Research Focus Areas

Psychology and Politics

Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction at Rhodes

South Africa is faced with multiple challenges surrounding sexuality and reproduction, including forced sexual debut, sexual coercion, sexual violence, HIV infection, ‘corrective’ rape, unwanted pregnancy, a high maternal mortality rate, barriers to sexual and reproductive health service provision, and lack of access to termination of pregnancy services despite its legal status. These challenges are simultaneously rooted in and serve to perpetuate a range of social inequities centred on race, class, ability, sexual orientation, age and gender.  A substantial amount of research that has grappled with these complexities has been conducted at Rhodes University over the last decade. This multidisciplinary work has received international recognition and has been used to inform national sexual and reproductive health strategies...more

Fine Art

Visual and Performing Arts of Africa

Visual and Performing Arts of Africa" (ViPAA) is a Mellon funded research team based in the Fine Art Department at Rhodes University and is one of four Humanities Focus Areas. The ViPAA research unit was launched in January 2011 and is led by Prof Ruth Simbao.

For three years (2011 to 2013) the team will focus on the research theme "The Audacity of Place", which opens up discussions about 'place' and 'space' in the discourse of Contemporary Art.

The key aims of the team are to produce high quality research outputs (in the form of publications, exhibitions and performances), to foster academic cooperation and collaboration by working on related topics, and to engage with society by addressing pertinent social, political and economic concerns in Africa today. While our research is based in a local context, it generates dialogue with the international art world and explores new ways of conceptualizing the 'local' and the 'global'.

Limited MFA, MA and PhD scholarships are available on a competitive basis for those committed to studying full-time in the Fine Art Department as part of this research group. The relevance of the topic to the Focus Area is critical, and equity will be considered...more