This event is part of the School of Education's Bristol Conversations in Education research seminar series. These seminars are free and open to the public.

Hosted by the Race Empire and Education Collective (affiliated with Comparative and International Research in Education (CIRE))

Speaker: Professor Salim Vally, Department of Higher Education and Training – National Research Foundation’s Chair in Community, Adult and Workers’ Education based at the University of Johannesburg

The talk will provide an overview of the genesis and history of racism in education in South Africa before discussing contemporary forms of 'race' and class stratification in education. I will argue that present-day educational segregation in post-apartheid South Africa must be examined with reference to the history of racial capitalism and to contemporary socio-economic and political disadvantage and patterns of inequality in society. Racism in education does not constitute an autonomous form of oppression but is inextricably linked to power relations and reproduced in conjunction with class, gender, and other inequalities. Education is embedded in social class relations and largely reflects and reinforces the inequalities in a racial capitalist society. The talk will also discuss resistance in South African education.

Professor Salim Vally is the Department of Higher Education and Training – National Research Foundation’s Chair in Community, Adult and Workers’ Education based at the University of Johannesburg, an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a visiting professor at Nelson Mandela University. Two recent co-edited books are: The University and Social Justice Across the Globe (2020) and Against Racial Capitalism: The Selected Writings of Neville Alexander (2023).

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