Social Work Academic Wins Prestigious Awards at ICOSS Conference

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Social Work lecturer, Dr Sibonsile Zibane received awards for Best Overall Presentation and Session’s Best Presentation at the 6th International Conference on Social Sciences (ICOSS) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Zibane also walked away with four certificates, two gold medals and gold club membership of The International Institute of Knowledge Management.

‘Being recognised at an international platform is a real honour and it feels absolutely amazing,’ she said.

Her award-winning research paper that was presented at the conference explored the ways in which boys and girls construct their gender and sexuality, focusing on the games boys play as an instantiation of violent masculine conduct.

‘Violence in or around South African schools has been increasingly reported by the media as one of the biggest challenges facing young people in South Africa today,’ said Zibane.

Framed within a feminist paradigm, her research shows how boys use and deploy violent gender relations which are masked as games. ‘Such invisible acts of violence are not reported and continue to feature in the everyday life of school under the guise of play,’ said Zibane.

She argues for interventions that seek to understand the game cultures of schools as important sites for the making of violent masculinities and to address the hidden nature of the violence within them.

Words: Melissa Mungroo

Photograph: Supplied