Mawazo Ideas Podcast
The Mawazo Ideas Podcast gives a public platform to Africans who are making an impact with their Big Ideas. In five seasons of the podcast, we have featured interviews with African experts in science and policy. We discuss their science journeys, climate change mitigation and conservation, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent.
In Season 6 of our podcast, we delve into the experiences of African women in research through six compelling episodes. We explore why these women choose to pursue a PhD, the dynamics of research mobility, and how they secure funding for their studies. Additionally, we examine the challenges of studying in politically unstable regions, the crucial role of community support, and the unique obstacles they face—from gendered issues and Black tax to balancing work and personal life. Join us as we uncover the diverse realities and inspiring journeys of African women scholars.
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Mawazo Ideas Podcast
Rising from the Research Fringe: A PhD Saga
In this fourth episode of season 6 of the Mawazo Ideas Podcast, the team explores how women scholars pioneer, research, and generally exist on the margins of academia.
Scholars explore the gendered experiences of women academics through the feminist intersectional lens. The discussion focuses on sexism and misogyny within the academy and other critical intersecting identities like race, ageism, and disability which create and reproduce structural inaccuracies, impede academic freedom, and sustain structural marginalization of African women academics (Phaswana-Mafuya, 2023; Tamale & Onyango, 1997; Sougou et al. 2022; Madikizela-Madiya & Mkhwanazi 2024). For women doctoral candidates, advisory relationships, childcare for student mothers or lack thereof create a world of difference between who succeeds, who merely survives, and who abandons the academy altogether (Tsephe, 2021), and as Mose (2019) observes, such structural inequalities have a ripple impact on women professors who often shoulder the bulk of the care work by directly supporting their own families, the students, and their male colleagues. Finally, disability inclusion in the academy invites us to go beyond the physical infrastructure by considering the intangible but critical structures that foster disability justice and inclusion.
Join us, as we unpack the layers of gendered experiences and how the academy can leverage into the existing feminist work to create more inclusive spaces which will ultimately improve the quality of research.
Further Reading
- Madikizela-Madiya, N., & Mkhwanazi, S. T. (2024). Academic identities and socio-spatial exclusions of academics with disabilities: A capabilities approach. Disability & Society, 0(0), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2311357
- Mose, C. (2019). Towards a (more) gender-responsive model of collaboration. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 31(3), 283–286. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2019.1633284
- Phaswana-Mafuya, R. N. (2023). Navigating Academia: Women’s Stories of Success and Struggle - A Call to Action. UJ Press. https://doi.org/10.36615/9781776447497
- Sougou, N. M., Ndiaye, O., Nabil, F., Folayan, M. O., Sarr, S. C., Mbaye, E. M., & Martínez-Pérez, G. Z. (2022). Barriers of West African women scientists in their research and academic careers: A qualitative research. PLOS ONE, 17(3), e0265413. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265413
- Tamale, S., & Oloka-Onyango, J. (1997). Bitches at the academy: Gender and academic freedom at the African university. Africa Development/Afrique et Développement, 22(1), 13-37. https://www.africabib.org/htp.php?RID=163203989
- Tsephe, L. (2021). A capabilities approach to African women’s success in doctoral programmes in South Africa (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria (South Africa). https://www.proquest.com/openview/ce864c9591568b272a3ead50a1db85db/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2026366&diss=y