BURSARIES 2026: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

CSSR DEADLINE: 17 JUNE 2025

RU INTERNAL DEADLINE: 4 JULY 2025

The Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (Department of Psychology, Rhodes University) is pleased to announce a call for applications for MA and PhD student funding.

The CSSR is an interdisciplinary unit, which means we accept students with degrees from other social science departments such as Sociology, Anthropology, Politics and Journalism. Some projects, however, might require a degree in Psychology.

The applications are open to full-time students for the following periods:

Masters: 2026 – 2027

PhD: 2026 – 2028

Successful candidates will join a research team working on one of the existing CSSR projects (see below).

The NRF minimum academic requirement for postgraduate funding is 65%.  Successful applicants will be funded either at Full Cost of Study (FCS) or Partial Cost of Study (PCS). For more information on eligibility and applications: https://www.nrf.ac.za/dsti-nrf-postgraduate-student-funding-for-the-2026-academic-year/

If you are interested, please submit the following documents to cssradmin@.ru.ac.za:

• Curriculum vitae
• Full academic transcript
• A cover letter indicating your interest in studying through CSSR, as well as the areas of research/project in which you are interested.

If the CSSR accepts you to apply for the bursary, you must submit the relevant documents on the NRF website once the call for 2026 bursaries has opened.

The following projects have spaces available for postgraduate students:

1. Birth attendance by fathers (or male partners), with Dr Elron Fouten

This study will examine fathers’ experiences of being present during the birth of their children, with a focus on emotional, relational, identity, and cultural dimensions. The study would explore the psychological impact of paternal presence at childbirth, the effects on family dynamics, and the societal perceptions surrounding this practice. Additionally, I would like to identify the benefits and challenges of paternal presence in labour and delivery, as well as the structural and procedural barriers within healthcare settings that may influence fathers’ participation.

2. Gender, sexuality, and worker subjectivity in postcolonial work and life, with Dr Sandiso Bazana

This research area explores how gender and sexuality shape people’s experiences of work across different organisational settings in postcolonial South Africa, including clinics, universities, NGOs, corporations, and informal labour spaces like domestic work or street vending. It focuses on how workers of all identities- women, men, queer, and trans individuals - navigate institutional expectations, moral pressures, and histories of exclusion rooted in colonialism and apartheid. The study draws on feminist, postcolonial, and queer theories to examine how subjectivity - that is, how people come to understand and perform themselves- is shaped through power, care, resistance, and survival. Methodologically, this research engages a wide range of materials, including archival texts, books, policy documents, magazines, visual media, social media, photographs, videos, interviews, and multimodal analysis. Whether analysing how nurses are represented in reproductive health campaigns or how students perform identity in university spaces, the aim is to understand how gendered and sexual subjectivities are made visible, silenced, or contested within everyday organisational life.

3. Thinking Together: Neurovascular coupling, and parental mentalization in birthing and non-birthing mothers, with Dr Sizwe Zondo

Prevailing discourses continue to marginalise non-birthing mothers in same-sex relationships, often positioning them as less ‘legitimate’ or less capable of forming meaningful attachments with their children. These narratives reflect deeply entrenched heteronormative and gendered assumptions about motherhood (Brooks, 2024; McInerney et al., 2021). Contemporary developments in Attachment Theory—particularly those informed by Mentalization—offer more nuanced frameworks for exploring mother-infant attachment, supported by emerging neurobiological evidence. Within this framework, mentalising refers to the individual’s capacity to reflect on their own mental states as well as those of others, including the dynamic interplay between them (Bateman & Fonagy, 2013). Dyadic reading between mother and child has been studied as a meaningful context for bonding and mentalising within the attachment relationship (Ohgi et al., 2010). Notably, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been used to investigate potential associations between mother-child inter-brain synchrony and attachment security during joint cooperative activities such as dyadic reading. However, there remains a significant gap in the literature on how attachment theory, inter-brain synchrony, and vascular coupling relate to the experiences of birthing and non-birthing mothers in lesbian-parent families in South Africa. The current PhD project seeks to explore this intersection in greater depth.

4. Respectful Maternity Care (RMC)

There is a diverse range of individual, structural and systemic deficiencies which contribute to South African women, in both public and private healthcare systems experiencing disrespect during maternity care.  The Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Health policy (2021) was developed to alleviate these deficiencies, with five key objectives. This research focuses on the third objective, namely, Respectful Maternity Care (RMC).  The identification and recognition of what constitutes (dis)respect in maternity care is contested but includes violence, harm, disrespect, abuse, and neglect (Rosen et al, 2015) of pregnant and birthing women during the perinatal period.  While overt obstetric violence is receiving increased attention, little is known about how a variety of stakeholders within the healthcare nexus construct their understandings of (dis)respectful maternity care. These understandings will be explored through the utilisation of the Secret History method, developed by the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP, 2019). This has been identified as a pedagogy of participatory, dialogical and embodied learning which draws on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (TOTO) (Boal, 1979, 1992, 1995) and is associated with critical education principles of Paulo Freire (1970).  This methodology aims to create dialogical spaces for all stakeholders in the reproductive health care nexus to interrogate taken-for-granted assumptions and reimagine respect within maternity care.

5. Contraceptive Uptake and Post Abortion Care with Dr Timalizge Zgambo

Research question: Exploring the relationship between contraceptive uptake after the termination of pregnancy and the occurrence of repeat abortions.

Problem: Termination of pregnancy being legal in South Africa means a woman is able to access the service whenever she decides, without a limit to the number of abortions one can access. Generally, repeated unplanned or planned pregnancies are perceived negatively in the public health setting. Contraceptive uptake then becomes the solution to preventing repeat abortion.

Project aim: To establish if contraceptive unacceptance/resistance equals increased incidence of repeat abortions. Thus, what are the implications and what policy proposals can be recommended to ensure effective, comprehensive post-abortion care services?

Research questions will explore:

1. Attitudes, beliefs and perceptions around contraceptive use (in the context of post abortion)
2. The proportion of women who opt for the choice of contraception immediately after termination of pregnancy, and what factors influence the choice made
3. The most common contraceptive method preferred and why
4. What factors might influence contraceptive resistance or its acceptance immediately after termination of pregnancy?
5. What role do healthcare providers play in influencing women’s decisions on post-abortion contraceptive use, and how does post abortion counselling contribute to choice?

Methodology: qualitative research involving conducting interviews with females who have accessed abortion services at a government facility. Interviews with healthcare providers in family planning and termination of pregnancy services.

Last Modified: Wed, 21 May 2025 08:18:14 SAST