Dr Zuziwe Msomi

Zuziwe Msomi

Zuziwe Msomi is a lecturer in the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape.Her research interests include whiteness studies, the legal protection of indigenous knowledge, language, discourse analysis, the constructions and deployment of race, higher education, privilege, and inequality. Her areas of research share the common threads of domination, oppression, and agency. In the first case (i.e MA), in terms of the law can be both limited and useful to protecting commonly held indigenous knowledge; and in the latter (i.e PhD), in discovering what talk does in terms of holding onto or challenging a status quo which may privilege some but not others.

Biography:
The PhD focuses on what discursive strategies are used in describing ‘raced’ experiences, and whether the discursive strategies either challenge or reinforce a culture of whiteness. All human beings organise their talk in particular ways to achieve specific ends, whether it be to order coffee right through to protecting privilege. 

Both the Masters and the PhD share the common threads of domination, oppression and agency. In the first case, in terms of the law can be both limited and useful to protecting commonly held indigenous knowledge; and in the latter, in discovering what talk does in terms of holding onto or challenging a status quo which may privilege some but not others.