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https://soundcloud.com/theacademiccitizen/60-breathing/s-sL9aZz7hval?si=b748e98b31d94702b1229fbd93d04fc4&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing In the latest episode, Breath is life. We explore how breathing helps our mental and physical well-being while advocating for clean air which has an impact on our cities and on our health. Dr Ela Manga is an integrated medical doctor who is focused on bringing heart back into the art of medicine. Her focus on breath work practice and breath in both mental and physical science has informed her unique approach to holistic health and wellbeing. A/Professor Tolullah Oni is the Programme Lead of the Global Diet and Physical Activity Group and Network at the University of Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit and an Extraordinary Professor & Chair at Innovation Africa@UP, University of Pretoria, South Africa where she leads the Urban Better Satellite Studio. She is involved in a citizen science project that uses running to advocate for clean […]

https://soundcloud.com/theacademiccitizen/59-ancestors The past informs the present while the past and the present inform the future. In this episode, our academic citizens help us trace the importance of knowing the events and memories that inform our heritage, identities and guide our spirituality. Dr Sven Ouzman is an archaeologist, rock art researcher and heritage specialist working in northern Australia, Borloo (Perth) and southern Africa. His research interests range from ancient artefacts to modern graffiti, along with issues of Indigenous Knowledge, contemporary archaeology, museums and identity. Youlendree Appasamy is a feminist free radical, working in the spaces of writing, zine-making and collage. Her writing work can be found on Africa is a Country, Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times and Kajal Magazine. She is interested in how Indian indentureship in South Africa influenced kinship structures, violence and gender/race-making in Indian South African communities. She is  […]

https://iono.fm/e/1200589 The deep colour blue: often associated with vastness, the fear of the unknown yet calming, enduring and complete. Continuing from the last episode where we explored the colour Green, our three academic citizens help us explore and expand our understanding behind the symbolism of the colour blue. Dr Meghan Judge is an animator, researcher, visual artist, musician and composer.  Her research is of a transdiciplinary nature by using art and earth science as a form of exploring fluidity between epistemological disobedience and power. Her experimental driven pieces explore links between animations, installations and sound. She has recently developed a sonic sensory palette for inquiring into and understanding human-ocean relations outside of anthropocentric determinacies.  Professor Aliza le Roux is a zoologist and behavourial ecologist who studies how animals respond to risks and opportunities in the environment. She is Associate Professor in the […]

https://iono.fm/e/1186860 ​C​olour symbolises the beginning​, middle ​and the end of a journey. ​It can represent​the importance of a cause but ​simultaneously representing un​due competition that ruins the heart and soul of a thriving ​academic ​environment.​ ​ In this episode,​ along with our three academic citizens, ​we explore the symbolism of the colour green through three lenses: the importance of indigenous knowledge, the relationship between ecological and social diversity and how envy and competition shape our relationship to academic work.  Dr Alex Lenferna works as South African Climate Justice Campaigner for 350.org. He is is a climate justice activist w​ho is also the​ co-founder and secretary of the Climate Justice Coalition – a coalition of South African trade unions, civil society, grassroots, and community-based organisations.​ ​He is a former Fulbright and Mandela Rhodes Scholar, who recently completed a PhD on climate ethics at the University of Washington. He has written and […]

THE ACADEMIC CITIZEN RELAUNCHES [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1237437583" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /] The Academic Citizen · Comebacks "You cannot come back to the same thing. You can’t step into the same river twice.” Dr. Carla Tsampiras This 6th season is being curated into inter-disciplinary themed conversations in each episode. We begin the season by honoring the memory of our previous producer Simbarashe Honde who departed this earthly realm in 2021. We dedicate the programme to him and his warm memory. After a 4 year break, the Academic Citizen podcast, has staged a comeback. In doing so, the team as led by Professors Mehita Iqani and Nosipho Mngomezulu are reanimating the commitment to growing space for the higher education community in South Africa and beyond to explore what we do and why it matters. We then ‘dig into the crates’ of the […]

Photo Cred: Christophe Hendrixe Most universities are at the forefront of denouncing social injustices and inequality yet, in 2013 for instance the highest paid chancellor earned an annual salary of 3.2 million. These figures reflect shocking high salary discrepancies between high earners in these institutions and low earners. Prof Mehita Iqani in this episode tackles this bone of contention amongst many in academia with Prof Rasigan Maharaj, the founding Chief Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) in the Faculty of Economics and Finance at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).  Prof Maharaj says it is not enough to only discuss minimum wage, there should be discussions on what the maximum wage should be in South African Institutions of Higher Education. Together they also explore questions of innovation, equality, accountability, pay scales,  and socially engaged scholarship. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/329389146" params="visual=true&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="450" […]

Photo Cred: Lebogang Tlou (Talk of Town) Dr Hleze Kunje wrote his four-year-long PhD thesis in isiXhosa, about Xhosa people who settled in Mbembesi, an area outside of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He graduated with his PhD in April 2017 and is a lecturer at Sol Plaatjie University. Hailing from rural Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape, Dr Kunju says his love affair with the language began at a young age. An artist and intellectual Dr Hleze merges his love for language with multi-lingual pedagogy, academic rigour, and curiosity to present an expansive picture of the importance of African languages. In this episode, Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu talks to Dr Hleze about his journey, ethnographic practice, pan-Africanism and the importance of community.  If you like this, also listen to Episode 32 "Intellectualization of African languages" [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/328025431" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]   Tell us on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter </ : […]