Dr Joy Owen

Joy Owen is a Senior Lecturer in the department. She obtained her bachelors, Honours and MA degrees in Anthropology from the University of Cape Town. Her M.A paid particular attention to the Gramscian notion of hegemony and its applicability to the post-Apartheid situation of students participating in a formerly segregated institution. Subsequently, she conducted research at two police stations in Western Cape, where she was tasked with assessing the transformation of the South African Police Service.

Dr Owen completed her PhD dissertation in May 2011.  Her Phd dissertation entitled "On se débrouille: Congolese Migrants' Search for Survival and Success in Muizenberg, Cape Town" details the lives of Congolese migrants in a seaside urban space in Cape Town, South Africa.  Using concepts like transnationalism, social capital, and client-patronage Dr Owen lays bare the nuts and bolts of Congolese migrants' attempts to secure their lives in an often alienating environment. 

Joy’s teaching topics include kinship, politics and economics, race and ethnicity, the DRC as a case study (first year), Power and Wealth (second year), Fieldwork, Dominance and Resistance: Love, Sex and Money (third year), Transnational Identities/Ethnographies, Genocide, Postcolonial Identities (Honours level).

Contact Joy at: j.owen@ru.ac.za