Camalita Naicker holds an MA in Political Studies from Rhodes University where she was a research student at the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (Uhuru). Part of her MA and PhD, course work was conducted at the Centre for African Studies (UCT) and the Centre for Political Studies (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) respectively. She believes in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of history and also holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree and an Honours in African Languages from Rhodes University.

Her current doctoral research in historical studies is titled: The Afterlives of Marikana in South African popular politics.

Research Interests and Areas of Supervision:

  • Histories of migration, labour, trade unionism and popular politics in South Africa

Select publications:

Journal Articles

  • Unpacking the role of women in community struggles. South African Labour Bulletin. July/August. 2018.
  • The Languages of Xenophobia in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Reviewing Migrancy, Foreignness and Solidarity. Agenda. Volume 30, No.2 Pp46 -60. 2016.
  • Broadening Conceptions of Democracy and Citizenship: The Subaltern Histories of Rural Resistance in Mpondoland and Marikana. (with Sarah Bruchhausen. Journal of Contemporary African Studies. Volume 34, No. 2. 2016. Pp, 388-403
  • #feesmustfall: The praxis of popular politics in South Africa. Urbanisation. Vol. 1.  No.1. 2016. Pp. 53-61
  • The Politics of Specificity: Marikana and the Subaltern, Economic and Political Weekly. Volume, L. No24. 2015. Pp, 99-107.
  • Worker Struggles as Community Struggles: The Politics of Protest in Nkaneng, Marikana, Journal of African and Asian Studies. Volume, 51, No.2. 2016. Pp. 157-170.

Book Chapters

  • “Broadening Conceptions of Democracy and Citizenship: The Subaltern Histories of   Rural Resistance in Mpondoland and Marikana” in Land Reform Revisited: Democracy, State Making and Agrarian Transformation in Post Apartheid South Africa. Ed. Femke Brandt and Grascian Mkodzongi. Brill Press: Leiden. 2018. Pp. 15-37.
  • The Politics of Representation in Marikana: A tale of competing ideologies, in Lesley Cowling and Carolyn Hamilton (ed), Babel Unbound. 2020. Pg. 183 – 215
  • Rethinking the Histories of Trade Unionism and Labour in South Africa, in Dan Magaziner (ed) Oxford Handbook of South African History. (Forthcoming).

Other Publications