Race, Culture, and Identity

The broad theme of race, culture, and identity recognises that race and ethnicity are not fixed or objective categories but are socially constructed and imbued with cultural meanings and practices that shape how people perceive themselves and others. Research in this area in the Faculty explores a wide range of topics, including the social, political, and economic dimensions of race and ethnicity; how cultural practices and beliefs shape racial identities and experiences; the impact of globalization on cultural and racial diversity; and how historical and ongoing forms of discrimination are perpetuated. The intersection of cultural studies and identity provides valuable insights into how cultural contexts influence individual and collective identities. By examining the ideological frameworks, media representations, and contemporary issues surrounding identity, scholars can better understand the complexities of identity formation in an increasingly interconnected world. Another important focus is how culture and identity intersect with power and privilege. This includes an exploration of how race and ethnicity intersect with gender, class, and other social hierarchies, which can be used to assert and resist power and domination within various contexts.

Research Clusters

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies

Language and Society

Health, Welfare, and Human Security

Politics, Governance, and Citizenship

Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

Science, Technology, and Communication

Performance and Visual Arts

Department	Researcher	Areas of focus
Africa Open Institute	Dr Hilde Roos	Historical and contemporary representations of opera in South Africa, intersecting with politics and race; Indigenization of opera in South Africa; and culture-making in formerly marginalized so-called Coloured communities.
Ancient Studies	Prof Phlip Bosman,	Ancient Greek literature, history & culture.
	Prof Sakkie Cornelius	Culture & material imagery of Ancient North Africa and Southwest Asia.
	Ms Amy Daniels; Dr Annemarie de Villiers; Dr Samantha Masters, Prof Phlip Bosman, Dr Ursula Westwood	Graeco-Roman & Roman culture, and Antiquity in modern culture.
	Dr Ursula Westwood	Religious identities in the ancient world.
	Prof Sakkie Cornelius	Ancient Near Eastern cultures and histories.
	Dr Samantha Masters	The reception of classical culture and ‘western’ identity in South Africa; heritage studies; decolonisation.
	Mr Marcus Joubert	Culture and embodied concepts.
	Dr Renate van Dijk-Coombes	Aspects of identity in Ancient Western Asia, particularly Mesopotamia.
AVReQ; SARChi Violent Histories & Transgenerational Trauma	Prof Kopano Ratele	Men and masculinity as it intersects with violence, class, traditions, sexuality, and race.
AVReQ; SARChi Violent Histories & Transgenerational Trauma	Dr Melike Fourie	Focus on factors that affect how we see and respond to members of social (racial) outgroups.
Centre for Research on Democracy; Centre for International and Comparative politics	Prof Ursula van Beek	Cultural studies, cultural values, and democracy; identity politics.
Drama	Prof Petrus Du Preez	South African Theatre practices in social commentary. Cultural identity through performance and dramatic texts.
	Me Estelle Olivier	Explores the shared diverse cultural knowledge-production in performing arts tertiary education, focusing on embodiment practices.
	Dr Schalk van der Merwe	Artistic research in theatre, exploring culturally localized narratives through performance. The methodology incorporates artistic exegesis to analyse and contextualize diverse stories within their socio-cultural landscapes.
	Dr Mareli Pretorius	Indigenous knowledge resources: Indigenous performance in a digital age
English	Dr Nadia Sanger	Literary theories of identity about race, class and gender.
	Dr Megan Jones;	World and Transnational Literatures; Urban Studies; Cultural Studies; South African and African Literatures; Critical Theory; Race Studies
	Dr Uhuru Portia Phalafala	Black expressive cultures’ spoken word poetry, critical race studies, and material and expressive cultures.
	Prof Louise Green	Critical theory and studies in modernity.
	Dr Daniel Roux	Postcolonial theory; psychoanalytic and Marxist literary theory; Renaissance literature and culture
	Prof Sally-Ann Murray	(Southern) African identities in literary, visual, and material cultures; gender identities. Writing cultural margins and mainstreams Creative writing as/and academic research.
	Dr Riaan Oppelt	South African literature; modernity/modernism; life writing; Afrikaaps, Camissa Identity.
	Prof Tina Steiner	African literature, focusing on the way in which African cultural expression engages with and shapes its place in the world.
Extended Curriculum Programme	Dr Taryn Bernard	Complexities of transformation in higher education institutions.
