Podcart Engagement in Action

Engagement in Action

Rhodes sees community engagement differently. Not as something that's bolted on - an afternoon's volunteering here and there. But as something that is woven in to the fabric of the University, that is about authentic relationships, which make a difference to everyone involved - students, staff and the organisations and community members they work with. "Engagement in Action" talks to the people who are bringing that vision to life.
Weekly English United Kingdom Society & Culture · Education
9 Episodes

Listen deeply, tell stories

Digital storytelling is a growing movement across the world. Using simple digital tools, it helps people from all walks of life tell their own stories - to heal, to share, to be listened to. Rhodes Community Engagement is part of Common Good First, a global digital network of universities that…
11 Sep 2019 18 min

8. "Into the messy spaces ..."

“If you were to ask in the modern university how much engaged research there is, it would be very, very small. We are living in an era when society is pushing back at universities and saying, ‘for us to see that you are valuable we want to see you take…
17 Aug 2019 20 min

7. Professor Chrissie Boughey

"If you walk across the stage at graduation and all you have is knowledge, then we have failed you as a university." Professor Chrissie Boughey retired as Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Student Affairs in June 2019. Central to her work at Rhodes was a focus on the integration of community…
8 Aug 2019 15 min

6. The Reviving Grahamstown Schools Programme (aka the VC's Education Project)

"It is better to light a candle than to curse darkness.” Public schooling in Grahamstown is broken. Just kilometers away from some of the most expensive and well-resourced schools in the country, are schools that are crumbling, teachers who are not coping and a system that is failing an entire…
15 May 2018 28 min

5. Clement Simuja

“For many people, technology is not empowering, it's disempowering.“ Clement Simuja arrived at Rhodes from Malawi to do a PhD in Information Systems about “something to do with agriculture“. Then a desperate head teacher from Alexandria arrived in the department asking for help. His school had plenty of computers but…
29 Apr 2018 17 min

4. Professor Tally Palmer

“Every single human being on this planet lives in a catchment. You are upstream of somebody or downstream of somebody. Water is the great integrating factor.“ Professor Tally Palmer is Director for the Institute for Water Research and founder of the Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality. What does she…
18 Apr 2018 22 min

3. Dr Nosiphiwe Ngqwala and The Children of the Soil

Nosiphiwe “Nosi” Ngqwala arrived at Rhodes to do a masters in biochemistry. She became a student volunteer but realised there was no organisation focusing on what she felt was the most important job of all - teaching the next generation of South Africans how to look after their environment. So…
22 Mar 2018 17 min

2. Professor Jacqui Akhurst

Professor Jacqui Akhurst started her career as a teacher, became a school psychologist and then a full-time academic. Starting in KZN, moving to the UK in 2004 (York and York St John Universities) and then to Rhodes in 2015, her research focus has long been community psychology. Through her inspiration…
12 Mar 2018 19 min

1. The Environmental Learning Research Centre and the Amanzi for Food Project.

People need fresh, healthy food. But growing fresh food needs a reliable source of water in a water scarce country. The Amanzi for Food project – funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC) and led and implemented by the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes – brings together farmers, extension…
2 Mar 2018 16 min