Researchers
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Professor Allison Drew has been appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor at CERT. Her work forms part of a rare archive on South African history, its primary sources within the African Studies Library and Collections largely destroyed by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) fire of 18 April 2021. Drew’s contribution to this decolonial education archive is phenomenal, unique and irreplaceable. Drew worked closely with the late Neville Alexander as a researcher and scholar since the 1960s. Her work on the intellectual history of the South African Left is widely recognised by public intellectuals, and South African and international historians. The well-known and respected ‘Allison Drew Collection’ volumes on South African History Online (SAHO) have contributed significantly to civil society’s understanding of the public education struggle, and in particular regarding understanding the complexities and international context of the intellectual and education work of Neville Alexander. Her public profile as a noted historian on South Africa can be found at the following link which is a substantial and unique archive on the connection between national liberation struggles and political organisations and education in South Africa. https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/allison-drew-collection. Drew’s scholarship contribution is in her placing of a small cohort of South Africa’s radical intellectual Left within a global context of radical education, working with a vast and diverse archive of little-known primary sources such as in Moscow.
Dr David Kerr from African Studies at Oxford University has joined CERT as Senior Research Associate for 3 years, from 2025 – 2028. Dr Kerr’s research aligns with CERT’s focus area in popular culture and decolonial public pedagogy in Africa. Dr Kerr is head of programmes of AfOx (Africa Oxford Initiative). His PhD thesis completed in 2014 at the University of Birmingham was titled Performing the self: rappers, urban space and identity in Dar es Salaam, .and his post doc research was on street performances in Tanzania. His publications include: Kerr, D., 2021. Rapping, Imagination, and Urban Space in Dar es Salaam. Youth and Popular Culture in Africa: Media, Music, and Politics, pp.63-87 ; . Kerr, D., 2018. From the margins to the mainstream: making and remaking an alternative music economy in Dar es Salaam. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 30(1), pp.65-80.
Duduzile Unathi Ndlovu is one of the internationally prestigious Hardiman PhD scholars at University of Galway, in Galway Ireland. While qualified in law, international relations, and African Studies, her work and research remain in the field of education. Having been involved in student organising and activism in the RhodesMustFall (RMF) movement, she is particularly interested in activist education and critical higher education studies. She is a transdisciplinary decolonial afro-feminist scholar interested in higher education institutions as sites for answering questions about what, why and how Africa/ns know/s, is/are known and can know. Supported by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s (NMMU) Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) and the Hardiman scholarship, her current research considers the implications of RMF and ‘fallism’ in discourses around decolonising higher education in South Africa and beyond. Her research interests further include decolonial and interdisciplinary methodologies in social research for and about African epistemic justice. In particular, she has produced first class research, presented at international conferences, and written for publication, around the decolonial possibilities of autoethnography, Collective Memory Work, ‘dialogical archives’ and ‘deep listening’. Outside the university, she has done work as a volunteer tutor, and, public and activist educator through non-profits such as the South African Education and Development Project (SAEP), Equal Education (EE) and Embrace Dignity – End Demand Now. She is also an African music enthusiast with over a decade of experience performing African music and instruments locally and internationally.
Dr Simphiwe Tsawu is an experienced fieldwork researcher in agrarian studies, development and sustainability, land reform challenges, traditional authorities and people’s education in rural communities on land rights in South Africa. He holds qualifications from several universities, including a PhD in African Studies from the University of Cape Town.
Sarah Motha joins CERT as a researcher and postdoc mentor. Recently nominated by the Minister of Health to serve as a council member overseeing the Traditional Health Practitioners Act, Sarah Motha is a distinguished advocate for traditional health, human rights, and social justice, with a deep commitment to empowering marginalized communities in South Africa. Beyond her contributions to traditional health, Sarah has been a human rights, gender and social justice facilitator, researcher and working tirelessly to address systemic inequalities, gender-based violence, xenophobia, racism and access to justice for vulnerable groups. She is the founder of the Human Rights Education Centre and the Umphakatsi Peace Ecovillage (accredited by Gaia Education), initiatives dedicated to grassroots peacebuilding, climate justice, food sovereignty and community empowerment. Her work has spanned policy advocacy, popular education, research and direct community engagement, ensuring that historically marginalized voices are heard in legislative and social reform efforts. She has also been instrumental in bridging the gap between traditional healing and modern healthcare, advocating for ethical standards and the recognition of indigenous knowledge systems within South Africa’s broader health system. With an unwavering dedication to justice, equity, and positive cultural preservation, Sarah continues to lead transformative movements that redefine care, resilience, and empowerment for communities across South Africa, and internationally across Africa and the globe.
Award-winning and iconic KayaFM jazz public educator & presenter Brenda Sisane joins CERT. Brenda hails from Soweto and became a radio and television broadcaster in 1991. She has since become a considered specialist in International Relations and the Creative Arts. She hosts a radio programme dedicated to jazz music and has received awards for this work including the Mail & Guardian Power of Women Award for Film and Media, the Arts and Culture Mbokodo Award for Media, and has been inducted to The South Africa Radio Awards Hall of Fame. Of her many renowned accomplishments include as event organizer of the UNESCO International Jazz Day which won the bid to host 2020 Cape Town; the Prince Albert (Karoo) Journey to Jazz Festival Creative Director; and the South African Jazz and Health Alliance – Youth Learning and Teaching Camp – UJ Kingsway Campus 2018. Brenda believes strongly in arts education, offering students the opportunity to apply academic skills in a real-world context. Having overcome dyslexia after her high school years, she gives of her time to demystifying mental health using music, particularly for children in disadvantaged communities.
FOUNDATION TEACHING RESEARCHER AT CERT: DR JOANNE PEERS hails from the Cape Flats and holds a PhD in Environmental Humanities from the University of Oulu in Finland. Her thesis topic was titled: ‘Hydropoetic relational bodies within Education research’ . Joanne completed her M.Ed in Primary Education Cum laude in early years education in South Africa’ at the University of Cape Town in 2018. Recipient of a Seed Award Grant from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, in 2025, Joanne will engage in research on the ‘Engaged Scholarship against Climate Change’ (ESCC-WATER) research programme, on her project ‘Hydropoetics: Surfacing with haunted waters (Listening to oceans, skins, shorelines & landscapes through leaking time)’. She served as Curriculum Design and Innovation Lead for the Nature Environment & Wildlife Conservation Trust (NEWF) in 2025, providing strategy for developing career pathways to support African storytellers with the necessary skills, networks, and opportunities to succeed in competitive global markets in order to foster inclusion and representation and advising on ensuring that Africa’s environmental and wildlife narratives are not only told but also shaped by those with lived experiences and deep-rooted cultural connections to the land. She has also served as keynote speaker and workshop director at the 2025 GFCT Climate Change Workshop in Durban. Between 2022 – 2025, Dr Peers worked as Head of Academics at The Centre for Creative Education (CCE) in Cape Town, as lecturer in Education, as convenor of the B.Ed Foundation Phase, as Methods lecturer of the University of Cape Town’s post-graduate Certificate Education Foundation Phase, and as External Examiner for the B.Ed Foundation Phase. Dr Peers collaborates as a researcher on teacher training with Professor June Bam on the Ausi Told Me children’s books series.