Postdoctoral Fellow Seminar: Theorising Community Engagement in Higher Education: Transcontinental Lens

The Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs will host a seminar titled: Theorising Community Engagement in Higher Education: Transcontinental Lens

Abstract

Globally, Higher education institutions (HEIs) are being called upon to respond to structural inequalities and to create alliances that are not limited to the campus. In settings like South Africa, where apartheid legacies still define entry and access, Universities cannot merely increase participation; they need to involve communities as co-producers of knowledge and meaningful contributors to community-based practice. In 1996, following South Africa’s transition into democracy, Community engagement was framed as a democratic imperative. Universities were called upon to move beyond the confines of the ivory tower and actively participate in societal change and drive transformation. This seminar responds to the growing discourse of the role of universities in advancing social justice through community engagement, which has evolved to scholarship of engagement. Building on my dual PhD experiences and scholarly research with Vrije University in Amsterdam and the University of the Free State, South Africa, the discussion will theorise how engagement is framed to bridge the gap between practice and theory. Drawing from Boyer’s foundational work, it emphasises that universities must contribute meaningfully to the public good. We ask questions about what it means for our universities to integrate discovery, application, teaching, and learning, as well as community engagement, in their day-to-day business. Join me, together with co-presenters David Letsoalo (UNISA) and Prof Ida Sabelis, as we seek to explore a nuanced understanding of scholarship of engagement across local and global contexts.

The seminar will:

• Dissect how universities globally and in South Africa theorise, apply, and adapt to the scholarship of engagement, particularly using the case study of UFS.
• Repositioning universities as co-creators of knowledge and not gatekeepers. Exemplified by Unisa forming reciprocal and mutually beneficial community partnerships, thus breaking down the knowledge hierarchy.
• Explore how Vrije University Amsterdam centres communities as equal partners in innovation, teaching, and research. Thus, building transdisciplinary bridges across institutions, sectors, and borders.
• Challenge academia to embrace African epistemologies and lived experiences, which consequently expose invisible power dynamics that may have the potential to hinder the transformation mandate.
• Encourage praxis-oriented engagement that is consciously reflective and action-driven, not just applying theory to practice but allowing practice to challenge, shape, and even transform theory to foster transformative learning and social change.

SPEAKER’S BIO:

Dr Busisiwe Octavia Ntsele is a first-generation interdisciplinary scholar specializing in sociology, community engagement, and public history. Born in Ticantfwini, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Law (University of Eswatini), a BA Honors in Industrial Sociology (University of Johannesburg), and an MA in International Human Rights Law (University of the Witwatersrand). She is a recipient of the Desmond Tutu Fellowship; in 2024, she completed a dual PhD (between the University of the Free State (UFS) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). Her research critically examined community engagement in South African universities, focusing on decolonizing education and promoting epistemic justice through collaborative community partnerships and challenging invisible power dynamics. Currently, Dr. Ntsele is a postdoctoral fellow at Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs (TM-School) at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where she actively advances her research agenda in engaged scholarship integrating public culture.