http://hdl.handle.net/11189/491 Fri, 16 Oct 2026 01:13:18 GMT 2026-10-16T01:13:18Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10934 Title: Immanent and diffractive critique for higher education practices Authors: Bozalek, Vivienne; ROMANO, NIKE Abstract: This paper explores how the concepts of immanence and diffraction might generate alternative critical practices in higher education. Expanding on our previous paper entitled ‘Immanent critique and diffractive reading’ [Bozalek, V., and N. Romano. 2023. Immanent and diffractive critique in scholarship and publication. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL) 11, no. si1: 1–18], we examine the resonances between immanence and diffraction to expand the discussion on why we believe that conventional notions of critique have ‘run out of steam’ [Latour, B. 2004. Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern. Critical inquiry 30, no. 2: 225–248]. While Cartesian metaphysics assumes the existence of discrete individual entities with inherent properties or characteristics, immanence and diffraction are based on a relational ontology in which entities, whether human, non-human or more-than-human, do not pre-exist, but come into being through relations. We think-with theorists who use a relational ontology and practice an immanent diffractive critique, to explore how criticality might materialise differently in academic practices. In particular, we focus on the conditions of possibility for immanent diffractive critique, how it is an affirmative response-able attunement and decolonising practice. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10934 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10933 Title: Affective oceanic seaswimming and encounters for care-full environmental communication Authors: Shefer, Tamara; Bozalek, Vivienne; ROMANO, NIKE Abstract: Our oceanic swimming practice began as part of the project of doing scholarship differently in contemporary South African post-apartheid contexts. Swimming-writing-reading not only enables different ways of doing inquiry but also prompts new ways of communicating environmental injustices as we face them in/with/through the ocean. We argue the value of this practice, and the writings we generate and share, for a rethinking and reframing of environmental communication through practices of care. “Slow swimming” in the ocean brings one into intimate, affecting encounters with the ocean and its multiplicities. Porous to fluid temporalities, oceanic swimming-writing-reading becomes a hauntological place-space-time-mattering practice of swimming as we become aware of sedimented crimes of slavery and colonization, and confront the ghosts of apartheid and colonial violence. As we meet disasters of present and future, polluted and violated seas, our affective relational watery encounters with more-than-human species sharpen our response-ability to and responsibility for anthropocentric damages to the ocean and planet. We suggest such practices of affective wit(h)nessing, relationality, and care as a productive resource for communicating current environmental challenges that are consequences of certain human hands, as well as our mutual entanglements and response-abilities on planet Earth. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10933 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10932 Title: “Stopped in the middle” with Elm,arie Costandius: playing with interruptions/continuities Authors: ROMANO, NIKE; Bozalek, Vivienne; Shefer, Tamara Abstract: This paper is written in memory of our friend and colleague, Elmarie Costandius, a visual artist and academic, whose untimely and unexpected death deeply affected us. While we had worked with Elmarie in various research projects, short courses, and workshops, over a period of ten years or so, in this article we refer to a series of encounters, in which we came together to explore a decolonial and post qualitative inquiry practice as part of a South African Swedish Universities Forum (SASUF) project (2020 - 2022). Entitled (Re)configuring Scholarship in Higher Education, the project focused on alternative ways of doing pedagogies and inquiry in the current context of higher education precarities and the consequent imperative for transformation. We wanted to explore how feminist new materialist imaginaries could be put to work with affective embodied practices to expand our thinking and reconfigure our scholarship. Guided by Elmarie’s experimental arts-based approach, we opened ourselves to the affordances of playfulness, creative, serious and experimental thinking-making-doings, and the vulnerabilities of these embodied, relational scholarly praxes. Stopped in the middle, we show how our entangled thinking-making-doings continue Elmarie’s legacy. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10932 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10897 Title: Detection of heavy metals and formaldehyde in fabric rolls usedA for manufacturing adult clothing Authors: MADUNA, LEBO; Nyamukamba, Pardon; Patnaik, Asis Abstract: Textile fabrics are treated with toxic heavy metals (e.g., lead, nickel, chromium, etc.) and chemicals like formaldehyde to impart certain desired fabric properties. If not removed from fabrics after application, they have been reported to cause diseases and discomfort. Because of these, it is important that the concentrations of heavy metals, formaldehyde, and pH levels in fabrics must meet the recommended limits. This study focuses on the determination and detection of metals and chemicals found in fabric rolls used to make clothing in South Africa. Heavy metal results showed that all fabrics contained heavy metals, except for brown polycotton fabric. The heavy metals concentrations in dark-blue polycotton fabric were higher than prescribed Oeko-Tex limits except for copper metal. White cotton, black polyester, and navy-blue wool fabrics exceeded the recommended limit for nickel. Chromium was found only in dark-blue polycotton and navy-blue wool fabric and its concentration exceeded the recommended limit only in dark-blue polycotton fabric whereas for navy-blue wool fabric it was below the limit. All fabrics contained formaldehyde, and its concentration was below the recommended limit. The pH of white cotton and black polyester fabrics was within the recommended range of 4 - 7.5 while that of dark-blue polycotton, brown polycotton, and dark-blue wool fabrics was above the limit. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10897 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z