A workshop with staff and student leadership in the Faculty on ‘intersections for healing work’ will initiate engagement on key sub-themes identified for transforming the Faculty. So says Associate Professor Elelwani Ramugondo, chair of the Dean’s Transformation Advisory Committee (DTAC), established by Interim Dean Prof Gregory Hussey to spearhead faculty-wide conversations on transformation.

Tasked with promoting dialogue on transformation amongst all constituencies in the Faculty, the committee was established on the 6th of May following the Special Faculty Assembly held on the 15th April 2015.

 

 

 

“We have organised a two hour workshop, to which staff as well as  under- and postgraduate student leadership have been invited. We will explore the significance of a shared commonality as we individually and collectively re-imagine possible points of intersection in the Faculty, firstly, in our positions across respective professions and disciplines, and secondly, in our identities as healers,” says Ramugondo.  The ways in which intersectionality finds expression within the Health Sciences Faculty was pertinent in what students and staff shared at the Faculty Assembly, she explains.

 

 

 She suggests some sub-themes reflect where intersections may be a point of coming together in the faculty in order to converse, listen, reflect and act in ways that advance healing work and sustained transformation. These include:  black pain & white privilege; challenging patriarchy; challenging heteronomy; challenging ableism ; post-colonial theory, consciousness & health; contextually situated practices; arts, play and health; intergenerational perspectives; indigenous and Western medicine; and understanding violence.

Ramogondo is looking for champions in the Faculty to spearhead these sub-themes, embedded in research, teaching and practice.

 

 

“Discussions should lead to a possible review of our definition of transformation in the Faculty, as well as ideas about how to monitor and evaluate ourselves in relation to these sub-themes and other relevant targets as we advance transformation,” she says.

 

 

Open workshops with stakeholders are also planned for future conversations.