The HSRC congratulates and celebrates Professor Sharlene Swartz, Divisional Head of the Equitable Education and Economies Division, on her B3 rating recently awarded by the National Research Foundation (NRF). This accomplishment makes her one of the highest-rated researchers within the organisation.
The NRF stands as a cornerstone in South Africa’s research landscape as a champion of innovation and excellence. Central to its mission is the NRF Rating System, a critical evaluation that assesses researchers’ impact and quality within the academic and scientific community.
Individuals are rated primarily on the quality and impact of their research outputs over the past eight years, taking into consideration the evaluation of national and international peers. This process identifies researchers who count among the leaders in their fields and gives recognition to those who constantly produce high-quality research outputs.
A champion for youth studies in the Global South
As a Global South social scientist, Swartz’s research centres on social justice, education, and youth studies. After an early career as a youth worker where she focussed on antiracism and sex education to address the impacts of apartheid and the HIV/AIDS crisis, she embarked upon graduate studies in the sociology of education and youth studies at Harvard and Cambridge universities. Her research journey led Swartz to the HSRC, where, for 16 years, she has run research studies and developed emancipatory methodologies on social justice for youth, including inclusion, restitution and access to dignified livelihoods.
In addition to her roles at the HSRC, she holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Cape Town, contributing to decolonial thinking and mentoring early-career academics. Swartz’s teaching and research integrate sociology, Southern theory, and moral philosophy to explore social inequalities and drive transformation in education.
During her tenure at the HSRC, she has secured substantial research funding, leading projects funded by partners like the Mastercard Foundation, both her alma maters and numerous South African government departments. These studies have produced collaborations across a diverse range of countries, including India, Italy, Brazil, Philippines, Australia, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, and this has led to her leading a community of practice on Global South Youth Studies. In addition, Swartz holds leadership roles in global organisations, including the International Sociological Association, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations Development Program and the Lancet Commission on adolescent wellbeing.
She is passionate about shifting Western research canons through Global South perspectives. She has developed and remains passionate about ideas and concepts around ‘just inclusion for youth’, ‘equitable youth futures’, ‘epistepraxis’, ‘navigational capacities’ and ‘emancipatory methodologies’. Swartz currently leads three research studies: a longitudinal study on the imprint/impact of education on first-generation African students and the support needed to ensure equitable outcomes; a study on youth futures and livelihoods that asks what hard and soft skills young people in Africa require to be prepared for the changing nature of work now and in the future; and a programme of research on youth wellbeing as it plays out in digital transformation, youth mental health, and young people’s responses to climate change and work.
Swartz’s published books include Transformative leadership in African contexts (2024); Educational research practice in Southern contexts (2024); The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies (2021); Studying while Black (2018); Another Country: Everyday Social Restitution (2016); and Ikasi: The moral ecology of South Africa’s township youth (2009).
