On Wednesday 31 August 2022 (12:30 – 14:00) the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ) will host a launch of the book Queer Activism in South African Education: Disrupting Cis(hetero)normativity in Schools (Routledge) by Professor Dennis Francis. Professor Francis will be interviewed by Professor zethu Matebeni (UFH).

 The event will take place from 12:30 to 14:00 in person at the AVReQ offices (GG Cillie Building, Ryneveld Street), as well as online.

Click here to register for in person attendance.

Click here to register for online attendance.

More about the speakers:

Dennis Francis is a South African-based scholar and activist whose work engages with questions related to gender, sexualities and schooling.  Dennis is a former Dean of Education and currently Professor of Sociology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Their research, located in the sociology of education, focuses on how educational structures, discourses and practices reproduce cisheteronormativity and social inequality in schools, and how these are also resisted and challenged.

Zintombizethu (zethu) Matebeni is a sociologist, activist and writer whose research focuses on the development of African Queer Studies. She has worked at different universities in South Africa and the United States of America and has been part of decolonizing interventions, including #RhodesMustFall and the Black Academic Caucus at the University of Cape Town. zethu has edited and co-edited various volumes on African LGBTQI life, including Reclaiming African: queer perspectives on sexual and gender identities (Modjaji, 2014); Queer in Africa: LGBTQI Identities, Citizenship and Activism (Routledge, 2018); and Beyond the Mountain: queer life in 'Africa's gay capital' (UNISA Press, 2021). zethu holds the National Research Foundation South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the University of Fort Hare.

More about the book:

Offering a vital, critical contribution to debates on gender, sexuality and schooling in South Africa, Queer Activism in South African Education: Disrupting Cis(hetero)normativity in Schools highlights how South African educational practices, discourses and structures normalize cisheteronormativity, along with how these are resisted within schools and through contemporary forms of activism. Not only does it add fresh insights to the existing research literature on gender, sexualities and schooling, it also underscores the valuable contributions of queer and transgender social movements, which have made influential legislative, teaching, learning and support contributions to education. Drawing on ethnographic research with queer and transgender activists, teachers, school managers, parents and school attending youth, the book provides everyday real-life quotes and observations offering a deeply critical contribution to the debates on gender and sexualities, education and activism. Using spatial and affect theories, it troubles the assumptions that frame this field of research to make a novel contribution to the national and international literature and research. The book provides research-based insights for thinking about and calls for informed action to challenging cisheteronormativity within and beyond schools.

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