South African Initiatives and Interests at UMass
Amherst
UMass - South Africa
Connection
The following represents a first effort at creating
an inventory
of the wide variety of connections that exist between members
of our community and South Africa.
Maurianne Adams (adams@educ.umass.edu)
Barbara J. Love (bjlove@educ.umass.edu)
Faculty and students in the Social Justice Education
program (UMass/Amherst) have had ongoing collaborative interactions
with faculty of the Centre for Adult and Community Education in
the Faculty of Education at the University of Natal (Durban) and
at associated campuses. Over the past three years, faculty and
students from UMass/Amherst and UND have worked closely to develop
a series of Social Justice Education modules at UND for student
teachers, inservice teachers, and students at the UND and associated
campuses. The goal of this collaborative approach to intergroup
education is to build a social justice curriculum, appropriate
to the South African context, that enables participants to challenge
and change their beliefs and behaviors regarding their social
differences. The modest success of the modules already offered
at UND have encouraged participants at both campuses to develop
proposals for major, multi-year funding.
Jane A. Baran (baran@comdis.umass.edu)
Charlena M. Seymour (cseymour@provost.umass.edu)
Our project involves the establishment of an academic
program in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the Medical
University of Southern Africa. During the Spring of 2000, a delegation
of four US faculty (including Seymour and Baran) traveled to South
Africa to work with faculty and administrators at the Medical
University of Southern Africa (MEDUNSA)on the development of a
proposal to establish a new program in Speech-Language Pathology
and Audiology at MEDUNSA. This proposal has gone through the necessary
approval stages and in January of this year the first class of
19 students was admitted.
At the present time we are continuing our efforts to help support
the institutionalization of this program at MEDUNSA by working
with the new head of the program and the deputy dean of the college
in which the program is situated on a number of initiatives. These
include the recruitment of full-time faculty to fill approved
faculty positions, the identification of faculty from South Africa
and the United States who are willing to teach the necessary courses
until full-time faculty members can be hired at MEDUNSA, the investigation
of potential research collaborations among MEDUNSA and UMASS faculty,
and the exploration of resources that can be used to support the
goals and objectives of the new program.
Charlena Seymour was also the first president of
the American Speech Language Hearing Association to come to South
Africa post-apartheid at the invitation of the South African Speech
Language Hearing Association.
David Bell (davidibell@mediaone.net)
I currently work for the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
(Leverett, MA.) and do peacebuilding and conflict transformation
work internationally - but because I am a South African, I am
interested in the Biehl's work and their foundation - and have
worked in community development in South Africa so I have a pretty
good understanding of what they are doing - and have extreme admiration
for them and their work.
I am a South African, recently graduated from UMass
(Education Policy, Research and Administration, and International
(comparative) Education - May 2001) - have worked in education
and community empowerment and transformation in South Africa for
15 years - worked as a TA in the UMass/Commonwealth Honors College
in the Citizen Scholars program (community service learning) while
studying - and am interested in the Biehl's foundation and the
reciprocal opportunities and partnerships that it may be able
to provide to UMass and the Community Service Learning program
at UMass in particular.
Samuel Bowles(bowles@econs.umass.edu)
For the past decade I have provided economic advice
and have taught economics in a number of venues in South Africa
including advisory work on economic and educational policy for
COSATU, a short course in economics for the mineworkers union
NUM, participation in a Cosatu-sponsored economic policy advisory
group, membership in the Presidential Commission on the Labour
Market (appointed by President Mandela), and participation in
a retreat with President Mbeki and his cabinet to reevaluate economic
policy. I have also chaired (or am chairing) the doctoral dissertation
committees of five economists working on South Africa (Dori Posel,
Justine Burns, Malcolm Keswell, Tom Hertz, and James Heintz.
Barbara B. Burn (bbburn@ipo.umass.edu)
International Programs has been involved with the
exchange of faculty, students, and staff with the University of
Cape Town (UCT); special emphasis on reciprocal exchange of UMass
undergraduates with faculty, staff, and graduate students from
UCT with financing affordable to participants.
We also have relationships with the University of
Fort Hare (UFH) allowing for staff, faculty, and student exchanges.
