paced and uneven transformation, as well as challenges of power and voice, wealth, race and gender inequalities shape the day to day reality of the country. Public universities, too, face these challenges. Yet, with over 1.2 million students, universities can foster critical ways of thinking about challenging issues, enabling us to reimagine and reinvent possibilities and to co-construct knowledge. They can imagine and be the socially just society that we want to become and be spaces where the principles of Ubuntu can be mobilised and our freedoms fostered. Hence, universities have great potential to face the injustices that persist in post-apartheid South Africa, to contribute to building a democratic nation and advancing the public good, even though social justice remains elusive and universities still not sufficiently transformed.
We can make a different story of aspirations, decolonial knowledge-making and advancing justice. The struggle for social justice in the aftermath of historical violence should, we think, not simply be about opposing dehumanization but should enable creative, expansive self-actualisation. Change should involve finding ways of reclaiming our sense of being human together and moving forward. This aligns well with Steve Biko’s call for a new humanity.
This webinar, therefore, focuses on youth at one South African university as storytellers. The members of the Youth Voices team will bring different biographies and varied experiences of voice, inclusion, and marginalisation through their visual individual and collective narratives. Using Digital story-telling and Participatory Video we will explore social justice, injustices and change through students’ videos, fostering an ecology of knowledges bringing experiential knowledge from youth in South Africa and academic knowledge from our guest speakers. The webinar will be presented by the Youth Voices members themselves discussing as the authors of these narratives, their own stories, experiences and productions.
Program:
14:00 – 14:30 Introduction and project overview
14:30 – 14:45 Digital Story A Shadow of a Woman
14:45 – 15:00 Digital Story Hair Untangled
15:00 – 15:15 Participatory Video Student well-being?
15:15 – 15:30 Participatory Video Exploring a Pandemic within a Pandemic
15:30 – 16:30 Final Discussion Q &A
Presenters:
Youth Voices Members: Luvuyo Ngobeni, Natasha Kabaso, Cheri Matjila, Ntombi Nhlapo, Getrude Jana, Nontobeko Mathebula; Angel Zungu, Christiaan Botha, Nhlanhla Mgobhozi, Jeremiah Hlahla, Neliswa Emeni Tientcheu & Moroesi Talita Makape
Facilitators: Melanie Walker & Carmen Martinez-Vargas
Special Guests:
Prof. Alejandra Boni (Universidad Politecnica de Valencia)
Dr. Emily Henderson (Warwick University)
Dr. Melis Cin (Lancaster University)
Dr. Mikateko Mathebula (University of the Free State)
Dr. Aliya Khalid (Cambridge University)
Dr. Monique Kwachou (University of the Free State)
Registration: Eventbrite - Register Here