New student activism after Apartheid: the case of Open Stellenbosch

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis considers recent student activism in post-apartheid South Africa by paying attention to Open Stellenbosch, a black-led student movement at Stellenbosch University. By using data collected from the beginning of 2015 to mid-2016 from Facebook and Twitter feeds, interviews, and participant observation in protest action, I show how such movements articulate feelings of alienation and concerns around fees, thereby drawing attention to the contradictions and unfulfilled promises of both South Africa's higher education and of the new democratic dispensation. Furthermore, I argue that although Open Stellenbosch can be located within a broader history of student activism, such activism can be thought of in new ways because of the way in which student experiences and grievances are represented. Through this work I draw attention to the student activist as an intellectual, investigating the use of social media by such movements. I finally engage the decline of Open Stellenbosch, arguing that multiple factors such as institutional repression have been key in the demise of the movement. Looking beyond 2015-6, I conclude that the use of social media, unresolved student grievances, pockets of conscientised students on campus, as well as a growing black women leadership in the student body suggests the possibility of student activism re-emerging in the future.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University