International Programs will also participate on behalf of UMass
in the Academic Women Leaders Project with Wellesley, Smith, and
Mount Holyoke Colleges. This project will focus on skills and
knowledge important to future senior leaders in South African
universities.
Terri Cappucci (tecapp@mediaone.net)
I began this photodocumentary project of South Africa
in 1993. After spending a couple of years living in the country
in the late 1980's, I was very interested in witnessing the end
of apartheid. As a photojournalist, I have independently funded
my many trips to the country to continue a documentary project
that includes photographs from the first ever all-race elections
in 1994. Between 1993 and 1999 I returned two and sometimes three
times a year to continue this work.
My focus has been on the women and children who
have become victims through violence in the rural areas. I am
also concentrating on the daily lives, social and economic changes
in the new South Africa. I have documented the joy of the first
- time voters and the sadness of the women and children who have
lost families and spouses from political violence. Currently,
I am re-examining my purpose and goals as a documentary photographer
as I continue this project. I have so many images, and there are
so many stories to tell. I hope to continue this project as my
thesis, using both video and photography.
Stephen Clingman (clingman@english.umass.edu)
I was born in South Africa, was educated there and
in England. I teach in the English Department, and have worked
on a number of South African topics: a book on the South African
Nobel Prizewinner, Nadine Gordimer, as well as an edited collection
of Gordimer's non-fictional essays. In addition, I wrote "Bram
Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary," a biography of the man
who (among other things) was the lawyer who led Nelson Mandela's
defense at the Rivonia Trial. The Book won the 1999 Sunday Times
Alan Paton Award, South Africa's premier award for non-fiction.
I initiated and helped establish links between the Writing Program
and its counterpart at the University of the Western Cape. Since
its beginnings, the program has seen faculty exchanges between
UCT and UMass; also work by some of our graduate students in Cape
Town; also, more recently, links with the Western Massachusetts
Writing Project (which works with K-12 teachers in Western Mass)
and school teachers from the Western Cape–a highly successful
visit here this last summer.
Both in the English Dept, and in my capacity as
Director of IS HA, I have invited numbers of South African visitors,
among them the following: Kelwyn Sole, South African poet; Guy
Berger, Head of the Journalism Dept at Rhodes University; Malcolm
Purkey, noted South African theater director and writer, who spent
a two-week residency here in the Spring.
In 1991, the English Department hosted Nadine Gordimer,
who gave our Troy Lecture just days after the announcement that
she had won the Nobel Prize.
Susan Cohen (cohen@nutriton.umass.edu)
John Cunningham (jcunningham@provost.umass.edu)
This project is designed to link the expertise (in
our case, utrition), of UMass with that of the Medical University
of South Africa (MEDUNSA), and collaborate on joint teaching,
research, and outreach projects. We have had planning teams from
MEDUNSA come to UMass, and a team from UMASS travel to SA to compare
curricula and plan with MEDUNSA nutrition department faculty and
staff. Our current plans include training in distance education
and joint development of a distance education course in nutrition
and HIV, and to provide professional development to staff members
at MEDUNSA. Several MEDUNSA staff have accessed our online professional
development interactive Internet seminars, Cyberseminars, and
we expect staff from MEDUNSA to begin training at UMass in the
near future.
Lee Edwards (lee.edwards@cas.umass.edu)
My connection with South Africa through my participation
in a "modularization initiative" at the University Durban/Westville,
as well as through various other initiatives, particularly in
Writing/Cape Town via the Department of English.
Linda J. Faulkinham (lindaf@admin.umass.edu)
In 1999 from January to April, I was a visiting
research fellow at the National Hertiage and Cultural Studies
Centre of the University of Fort Hare. The project involved assessing
the needs of current needs of arts and cultural administrators
in South Africa and developing a proposal for an arts and cultural
management course of study at Fort Hare.
Ralph Faulkinham (faulkingham@anthro.umass.edu)
On behalf of the UMass International Programs Office,
I spent 10 weeks in early 1999 on the campus of the University
of Fort Hare, where I taught an anthropology course and I met
several faculty and administrators to bolster the formal exchange
agreement between UMass and Fort Hare. My wife (Linda) and I assumed
roles as informal advisers and counselors to the four UMass students
who were there on exchange.
Diane Flaherty (chair@econs.umass.edu)
I have lived and worked in South Africa since 1992.
