Dr Antoinette Damant

I have been a permanent lecturer in the discipline of Social Justice Education at UKZN’s School of Education in Durban since 2001. The focus of my work is facilitating critical self-reflection in educational practitioners in the areas of diversity, inclusion and social justice, specifically interrogating all issues and identities related to ‘othering’ and the subordination and mistreatment of one social group at the hands of another. I take my role as a transformative agent to heart, and feel responsible for nurturing a vision that takes the project of human liberation and social justice seriously. This involves recognising and disrupting injustices in the hope of developing a world free of prejudice, discrimination and oppression.

 

I encourage my students to consider the ways in which their socialization influences their personal and professional identities, through the use of various visual arts-based methodologies as tools for developing self-reflexivity as part of personal and professional transformation and social awareness. I cannot expect my students to embark on this without engaging in the same critical reflection and am aware of the need to acknowledge and interrogate the issue of power relations and how these inform aspects of my identity formation and engage in constant critical interrogation of my own placed identity.  My research, writings and community engagement highlight voices that have been previously silenced and ignored and reflect journeys of transformation towards inclusion and liberation.