The Engagement and Transformation Portfolio (ETP), in close collaboration with the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher

Education Transformation (CriSHET), presents an Occasional Paper Series under the theme: The Transformative,
Responsive University. This series aims to provide a hub for intellectual debate, within Nelson Mandela University and
beyond, regarding the question, not so much what the university is good at, but rather what the university is good for1
in our time and place faced with, often unprecedented, societal challenges.

Underlying the series is the intention to grow the intellectual engagement with Mandela University’s commitment to
reimagine, reposition and reframe its character as a transformative, responsive university. The premise is that
universities might advance institutional change by developing constitutive relationships between engagement and
transformation; and embedding these across the system. This series is thus interested in reflecting on both scholarship
and praxis in thinking through how to engage for the purpose of transforming the University/university in a socially-
just direction.

In order to spark this conversation, the Occasional Paper Series disseminates working papers, original research studies,
reflective essays, lectures, seminar papers, speeches and conversations from university- and community-based social
actors and those generally interested in the university as an engaged, social institution. We welcome submissions of
writing and/or art. We invite pieces of various lengths, but preferably somewhere in the range of 2000 and 7000 words,
formatted and referenced according to the Occasional Paper Series writing guidelines (available at
https://crishet.mandela.ac.za/Occasional-Paper-Series).

The themes of the series are flexible, but some areas of interest are:
• Convergence in Theory & • Abilitionist University Studies • Engaged Scholarship
Practice & the Undercommons • Student Access & Success
• Institutional Change & • Decolonial Sustainability • TVET, Adult Education &
Academic Renewal • Africanisation & Community Education
• African-purposed Curricula Decolonisation in HE • HE Response to SGBV
• The Civic, Responsible, • Feminism & Gender Justice • The University & the Fourth
Responsive University • African Women’s Intellectual Industrial Revolution
• University Futures Histories • Non-racialism & Democracy in
• Higher Education • Racism & Knowledge HE
Transformation • Institutional Culture(s) • Knowledge Production
• Critical University Studies • Equity & Redress • Language in HE
• Universities & Sustainable • Diversity & Social Inclusion • Learning, Teaching and
Food Systems • Critical Disability Studies & Pedagogy
• Hubs of Convergence Universal Access • HE Policy & Praxis

If you are interested in making a submission, please forward a 250-word abstract for the proposed work along with a
100-word biography to Oriole.Friedemann@Mandela.ac.za.

1 Brink, C. (2018) The Soul of the University: Why Excellence is Not Enough. Bristol: Bristol University Press.