Morgenie Pillay, the Andrew Mellon lecturer in the department of politics and international studies at one of my old stomping grounds, Rhodes University, and a visiting doctoral research scholar at the London School of Economics asks (and tries to answer) an important question in The Mail & Guardian: “Why are there so few up-and-coming new career black academics at South African institutions?”
Her answers (and the question is legitimate — according to South African statistics (2004/05) 69.8% of the master's/doctoral degrees in the country are held by whites) ? Funding, opportunity, and of course racism, either latent or covert. There may be additional factors at work as well. For example, for high-talent strivers, academia might not seem as lucrative as the private sector or as significant as government. Another answer might be that South Africa is still dealing with the lag time of the PhD process. It takes a long time to earn a PhD. Perhaps those students still in the pipeline will help close the gap. A final possibility is that the gap may well be closing. I’d be curious to know the percantages among adcademics who were black in 1987 and 1997 to get a sense of change over time. Nonetheless, Pillay has identified a significant gap that South Africa's universities in particular must address.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