I lived in Durban and worked at the Institute for Social and Economic
Research at the University of Durban/Westville from January to
August 1993. The two main projects at this time were the analysis
of costs of reincorporation of former homelands back into the
South African economy and a study of the role of women and credit
in black, small-farmer cane production in KwaZulu.
In 1995 and 1997 I lived in Johannesburg from January
to August, working at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
The main projects I undertook during those times were analyses
of regional differences in South Africa as a whole and in manufacturing,
a large survey of the clothing sector and determinants of its
competitiveness and a survey of the impact of small rural employment
projects on villagers' economic behavior. I return to South Africa
usually twice a year to do follow-up interviews with clothing
firms as part of an on-going multi-country project on the effects
of globalization on clothing production.
William Gerace (gerace@physics.umass.edu)
William Leonard (wjleonard@physics.umass.edu)
Between 1992 and 1999, we have made 4 trips to South
Africa, all with the goal of improving science instruction from
primary school to university. We have given presentations at nearly
every major university and science center in the country, including
the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Cape Town, the
University of Durban-Westville, the University of Natal-Pietermaritzburg,
the University of Natal-Durban, the University of South Africa,
the University of Potchefstroom, Rand-Afrikaans University, the
Primary Science Project (at UND), and the Centre for the Advancement
of Science and Mathematics Education. We have also given 12 workshops
for faculty and schoolteachers at the University of the
Witwatersrand, the Voice of the Children Education Centre (Orange
Farm), The Foundation School (Melville, Johannesburg), and elsewhere.
Among our most popular activities are science demonstration
shows for school children. These have been done at diverse locations
such as Anchor Village (St. Philomena's Children's Home, Sydenham,
Durban), Northcrest Primary School (Park Hill, Durban), St. Mary's
School for Girls (Kloof), and Naauwpoort School (near Rustenburg).
These shows demonstrate how science principles and concepts can
be taught using common, everyday items, such as balls, forks,
coins, pencils, and erasers, and a crucial element of each show
is letting the students learn how to do the demonstrations so
that they can go home and show them to their families. We have
done 20 shows in all, with nearly 500 students having participated.
Curt Griffin (cgriffin@forwild.umass.edu)
The one ongoing project I have with an organization
in South Africa actually takes place in Botswana. I work with
Dr. John Hanks, Conservation International, Cape Town Regional
Support Office, Kirstembosch Research Centre, Private Bag X7,
Claremont 7735, RSA 27-021-7998655. The project is entitled, "Ecology,
Population Structure and Movements of Elephant Populations in
Northern Botswana."
Stephen E. Haggerty (haggerty@geo.umass.edu)
I was born in South Africa, left at age 19, received
my tertiary education in England, and have been in the United
States since 1968. I am an economic mineralogist with major interests
in the geology of diamond deposits. One project, supported by
the US National Science Foundation, is currently centered on the
Kimberley and Jagersfontein mines in South Africa. I have close
ties with, and have lectured extensively to the geology departments
of universities throughout South Africa.
Anne Herrington (anneh@english.umass.edu)
Charles Moran (cmoran@english.umass.edu)
Since 1997, the English Department has worked collaboratively
with the Academic Development Programme of the University of Cape
Town. The collaboration was launched in 1997 by a visit to UCT
by Professor Clingman of UMass. Since that time, Professors Herrington
and Moran have each visited UCT to consult on curriculum and teaching
approaches used in the Language Development Programme. Reciprocal
visits have been made to UMass by two members of LDP, Senior Lecturers
Rochelle Kapp and Lucia Thesen. In 2000, a graduate student from
UMass spent a semester at UCT, team-teaching with Kapp and working
in the Writing Center. Moran and Herrington are also serving on
dissertation committees to support the professional development
of the staff in LDP.
In 2000, we began consultation on a teacher development
project in the Overburg Region, with Prof. Herrington, Kapp, and
two others leading a Writing across the Curriculum workshop for
thirty teachers. In 2001, this collaboration was furthered through
the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, co-directed by Professor
Moran: two teachers from the Overburg spent three weeks attending
the WMWP Summer Institute, learning new teaching strategies and
preparing to lead workshops with their colleagues in the Overburg
schools. Immediately following the Institute, Co-Director Diana
Callahan and another MA teacher went to South Africa to co-lead
workshops with the two South African teachers who attended the
Institute.