General Linguistics	Dr Schalk van der Merwe	African and South African history and culture: linguistic identity in music performance.
Geography & Environmental Studies	Prof Gustav Visser	Human geography: identity-based consumption and urban morphological change.
	Dr Chet Fransch	Locational and racial identities amongst ‘coloured’ communities in South Africa.
	Dr Thembani Dube	Pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Southern African History with a special interest in social history, identity, and belonging.
	Prof Sandra Swart	Race, whiteness and Afrikaner identity.
	Dr Justin Pearce	Liberation struggles and civil conflict in Southern Africa, particularly Angola and Mozambique. He is especially interested in the articulation between individual, local and national understandings of politics and identity,
Information Science; Centre for Knowledge Dynamics and Decision Making	Dr Edward-John Bottomley	Poor whites and early twentieth century South Africa, race, philanthropy, and transnational governmentality between the United States and South Africa.
Journalism	Dr Marenet Jordaan	Journalistic role conceptualisations; comparative journalism studies; journalism education; journalism ethics; scholarship of teaching, learning and assessment.
	Dr Gabriël Botma	Media history, media, culture and society
	Prof Mehita Iqani	Media and communication studies, particularly consumer culture and science communication.
Modern Foreign Languages	Dr Isabel dos Santos	Representations of culture(s) and identity in German contemporary literature.
	Prof Ingo Müller	Representation of, and discourse about Africa in German literature.
	Mr Bo Lyu	Temporal and spatial criticism in literature, film, and translation.
	Mrs Ada McLachlan	Contemporary Chinese literature
Music	Ncebakazi Mnukwana	Music practices in various cultural and religious contexts.
	Dr Carina Venter	The intersection of apartheid thinking music and sound: how this triad has operated historically and its afterlives in post-apartheid South Africa. A second interest under this theme is situated in critical disability studies: here, I’m interested in questions of shame, the institutional uses of disability, and the medicalisation of disability in higher education.
	Mrs Pamela Kierman	Band Conducting, Brass Pedagogy, and Community Music with a core focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Philosophy	Mr Phila Msimang	Metaphysics of race; race and medicine; race and science; critical philosophy of race.
Philosophy	Prof Louise Du Toit	The epistemology and methodology of African philosophy and other philosophies are borne of resistance.
Political Science	Prof Ursula van Beek	Historical memory and identity Comparative historical analyses Cultural values and democracy
Psychology	Prof Ronelle Carolissen	Identity and belonging among university students; underrepresented academic staff.
	Dr Anthea Lesch	Race and racism in contemporary South Africa through the lens of critical whiteness.
	Dr Dale Moodley	Politics of identity, particularly representations of gender and sexuality depicted in popular media.
	Ms Sheena Naidoo	The influence of cultural orientation on identity changes post acquired brain injury.
RADAR	Dr Robyn Pharoah; Dr Patricia Zweig	Cultural beliefs and practices can influence risk perception – differing from one community to another. Our post-disaster event analyses and risk assessments generally surface these kinds of differences.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Assoc Prof Illana van Wyk	The South African lottery, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, pre-colonial money exchange and financial instruments at the Cape, matric balls
	Dr Shaheed Tayob	Anthropology of Islam, Ethics, Consumption, Sacrifice, Economy, Food.
	Prof Simon Bekker	Collective identities and community development.
	Dr Handri Walters	Racial categorisation; racial science; spectres of race; material culture.
	Assoc Prof Bernard Dubbeld	Governance and Citizenship, including a focus on race and housing
	Dr Ziyanda Majombozi	Reproductive, maternal and child health; childbearing; family, care, motherhood and politics of reproduction.
Ton & Anet Vosloo Chair in Afrikaans Language Practice	Prof Ilse Feinauer	Translation, culture, identity, and ideology.
Visual Arts	Mariambibi Khan	Contemporary jewelry in a South African context, including its relation to memory, culture, identity, and feminism.
	Mieke Hall	The role of transcultural children’s books in shaping cultural identity and visual literacy.
	Prof Stella Viljoen	The intersections of race, class and gender in media and art history.
	Prof Lize van Robbroeck	The intersections of race, whiteness, and gender.
	Miss Jo-Ann Chan	The use of autoethnographic creative practices to explore the complexities at the intersections of memory, identity, and history in the shaping and re-storying of South African Chineseness.