The collaboration between Professor Jennifer Fish and Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela dates back more than 10 years and began with their work together in Rwanda. As a Visiting Professor, Professor Fish will be collaborating with AVReQ on the study “Race, Identity and the Afterlife of Apartheid.” The study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of racism by exploring early memories of intimacy with black domestic workers and the experience of the shift from this intimacy to the socialisation process that leads to the transgenerational transmission and embrace of the apartheid script.
Jennifer Natalie Fish (Ph.D., American University) is a Professor of Gender Studies and Sociology at Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on women’s labour, migration, and social justice. She has studied post-conflict reconciliation extensively in South Africa and Rwanda, as a research fellow with four national universities and co-founder of Rwanda’s national centre for gender studies. Professor Fish has authored four books and directed four documentary films, alongside a wide range articles, chapters, and reports for international organizations. She is an expert on community-based research and teaching, with an established curriculum of international immersion courses in South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda, Nepal, and Haiti. For the past ten years, she has worked with the United Nations to develop the first global policy for domestic worker rights. Most recently, she earned a Senior Fulbright Scholar award to build international university partnerships.