Top Published Women Researchers hail from College of Humanities

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Feminist Anthropologist from the School of Social Sciences, Dr Maheshvari Naidu, and Professor Sarah Bansilal of the School of Education, are on the list of the Top 30 published academics at UKZN for 2015 while Naidu is also the Top Published Woman in Humanities.

Assessing her success, Naidu said: ‘For me this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase researchers and the kind of research done in Humanities and Social Sciences which combine to be a powerful actor and resource in terms of potentially contributing to knowledge production and knowledge economies that link to issues with real world societal and global concerns.’

Bansilal added: ‘Being a former mathematics teacher, it is natural that my research is focused mainly on the teaching and learning of the subject. I enjoy interacting with students and I am happy that my hard work has been rewarded.’

In 2014, Naidu was the Top Published woman at UKZN and third overall. This is the fifth time that Naidu has been on the UKZN Top 30 list.

In 2012, Naidu was declared the Top Emerging Researcher in Humanities for research excellence and in 2013, she was the national winner in one of the categories in the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Women in Science (WISA) Awards. Naidu received her NRF rating in 2014.

Naidu whose research focus is Women and Gender, is widely published and has acted as guest editor for accredited national and international journals. She also sits on the board of the prestigious national journal, Anthropology Southern Africa.

Naidu has been invited to deliver keynote addresses and public lectures, seminars and workshops in Italy, Malaysia, UAE and Mauritius. In September, she will attend the University of Botswana as a guest of the African Gender Institute for their annual inter-institutional meeting where she will discuss her collaboration in the Young University Women’s Project. Later in the year she will present a workshop and give a public lecture at the University of Seychelles.

As one of the recently appointed Community Engagement coordinators in the School of Social Sciences, she believes community engagement can be effectively linked to research contexts as well as research productivity.

‘Community engagement specifically encourages knowledge-driven partnerships that yield mutually beneficial outcomes for the university and the community. By its very nature, engagement is influenced by the alignment of university strengths and community contexts.

‘Increasingly and internationally, community engagement is recognised as a core responsibility of Higher Education. Thus, engagement is a potentially positive force for enhancing and increasing overall research productivity as well as student learning outcomes within the context of curriculum,’ she said.

Melissa Mungroo