Date: Sunday, August 10

Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM

Session 076: Performing Reflections: Art-based Praxis as a Resource for Self-reflection
Room: Spire Parlor

Sponsor: Program Committee

Organizer &

Discussant: Assata Zerai, The University of New Mexico

Performers: Luthando Ngazile Ngema, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Ongezwa Nomthokozisi Mbele, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Pumela Push Nqelenga, University of Cape Town
Siphiwe Maneano Motloung, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Description: 

Recent literature in decolonial feminism has begun to address the experiences of Black female academics within a complex and changing higher education landscape. These issues are rarely examined through the arts despite their unique potential to explore and tackle academic life's subtleties. The authors, four female academics, created and delivered a dramatic performance that renews theoretical and practical understandings of coloniality and decoloniality. This presentation will engage in post-performance reflections and dialogues based on the performances at symposia in 2023-2024. We will, therefore, provide evidence of arts-based praxis as a significant process of reflecting on ‘difficult’ institutional issues, highlighting the deleterious effects of the absence of ‘care’ in the academy and the importance of feminist decoloniality as care.

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