Contradictory location of the black woman passport academic: Embrace, alienation and vulnerability

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dc.contributor.authorMaodzwa-Taruvinga, Mandi
dc.contributor.authorMsimanga, Audrey
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-17T13:33:21Z
dc.date.available2016-06-17T13:33:21Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractThis article is a narration of two black women’s experiences and perceptions of inclusion and/or exclusion within the academy arising out of their identity as ‘passport academics’. The inter-relation of nationality, ethnicity and race as identity markers creates power dynamics that lead to conflicting and competing expectations depending on whose discourse holds sway. The competing expectations form the nexus of the contradictory location leading to an identity crisis of a particular kind. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, the authors describe critical incidences in the course of social and academic relationships within the university which were interpreted as instances of ‘othering’. Alternate perceptions and feelings of embrace, alienation, and vulnerability by both black women ‘passport academics’ and black women South African academics are described. These reveal complex identity issues in which, sadly, black academics’ feelings of affirmation are still seen through the eyes of their white academic colleagues. The irony is that colleagues of different racial categories originating from the same foreign country are often perceived and labelled differently as either ‘outsiders’ or ‘insiders’. It is interesting how the apparent invisibility of one racial category affords people the privilege of global citizenship, while the visibility of blackness opens people to the scrutiny of national origins. What also emerges is that current discourses of transformation and diversity within the university seem to be struggling under the weight of a nationalistic turn. The authors conclude by suggesting that recovering the ‘academic’ rather than projecting nationality might be more productive and beneficial to all.en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMaodzwa-Taruvinga, M., & Msimanga, A. (2014). Contradictory location of the black woman passport academic: Embrace, alienation and vulnerability. South African Journal of Higher Education, 28(6), 2052-2064.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1011-3487
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/20493
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherUnisaen_ZA
dc.subjectBlack women academics – South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectForeign black lecturers – Inclusion and exclusion – South Africaen_ZA
dc.titleContradictory location of the black woman passport academic: Embrace, alienation and vulnerabilityen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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