Cheryl Stobie

Qualifications

BA Honours in English Studies (cum laude), University of Natal
MA in Women’s Studies (cum laude), University of Natal
PhD in English Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal
UED, University of Natal

Employment

Employed in English Studies, University of Natal and then University of KwaZulu-Natal, since 1985.

Positions and Honours

NRF-rated researcher 2009 to present.
Text, Human Rights and Pandemics: Being Human in Times of Contagion, with collaborators Profs Thabisani Ndlovu (group leader, WSU), Robert Muponde (Wits) and Irikidzayi Manase (UFS) (2020-2024).
Co-edited with Prof. Irikidzayi Manase (UFS) a special issue of Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 33,2 (2021), in honour of Prof. Michael Wessels.
Visiting scholar, STIAS: project Text, Human Rights and Pandemics: Being Human in Times of Contagion, with collaborators Profs Thabisani Ndlovu, Robert Muponde and Irikidzayi Manase (2020).
Edited a special issue of Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 32,2 (2020) on the theme of Precarity in South/African Literary Texts.
Principal investigator in NRF-funded project: Precarity in South/African Literary Texts (2018-2020). Co-investigators from UKZN and Wits.
Principal South African investigator in the South Africa Sweden University Forum (SASUF) collaboration Precarity and Conviviality: Towards a Politics of Rejuvenating Democracy (2018-2020) involving members from Malmö University, Uppsala University, UKZN, Stellenbosch University and UWC.
Invited to act as external reviewer of English department, UFS, 2019.
Invited to act as external reviewer of PhD programme in Theory of Literature, Unisa, 2018.
Edited a special issue of Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 29,2 on the theme of Facing the Future: Writing Transformation and Social Justice; appeared 2017.
Invited by Dr Michael Wessels to be a co-investigator in his NRF-funded project, Khoi and San Representation, 2012 to 2014.
Principal investigator of Spirituality and Sexuality in Texts project, supported by the NRF from 2010 to 2012.
Invited by Professor Michael Chapman to edit a special issue of Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa on the theme of spirituality and sexuality in texts, which appeared in 2012.
Invited by Professor Duncan Brown to participate in 2007-2010 partnership project, “Religion and Spirituality in a Postcolonial Context,” including members from South Africa, Botswana, India and the United Kingdom.
Member of Challenging Precarity: A Global Network, Postcolonial Studies Association, the English Academy (South Africa), SAACLALS (South African Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies), EACLALS (European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies), ANFASA (Academic and Non-fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa).
Principal investigator of NRF-funded project: “Shedding Skins”, 2007-2008. This project examined the complex literary, personal and social effects associated with representations of consciously re-shaped selves in post-apartheid South African writing.
In 2006 invited to join editorial team of major journal, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, established 1987.
NRF funding awarded 2004-2005 for Bisexualities in South African literature project.

Peer-reviewed

Publications

Books

Peer-Reviewed Articles in Journals

Chapters in Books

Critical Reviews of Books

Encyclopedia Entries

Editorials

Books

Peer-Reviewed Articles in Journals

Chapters in Books

Critical Reviews of Books

Encyclopedia Entries

Editorials

Papers Presented at Conferences

2021. “Text, Pandemics, Human Rights: Imagining Identity in the Changed World of Lauren Beukes’s Afterland”, for Transcultural Mo(ve)ments: Memories, Writings, Embodiments, 17th Triennial Conference EACLALS, online but hosted by Cardiff University, June 28-30.
2020. “‘Only connect!’ Reading Precarity and Conviviality in Novels”, for panel Conviviality, Precarity and Creolisation: Results and Reflections, with Prof. Oscar Hemer and Natasha Verco (Malmö University), on 25 November. Part of SASUF Goes Digital online conference.
2020. “Imagining Transgender in the Changed World of Lauren Beukes’s Afterland”, for panel Text, Human Rights and Pandemics: Being Human in Times of Contagion, on 17 November, with other visiting scholars at STIAS (Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study): Profs Thabisani Ndlovu (WSU), Robert Muponde (Wits) and Irikidzayi Manase (UFS).
2019. “The Intimate Strangeness of Tongues and Wings: Precarity and Conviviality in The Book of Malachi by T.C. Farren and The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu”, for panel “Precarity and Conviviality in Literature and Film”, at symposium 20 September. The symposium is a collaboration between the Rethinking Democracy research platform (REDEM), the South Africa–Sweden University Forum (SASUF) and the Communication for Development MA programme (ComDev) at Malmö University.
2019. “Precarity, Poverty Porn and Vernacular Cosmopolitanism in Two Southern African Novels”, for ACLALS triennial conference, “The Uncommon Commonwealth”, University of Auckland, 15-19 July.
2019. “Breaking the Chains of Slavery: Precarity, the Personal and the Political in Nkosinathi Sithole’s Hunger Eats a Man”, English Studies staff/student seminar series, Centre for African Literary Studies, Pietermaritzburg, 28 March.
2019. “Breaking the Chains of Slavery: Precarity, the Personal and the Political in Nkosinathi Sithole’s Hunger Eats a Man”, featured speaker at SASUF (South Africa – Sweden University Forum) project: Precarity and Conviviality: Towards a Project of Rejuvenating Democracy, Stellenbosch University, 13 March.
2018. “Breaking the Chains of Slavery: Precarity, the Personal and the Political in Nkosinathi Sithole’s Hunger Eats a Man”, for 1st International Conference on Precarity, Populism and Post-Truth Politics, University of Córdoba, Spain, 1-3 February.
2017. “Charms, Blessings and Compromises in Sweet Medicine: Black Women’s Bodies and Decolonisation in Southern Africa”, for 19th International Conference of the English Academy of Southern Africa, “Decolonial Turns, Postcolonial Shifts and Cultural Connections”, Granger Bay Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, 6-8 September.
2017. “Charms, Blessings and Compromises in Sweet Medicine: Black Women’s Bodies and Decolonisation in Southern Africa”, for 16th EACLALS triennial conference, “Performing the Urban: Embodiments, Inventories, Rhythms”, University of Oviedo, 3-7 April.
2016. “Re-tailoring Can Themba’s ‘The Suit’: Queer Temporalities in Two Stories by Makhosazana Xaba”, for ACLALS triennial conference, “‘Stories that float from afar’: The Idea of Postcolonial Culture: Inclusions and Exclusions”, Stellenbosch University, 11-15 July.
2015. “Longing and Belonging: Emancipation Moments and Ubuntu in Claire Robertson’s The Spiral House”, for “Longing and Belonging”: ENCLS/REELC 6th Biennial Congress, Dublin City University and National University of Ireland, Galway, 24-28 August, in partnership with the Comparative Literature Association of Ireland.
2015. “Longing and Belonging: Emancipation Moments and Ubuntu in Claire Robertson’s The Spiral House”, paper presented for English Studies Seminar Series, CALS, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 15 May. Invited by Prof. Mbongeni Malaba.
2015. “Emancipation Moments and Ubuntu in Claire Robertson’s The Spiral House”, for “Human Rights, Justice, Media and Culture”: The Fifth Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS2015), Art Center of Kobe, Kobe, Japan, 28-31 May.
2014. “‘She Who Creates Havoc Is Here’: Bisexuality, Dance and Social Critique in Karmen Geï”, for “Figuring the Queer in African Literatures and Cultures” conference at Stanhope Hall, Princeton University, USA, 12-14 December. Invited by Prof. Wendy Belcher.
2014. “Black Diamonds and the Meeting of Her Thighs: Representations of Wealth, Corruption and Women’s Sexuality in Two African Texts”, for the 15^th EACLALS Triennial International Conference, “Uncommon Wealths: Riches and Realities”, organised by Prof. Helga Ramsey-Kurz, Innsbruck, 14-18 April.
2014. “Diamonds at the Meeting of Her Thighs: Representations of Women’s Sexuality in Two African Films Based on the Carmen Story”, for third biennial Sexuality Studies conference, “Self, Selves and Sexualities”, organised by Dr Mel Duffy and Mr Jean-Philippe Imbert, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, 14-15 March.
2013. Invited plenary paper, “‘The devil slapped on the genitals’: Religion and Spirituality in Queer South Africans’ Lives”, as part of first North-West University seminar series on diversity, “Speak Out”, Potchefstroom, 2 October.
2013. “Siblings and Singing Bones and Reeds”, for English Studies staff and student seminar series, CALS, Pietermaritzburg, 22 August.
2013. “Religion and Spirituality in Queer South Africans’ Lives”, as part of my NRF-funded project, “Spirituality and Sexuality in Texts”, for ACLALS conference, “‘The current unbroken/the circuits kept open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth”, St Lucia, West Indies, 5-9 August.
2013. “Siblings and Singing Bones and Reeds”, “Khoi and San Representation” conference organised by Dr Michael Wessels, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 19-21 April.
2012. “‘The guilt of men’: Re-visioning the Virgin Birth in Thando Mgqolozana’s Hear Me Alone”, as part of my NRF-funded project, “Spirituality and Sexuality in Texts”, in Postcolonial Literature panel, 16^th Biennial Conference for the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture (ISRLC), Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-21 October.
2012. “‘The devil slapped on the genitals’: Religion and Spirituality in Queer South Africans’ Lives”, as part of my NRF-funded project, “Spirituality and Sexuality in Texts”, for second biennial Sexuality Studies conference, “Self, Selves and Sexualities”, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, 8-10 March.
2011. “‘The Crossroads of Desire’: Love, Sex and the Spiritual in The Twyborn Affair”, “Love, Sex, Desire and the (Post)colonial” conference organised by Mark Mathuray, Lucienne Loh and Wendy Knepper, Senate House, University of London, 28-9 October.
2011. “Teaching Difference: Spirituality and Sexuality in Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair”, as part of a panel based on my NRF-funded project, “Spirituality and Sexuality in Texts”, for AUETSA conference, “‘What we talk about when we talk about English’: The Nature and Value of Literary Studies in South Africa”, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 13-15 July.
2011. “Dystopian Dreams from South Africa: Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland and Zoo City”, for Professor Chantal Zabus’s International Conference, on topic of “Future Postcolonialisms: Comparing, Converting, Queering, Greening”, Paris, 27-28 May.
2011. “Re-constructing the ‘Outcast-initiate’ in Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair”, EACLALS International Conference: “Under Construction: Gateways and Walls”, Istanbul, Turkey, 26-30 April.
2011. Colloquium paper, “Dirty Alien Shadow Selves: Synthetic Dirt in District 9”, “Synthetic Dirt” colloquium organised by Ashraf Jamal and Rat Western, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 16-17 April.
2010. “Trans-theology, Transnationalism and the Transgendered Madonna in Chris Abani’s The Virgin of Flames” for Duncan Brown’s Religion and Spiritualities conference, Zandberg Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, 29-31 October 2010.
2010. “The Transgendered Madonna in Chris Abani’s The Virgin of Flames”, paper presented at seminar series, School of Literature and Language Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 22 September (invited by Professor Gerald Gaylard).
2010. “The Transgendered Madonna in Chris Abani’s The Virgin of Flames”, paper presented at “Strokes Across Cultures”, The 15th Triennial ACLALS Conference, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, 6-11 June.
2010. “‘He uses my body’: Female Traditional Healers, Male Ancestors and Transgender in South Africa”, paper presented at “Self, Selves and Sexualities” international conference, Dublin City University, Ireland, 19-20 March.
2009. “‘He uses my body’: Female Traditional Healers, Male Ancestors and Transgender in South Africa”, paper presented for English Studies Seminar Series, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 15 October.
2009. “The Infallible Father and the Transcendent Madonna in Purple Hibiscus and The Virgin of Flames”, workshop paper outlining proposed contribution to “Religion, Spirituality and Postcolonialism: A Perspective from the South” project. Centre for African Literary Studies, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 29-30 May.
2009. “‘He uses my body’: Female Traditional Healers, Male Ancestors and Transgender in South Africa”, “Transgenders: New Identities and Visibilities” International Conference, University of Paris and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), 22-23 May.
2009. “‘He uses my body’: Boundary-crossing in Nkunzi Zandile Nkabinde’s Black Bull, Ancestors and Me: My Life as a Lesbian Sangoma”, Boundaries Project Workshop, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, 12-13 March.
2008. “Ruth in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat”, “Breaking the Norms: Reception, Transformation and Transgression in Religion, Literature and Culture”, the 14th Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture. Aarhus University, Denmark, 17-19 October.
2008. “Sisters and Spirits: A Feminist Postcolonialist Comparison of Angelina N. Sithebe’s Holy Hill and Karen Armstrong’s The Spiral Staircase”, workshop on “Religion and Spirituality in a Postcolonial Context”, Centre for African Literary Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 8-9 August.
2008. “Ruth in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat”, “Try Freedom”: European Association for Commonwealth Literary and Language Studies Triennial Conference, Venice International University, 25-29 March.
2008. Workshop paper outlining proposed contribution to “Religion, Spirituality and Postcolonialism: A Perspective from the South” project, Centre for African Literary Studies, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 4-5 February.
2007. “‘Unfussy’ Lives: Reading Brenda Fassie and Bisexuality in Post-Apartheid South Africa”, workshop on “Gender, Culture and Society: Instruments for Change, Patterns of Resistance” co-hosted by Zentrum Gender Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland, and the Centre for Gender Studies, UKZN, Durban.
2007. “Dethroning the Infallible Father: Religion, Patriarchy and Politics in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus”, “Literature For Our Times”: Association for Commonwealth Literary and Language Studies 14th Triennial International Conference. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 17-22 August.
2007. “Worlds, Texts, Critics: Ruth in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat”, “Worlds, Texts, Critics”: Association of University English Teachers of Southern Africa/Southern African Association for Commonwealth Literary and Language Studies/South African Society for General Literary Studies (AUETSA/SAACLALS/SAVAL) conference. UKZN, Durban, 8-11 July.
2007. “Speaking with Our Spirits: The Representation of Religion in Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat”, “Religion and Spirituality in a Postcolonial Context” Colloquium. Centre for African Literary Studies, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, 29-31 January.

Teaching

Since 1985, during my employment at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and its predecessor, the University of Natal, I have taught across the gamut of levels and over a range of topics. For the last 10 years my focus has been on postgraduate study: I have acted as postgraduate co-ordinator of the English programme; convened the School of Literary Studies, Media, and Creative Arts Higher Degrees committee; and participated in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences Higher Degrees committee, and since 2013 the School of Arts Higher Degrees committee. In the last 13 years I have lectured on three Honours/MA modules, which reflect my current intellectual interests: Constructions of Self and Nation, Mediating South/African Identities, and Countercultures. The theoretical concepts which underpin these modules include postcolonialism, gender studies, sexuality, spirituality and alterity. In the past I have also taught courses at the postgraduate level on topics including Medieval Literature and Myths and Realities: Women’s Writing and Criticism. I have also lectured in the methodology of English teaching as part of the Higher Diploma in Education (HDE) course.
I have taught extensively at all levels. I have participated in first year teaching, designed to foster close reading skills, literary analysis, and writing coherent essays. I have taught courses on gender studies and literature at second-year level. I currently teach a third-year module, Narratives of Gender, Place and Culture, which focuses on the representation of cultural crises in specific contexts, and investigates how “home” and concentric rings of belonging are spatially depicted. I have also conducted a third-year module on the work of Patrick White.
In addition, I have lectured at various levels on a range of authors, including John Donne, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Scott Fitzgerald, Hart Crane, Joseph Heller, Adrienne Rich, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Marge Piercy, Toni Morrison, Phaswane Mpe, Shani Mootoo, Phaswane Mpe, Chris Abani, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Lauren Beukes. Selected films are also included in my modules.

Postgraduate

Supervision

Completed Postgraduate Projects (year of graduation ceremony given)

2021. Kimméra Pillay, PhD. “Wifely Submission and Filial Obedience: Patriarchal Subjugation of Women and Children and Strategies of Resistance in Selected Literary Texts Set in Africa.”
2020. Kyle Allan. MA by dissertation. “Witness to Everything: Representations of Precarity in Selected Works of Four South African Poets”.
2020. Natasha Chundhur. Creative writing MA by dissertation. “When Sita Met Belle: An Indian Woman Finds her Voice through Re-visioning Fairy Tales”.
2020. Lynne Clarke. MA by dissertation. “Women’s Voices, Precarity, and Commercialism in Selected Dystopian South African Fiction”, awarded cum laude.
2020. Damian van Selm. MA by dissertation. “Representations of Masculinity in Selected Novels with South African Settings by Bryce Courtenay”.
2018. Samiksha Laltha, PhD, “The Rebel Hero and Social Anxieties in Selected Cinematic Representations of the Twenty-first Century Hollywood Dystopian and Science Fiction Imaginary”.
2018. Kimméra Naidoo, MA by dissertation, “‘Name Rhymes with Shame’: Representations of Migrant Women Protagonists in Selected African Texts”.
2017. Janet van Eeden Harrison, PhD in English Studies, “Beyond the Biopic: An Exploration into the Nature of Literary Biography through the Medium of Film”.
2017. Faye Spencer, PhD in Fine Arts (co-supervision), “Narratives of Departure: A Body of Art and Literary Work Accompanied by a Theoretical Enquiry into the Process and Methodology of their Production”.
2017. Samantha Schreiner, MA by dissertation, “‘A Hot Thing’: Representations of Slavery, Identity, Naming and Mothering Violence in Selected Toni Morrison Texts”, awarded in the first class.
2016. Cathryne Cherop, MA by dissertation, “Liberating the Potential of Kenyan Women in Margaret Ogola’s Novels: The River and the Source, Place of Destiny and I Swear by Apollo”.
2016. Paige Frankson, MA by dissertation, “People out of Place: Emotional Geography, Postmodern Identity and Gender in Three Contemporary Japanese Texts”, awarded in the first class.
2016. Michelle Naudé, MA by dissertation, “Exploring the Role of Gender in the Depiction of Utopia in Selected Novels”, awarded cum laude.
2016. Tracy Webb, MA by dissertation, “Making the Journey: The Female Bildungsroman and Quest Motifs in Selected Margaret Atwood Texts”, awarded cum laude.
2016. Robyn Wilkinson, MA by dissertation, “Representations of Gender and Sexuality in the Key Characters of Lauren Beukes’s Interstitial Fiction”, awarded in the first class.
2015. Jean Rossmann, PhD, “Orion, Ram’s Horn and Labyrinth: Quest and Creativity in Marlene van Niekerk’s Triomf, Agaat and Memorandum”.
2015. Samiksha Laltha, MA by dissertation, “Diasporic Identities, Divine Presences and the Dynamics of Power in Deepa Mehta’s Filmography (1996-2008)”.
2015. Amy Galbraith, MA by dissertation, “Being the ‘Bull Goose’: Masculinity, Male Relationships and Fatherhood in Times of Crisis”.
2013. Barrington Marais, MA by dissertation, “Queering Ubuntu: The Self and Other in South African Queer Autobiography”, awarded cum laude.
2013. Stacey Kaye, MA by dissertation, “‘What it is to be a man’: Beyond Stereotypes of African American Masculine Identities in Selected Works by Toni Morrison”.
2012. Khaya Gqibitole, PhD, “Creativity or Control? A Study of Selected Xhosa Radio Plays in the Apartheid Years”.
2012. Stuart Thomas, MA by dissertation, “This Land is Us: Aspects of the Plaasroman and Hospitality in Five Post-apartheid Karoo Novels”, awarded cum laude.
2012. Matthew Beetar, MA by dissertation, “From Homo to Pomo: ‘Gay Identity’ Amongst Young White Men in Contemporary South Africa”, awarded cum laude.
2011. Joanna Wright, MA by coursework and dissertation (co-supervision), “Memory, Monuments and the National Imaginary in Post-apartheid South Africa: Ivan Vladislavic’s Propaganda by Monuments and Other Stories and the Constitution Hill Complex”, awarded cum laude.
Dr Michael Wessels, postdoctoral fellow under my supervision 2009-2010, published a monograph, Bushman Letters: Interpreting /Xam Narratives with Wits University Press as well as four articles during the time of his postdoctoral work.
2010. Avershree Maistry, MA by coursework and dissertation, “The Multicultural Traveller: Representations of Indian Female Identity in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice”.
2009. Ruth Choveaux, MA by dissertation, “Multiple Belongings: Zoë Wicomb’s Literary Conceptualisations of Coloured Women”, awarded cum laude.
2009. Sita Moyo, MA by coursework and dissertation, “The Desiring Gaze in the Photographic Art of Kathryn Smith, Zanele Muholi and Sita Moyo”.
2008. Kim Swinstead, MA by coursework and dissertation, “Toy(ed) Soldiers: Constructions of White Adolescent Masculinity in Mark Behr’s Narratives”.
2007. Jean Rossmann, MA by dissertation, “A Study of Intertextuality, Intimacy and Place in Barbara Adair’s In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot”, awarded summa cum laude.
2006. Karen Bruce, MA by dissertation, “‘When It Changed’: Utopian/Dystopian Fiction and Second Wave Feminism”, awarded a distinction.
2001. Clare Landon, MA by coursework and dissertation, “India and Pakistan through Eastern and Western Eyes: Women’s Autobiographical Writing in Colonial and Post-colonial India and Pakistan”.

Dissertations and Theses Examined

2021. External examiner MA in Theory of Literature, Unisa. Mrs Omotola Temitayo Adeyelure’s “Transgressive Space and Body in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah and Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime.” Supervisor Dr Alwyn Roux.
2021. Internal examiner MA in English Studies, UKZN (Howard College campus). Ms Lavasha Naidoo’s “Representations of Home, Dislocation, and Nostalgia in Select Contemporary South African Novels.” Supervisor Prof. Ileana Dimitriu.
2021. External examiner MA in Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University. “Queer as Africa: Representations of Queer Lives in Selected Nigerian, Kenyan and South African Literature and Film.” Supervisor Dr Deborah Seddon.
2019. External examiner Doctor of Literature and Philosophy in Theory of Literature, Unisa, Dr Janice Robertson’s “At the Crossing-Places: Representations of Masculinity in Selected 21st Century Children’s Texts.” Supervisor Dr Richard Alan Northover.
2017. External examiner D Litt et Phil in Theory of Literature Unisa. Mr AM Mate’s “Interrogating Masculinity in Selected Kenyan Popular Fiction.” Supervisor Dr Richard Alan Northover.
2016. Internal examiner MA dissertation UKZN (Pmb). Bernice Borain’s “Charles Mungoshi’s Contribution to our Understanding of Female Tragedy in a Zimbabwean Context.” Supervisor Prof. Mbongeni Malaba.
2015. Internal examiner MA dissertation UKZN (HC). Natasha King’s “Bodylands: Inscriptions of the Body and Embodiment in the Novels of Lauren Beukes.” Supervisors Prof. Ileana Dimitriu and Prof. Corinne Sandwith (UP).
2015. External examiner PhD thesis Stellenbosch University. Bernard Fortuin’s “Institutionalised Homosexuality in South Africa: Queering Same-sex Desire.” Supervisor Prof. Shaun Viljoen.
2013. Internal examiner full MA dissertation UKZN (Howard College). Fiona McGuigan’s “Gendered Geographies and the Politics of Place: A Comparative Reading of the Novels of Mariama Bâ and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie”. Supervisor Dr Corinne Sandwith.
2011. External examiner full MA dissertation, Rhodes University. Jenna Collett’s “‘I want to tell the story again’: A Study of Re-telling in Four Selected Novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner”. Supervisor Dr Deborah Seddon.
2011. External examiner full MA dissertation, University of Johannesburg. Andrew Carolin’s “Archiving Representations of Same-Sex Male Subjectivities in Post-transitional South African Fiction”. Supervisor Dr Ronit Frenkel.
2010. Internal examiner PhD thesis UKZN (HC). Zoë Molver’s “Guerilla, Artist, Writer: Harold Strachan in Context”. Supervisor Prof. Lindy Stiebel.
2010. External examiner full MA dissertation, Stellenbosch. J. Rees’s “Masculinity and Sexuality in South African Border War Literature”. Texts: The Smell of Apples, Ice in the Lungs and Moffie. Supervisor Dr Shaun Viljoen.
2008. External examiner full MA dissertation Unisa: Miss J. Goodwill’s “The Action Hero Revisioned: An Analysis of Female ‘Masculinity’ in the New Filmic Hero in Recent Filmic Texts”. Supervisor Prof. Deirdre Byrne.
2007. Internal examiner full MA dissertation UKZN: Claire Scott’s “‘How Do I Understand Myself in this Text-tortured Land?’ Identity, Belonging and Textuality in Antjie Krog’s A Change of Tongue, Down to My Last Skin and Body Bereft” (English Studies). Supervisor Prof. Duncan Brown.
2007. Internal examiner full MA dissertation UKZN: Morwenna Bosch’s “Telling Tales, Allowing the Body to Speak: Redefining the Art of Flesh in Feminist Performance Art” (Drama Studies). Supervisor Paul Datlen.

Service

Member of National Language Body for English, 2019-2020.
On invitation by Frank Arteaga of the Bilingual Secretariat of ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) wrote report on bisexuality in Africa to submit in English and Spanish to the United Nations Human Rights Office, 2018.
Editorial advisory board member, The English Academy Review: A Journal of English Studies, 2018 on.
Member of Advisory Board of the series Cross/Cultures, Brill Publishers; invited by co-editors Gordon Collier, Geoffrey Davis and Bénédicte Ledent since 2017.
Member of international research network Precarity, Populism, Post-truth Politics since 2017.
Member of editorial collective of journal, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, since 2006.
Postgraduate coordinator, English Studies, since 2007.
Higher Degrees committee work at School and Faculty level, including as chairperson, since 2007.
Acting Deputy Head, then Acting Head, of the School of Literary Studies, Media and Creative Arts 2010.
Centre for African Literary Studies board member 2010-2013.
Reviewer for international journals, including Research in African Literatures (USA), Journal of Bisexuality (USA), Transgender Studies Quarterly (USA), Postcolonial Text (Canada), Journal of Homosexuality (USA), Feminism and Psychology (New Zealand), Cercles: Revue du monde Anglophone (France), Feminist Review (United Kingdom), and simile2 (Canada).
Reviewer for South African journals, including The International Journal of African Renaissance Studies, English in Africa, Journal of Literary Studies, Critical Arts: South-North Cultural and Media Studies, Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies, South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa, South African Review of Sociology, Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa and Image & Text.
Reviewer for chapters in books nationally and internationally, including France, Germany and Austria.
Reader for UKZN Press.
Reviewer of NRF project proposals.

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