Message from the Head of Department, Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast
Welcome to the Department of History and Political Studies, which offers a range of internationally recognized academic qualifications. The department provides various academic offerings in History and Political Studies. The academics in the department are experts in various areas. Qualifications in these fields (History and Political Studies) have a potential to put our students on the map, locally and internationally. Both academic disciplines are rooted in critical thinking and the logic of argumentation. Further, our academic qualifications are designed to equip our students to understand the relationship between the powerful and powerless, social ills, and promote social justice. We are in an active and ongoing intellectual process as a department to transform our curriculum and promote both decolonisation and Africanisation. The latter is aligned to the vision of the Faculty of Humanities Revitalisation project and ‘Vision 2030’ at Nelson Mandela University.
Tsakani Shilowe’s business is a sweet success, with three soft-serve ice-cream stations on campus.
Dr Qhama Noveve’s doctoral research explored how neoliberal governance intersects with goals for gender transformation, showing how institutional rules, discourses, and everyday practices shape possibilities for change in higher education.
Black Consciousness (BC), one of South Africa’s foremost political philosophies pioneered by Steve Biko, came under close examination in Mandela University graduate Dr Mpho Tsedu’s doctoral thesis.
Executive Mayor Samkelo Janda of the Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Amathole district – which extends from the Great Kei River to Coffee Bay - has been conferred with a doctorate in public administration and management from Nelson Mandela University.