Movement and Stagnation for Black Female Academics in the Era of COVID-19

• In Event: Feminist Decoloniality as Care joint panel of presentations and arts-based research by USA and South African academics

Proposal

The paper explores the experiences of female academics as they navigate expectations within the changing higher education arena. Four female academics detail how they coped with academic and personal pressures during COVID-19 through the arts-based self-study method. The paper focuses on the professional and personal experiences of academics to promote and provoke self-reflection, critical analysis and dialogue through a theatrical performance modality. This presentation intends to hold the complexities of being an academic in the South African context. Participants are part of the Feminist Decoloniality of Care (Femdac) study group and voluntarily participated. Results evidenced a loss of a sense of compartmentalized time with the advent of COVID-19. Here time and space are blurred between the institution and home. The abundance of action juxtaposed with inaction also permeated academics’ experiences leading to deleterious mental health challenges. The study recommends rethinking how academic work is conducted in this changing academic landscape.

Authors

• Luthando Ngazile Ngema, University of Kwazulu-Natal

• Siphiwe Motloung, Univesity of KwaZulu-Natal

• Pumelela Nqelenga, University of Cape Town

• Ongezwa Mbele, University of Kwazulu-Natal