Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)

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Crafting Spaces: Exploring the Potential for a Queer(ed) Curatorial Practice through Zines
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Baia, Tristan
This research report explores the potential of zines in creating and sustaining a decentralised, affective, and queer(ed) curatorial practice; viewed through a theoretical framework of Trans Care and queer communal action that draws on the writing of Hil Malatino, Harry Josephine Giles, and other queer, trans and feminist scholars. This research report is foregrounded by a discussion on the author’s experiences and discomfort with mainstream South African institutions, specifically relating to a perceived lack of care extended towards artists and curators and an overreliance on mainstream spaces. From there, focusing on the history of zines as small-scale, noncommercial, self-published print works, the research explores how zines have been (and continue to be) used to form communal connections, mobilise anti-institutional action, and disseminate subversive material that ordinarily would not be distributed by mainstream platforms. Additionally, the research report also examines archival examples of pre-1994 South African queer print media to examine historical evidence of how queer individuals have relied on print matter to provide communal support, share information relating to queer healthcare, and engage in activism. Finally, these concepts are actualised through a curatorial engagement in the form of a zine jam, where participants gather to produce zines and engage in the communal action of crafting together. By emphasizing the punk, communal nature of zine production and distribution, the research emphasises artistic and curatorial agency and encourages a movement towards more communal ways of working together to avoid an overreliance on institutional platforms and spaces.
Factors and Levels Associated with HIV Knowledge among Non- Heteronormative Youth in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Peter, Andrea Nathania; Wet- Billings,Nicole De
Introduction Within the South African context, non-heteronormative individuals, those who do not relate to heterosexuality and mainly differ from heterosexual practices regarding their sexual orientation such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer and other (LGBTQ+) communities, face great levels of social exclusion due to their sexual orientation. Much of the LGBTQ+ community remains hidden and in fear of the potentially harsh – and sometimes lethal – consequences that follow ‘coming out’. Furthermore, those who identify as non-heteronormative face several sexual and reproductive health challenges. Individuals in same-sex relationships find it difficult to access safe sex measures in health clinics. In many cases, non-heteronormative individuals are unaware of the needed measures to practice safe sex to avoid health detrimental implications such as HIV. Methodology This study aimed to determine the demographic, socioeconomic and sexual behaviour factors that are associated with HIV knowledge among non-heteronormative youth (15-34 years old) in South Africa. The study used data from the 2017 Fifth South African National, HIV, Behaviour and Health Survey (SABSSM). The survey interviewed people 15 years and older who reside in South Africa. The study focused on non-heteronormative youth (15-34 years old) with a weighted national sample size of 365,237 individuals who indicated they had been in a same-sex relationship. Various demographic, socioeconomic and risky sexual health behaviour factors were used as independent variables to test for any association with HIV knowledge, the dependent variable. To test for association chi-square, proportion calculations and a probit regression were used to assess the level of HIV knowledge among non-heteronormative youth and the level of association with the independent variables. Results More than 50% of non-heteronormative youth indicated high levels of HIV knowledge, with females aged 25-29 years old having the highest level of knowledge. When running the adjusted and unadjusted probit regression, the variables sex, marital status and multiple sexual partners were shown to influence HIV knowledge. With these factors indicating a relationship with HIV knowledge among non-heteronormative youth, there is an association with the demographic, socioeconomic and risky sexual behaviour factors with HIV knowledge. Conclusion Although an association was found between the variables and HIV knowledge among non- heteronormative youth, it did not provide indicate a full view of the various factors that could 9 influence HIV knowledge among non-heteronormative population in South Africa. This study contributed data and research regarding the non-heteronormative, which has limited information available. Results indicated that there are high levels of HIV knowledge among non-heteronormative youth but further insight is required to assess where this information is from and how accessible it i
Lil_ith- A love story for South Africa’s queer, misfit youth
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) de Jager, Robin Claude; Wessels, Christopher
This project takes the form of an explorative filmic investigation into and reflection on the archetype of the queer misfit in South African cinema. The film and research take the standpoint of the South African misfit archetype being a post-queer-theory subject in relation to the country’s historical, socio-economic, sexual, traditional and technological landscape. I will compare the appearance of the queer misfit through the arrival of the neon and caustic characters of the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s to South Africa’s contemporary emergence of this archetype, positioning Queer Theory and the New Queer Cinema movement of the early as the primary emergence of a ‘true’ queer voice. I will engage with the influence of socio-economic, political and technological stimuli as well as the emergence of post-Queer Theory in the West and South Africa and its contribution to the evolution of the queer and misfit in post-colonial South African cinema. Through a practice-led, autoethnographic approach I combined these findings with core theoretical frameworks on post-modern sexuality by Queen and Schimel to inform and fuel the development of the film Lil_ith. The film stands as a creative execution expanding on the South African Misfit archetype in relation to the global history of Queer Misfit representation as well as its relationship with South Africa as a nation in the process of de-lonialisation within a digitised and globalised world.
Literary and visual representations of queer ecologies in South Africa’s maritime and terrestrial environments
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Dimond, Harvey Lewis; Hofmeyr, Isabel
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