Psychology hosts preeminent panel of South African scholars in virtual ‘seed box’ webinar on qualitative research methodology

Posted on May 17, 2023

In alignment with the Department of Psychology’s strategic goals of building and supporting creative, innovative, and transformative approaches to research both within the discipline of Psychology as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities, more broadly, the Department hosted the open-access public webinar, Doing Qualitative Methodology Differently. With the support of the Faculty of Humanities, the webinar was designed for academics, researchers, and postgraduate students who are interested in what qualitative methodologies can be(come) when they are done differently; the webinar brought together new trajectories of thought and practice in doing qualitative methodology differently.
 
The event was convened by Dr Jarred H. Martin (Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Pretoria) and included the participation of a panel of preeminent South African academics, including, Prof Tammy Shefer (Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape), Prof Deevia Bhana (DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal), Prof Peace Kiguwa (Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand), and Prof Floretta Boonzaier (Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town and co-Director of the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa). Together, the panel presented on, talked to, and engaged with post-humanist, postqualitative, assemblage, affective, and decolonial perspectives of thought and practice and what these mean for doing qualitative research and, in particular, methodology and methods, differently.
 
Rather than a ‘toolbox’ of orthodox methods, the webinar sought to be(come) a seed box, a virtual dialogue for the dispersion and planting of new methodological seeds amongst the attendees for thinking differently through and with qualitative research.
 
Speakers
Dr Jarred H. Martin
Vulnerable Methodology
University of Pretoria
Jarred H. Martin is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at the University of Pretoria, where he manages the postgraduate programme in Clinical Psychology. His research and writing concentrates on critical studies of bodies, gender/s, and sex/uality/ies, with an increasing focus on kinkier forms of sexual practice, erotic subjectivity, and intimacy. He sits on the Executive Committee of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA).
 
Professor Tamara Shefer
Wild/er Methodology
University of the Western Cape
Tamara Shefer is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape. She has written extensively in the areas of  HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, masculinities, memory and post-apartheid, gender and care, and social justice in higher education. She serves on several editorial boards, including the International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies, Feminist Encounters (formerly Dutch Journal of Gender Studies), NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, South African Journal of Psychology, Journal of AIDS and Behaviour, Associate Editor of the Journal of Gender, Work and Organisation, and Associate Editor on the Journal of Psychology in Africa. She is currently Principal Investigator on a 5-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation project New Imaginaries: A Critical Humanities Project on Gender and Sexual Justice.
 
Professor Deevia Bhana
Assemblage/s and Methodology
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Deevia Bhana is the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is known for the fields of study crossing the sociology of childhood and youth studies with particular focus on gender and sexuality. She has published over 146 scientific papers and book chapters. She has authored/edited 11 books, most recent of which is Girls and the Negotiation of Porn in South Africa: Power, Play and Sexuality (In press, Routledge). Her latest co-edited book is Sex and Sexualities, Sexual Health and Justice: Perspectives from Southern Africa (In press, Routledge). She is one of the Editors-in-Chief of Children & Society and an Associate Editor of Health Education Journal. She is currently co-Chair of RINGS (International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies).
 
Professor Peace Kiguwa
Affect and the Affective in/through Methodology
University of the Witwatersrand
Peace Kiguwa is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She works within the rubric of critical psychology, affective politics of gender and sexuality, racism and racialization and the nuances of teaching and learning. She has served as Chair of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychology Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and is currently an Executive Member of the PsySSA. She is a recent recipient of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Rising Star Fellowship at Wits University and is the current lead researcher on the African Futures project as part of the Fellowship.
 
Professor Floretta Boonzaier
Decoloniality and Methodology
University of Cape Town
Floretta Boonzaier is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town, and co-Director of the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa. She is noted for her work in feminist, critical and postcolonial psychologies, research on subjectivity in relation to race, gender and sexuality, work on gendered and sexual violence, and decolonial research methodologies. She was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology in Society (PINS) from 2018 to 2021. She is a past UCT Mandela Fellow at the Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research at Harvard University. She is currently President of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA). In addition to several authored/edited books, her most recent publication is the co-authored book, Pan-Africanism and Psychology in Decolonial Times (Palgrave Macmillan, in press).
 
- Author Dr Jarred Martin, Department of Psychology, UP

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