To date, through these collaborations all of us
at UMass and UCT have learned new approaches to curriculum from
one another; the cross-cultural collaboration has also given each
of us a new perspective from which to view our own work. Finally,
the project with the middle and high school teachers from the
Overburg has been tremendously satisfying because there are signs
that it has helped nurture an on-going teacher development program
related to writing.
John Higginson (jeh@history.umass.edu)
Presently I am completing a manuscript on collective
violence in countryside of the former western Transvaal in the
generation following the 1899-1902 South African War. The book
is tentatively entitled "Putting the Eyes Back in the Country:
Agrarian Elites and Collective Violence in the Western Transvaal
War, 1900-1926. To date, I have published two articles that bear
on the theme of the book in the Spring 1998 edition of Social
Identities ("Upending the Century of Wrong: Collective Violence
and Agrarian Elites in South Africa and the American South, 1865-1914")
and the Fall 2001 edition of the Journal of Social History ("Hell
in Small Places: Agrarian Elites and Collective Violence, 1900-1907").
During 1993-1994, I was a research associate at
the former Institute of African Studies at the University of the
Witwatersrand. From 1999 to the present, I have served as research
associate and advisor for the Governance Section of the Human
Sciences Research Council of South Africa and the South African
History Online Project.
Carol J. Lebold (cjl@ipo.umass.edu)
I coordinate UMass direct reciprocal exchanges
with University of Fort Hare (student/staff exchange); any student
traveling for study purposes to South Africa (have UMass undergrads
and grads attending a number of institutions: UPE; UCT; UND; UFH;
Rhodes; in past year).
I serve as a consultant, along with a colleague
from MSU, on a South Africa Study Abroad Initiative undertaken
by NAFSA: Assn. of International Educators, in cooperation with
IEASA (International Education Assn. of South Africa) and funded
from the Educational Information and Resources Branch of the US
Dept. of State. Began with a preconference workshop offered at
the IEASA conference in Durban, Sept. 2000; workshop offered in
US in Chicago, spring 2001; session at NAFSA's national conference
(Philly, 5/01) and at NAFSA region XI conference coming up, Nov
28-29). Also coauthored article on project, published in International
Educator, spring 2001.
I have visited a number of universities and technikons
throughout South Africa, including both advantaged and disadvantaged
institutions. Have been working with South African colleagues
and students on exchange and linkage issues since 1993.
Leonce Ndikumana (ndiku@econs.umass.edu
)
I teach a course on Africa and have established
a Study-Abroad program in economic development for undergraduate
students. I have also established contacts with the University
of Cape Town and the University of Natal. My research in economic
development focuses on Africa.
Penelope S. Pekow (ppekow@yahoo.com)
I've been working on the UMass - MEDUNSA Linkages
Project, in particular on curriculum development and teaching
for the National School of Public Health (NSPH). The NSPH is a
distance education program granting MPH degrees to health professionals.
The program relies primarily on online courses, with 2 on-site
(at MEDUNSA) gatherings each year. At the on-site gatherings I
have focused on teaching computing skills, and then have taught
online from Amherst. In addition, the tech support person for
the NSPH faculty is currently enrolled in the MS program here
in Amherst in biostatistics, and I'm working closely with him
while he is in our program.
Esther Terry (eterry@afroam.umass.edu)
I was invited to attend the medical school outside
of Pretoria, South Africa (MEDUNSA) as a member of the delegation
of faculty and administrators who are participating in a collaborative
between MEDUNSA and the university. I was asked specifically,
to attend meetings with MEDUNSA administrators for discussions
around that school’s responsibility (as required by the post
apartheid government) to ensure diversity in every program in
such a way as to provide equal opportunity.
I was asked to sit with those responsible for preparing
the plans and lent whatever help I could to their attempts to
work through some sticky issues. For instance, in some cases they
have problems that are exactly the opposite of ours in that the
minority population (whites) have most, if not all, the education,
but the majority of the populations is non-white and in need of
being provided opportunity. Needless to say, I have found my visits
to Pretoria most challenging.
UMass - South Africa
Connection
