A/Prof Daniela Gachago

I just finished listening to the second webinar of the #unboundeq course. What an amazing line up of women! The topic was equity and I guess in general social activism and what it takes to be part of a social global movement fighting inequalities on a larger scale. My mind is racing and its not easy to put down my thoughts in a structured way. So in no particular order, these are the things that stuck with me: 1. Who has to do the anti-racism / social justice labour in a classroom? Maha was talking about the emotional labour her minority students have to do when she is teaching around equity in her class in Egypt and how increasingly uncomfortable she felt forcing the few minority students to 'do all the work'. She spoke about strategies she employed such as pre-readings, to relieve her students of some of the labour of explaining minority experience to dominant groups. I had a similar conversation recently about this with my colleagues. We ran a p rivilege walk  activity ...

I just listened to the first live studio session of the Equity Unbound online course organised by Maha Bali, Catherine Cronin and Mia Zamora. It's so nice to hear peoples' voices - there is so much more you can gather from people's voices than from engaging with them in writing; their backgrounds, their personalities, their sense of passion, engagement and humour. What stayed with me most, beyond the richness of what was shared, is their question around allyship, the roles of allies in the fight for social justice. This is a topic I have recently been forced to engage with. South African higher education has gone through hectic times over the last few years - the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements have opened up spaces for important but difficult conversations around transformation, equality, and the role of academia and academics in today's world. What I am most struggling with is the role of white academics in this space. What does it mean to be an “ally” i...