Dr Alude Mahali is a Chief Research Specialist in the Inclusive Economic Development (IED) programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She is an evidence-informed social science researcher responsible for conducting scholarly research that recognises South Africa?s complex social, educational, economic and political environment. She currently works mainly in the area of transforming higher education.
Dr Mahali's research expertise and experience includes youth social justice work by means of innovative visual and participatory methodologies, with a focus in the sociology of education. Alude was recently Principal Investigator on a project on civic education for youth and another on language policies and practices in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is currently the co-Principal Investigator on a longitudinal cohort study of African tertiary alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars? Programme.
Alude has undertaken projects for the Department of Higher Education and Training, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, the Mastercard Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung amongst others. Dr Mahali was recently on the editorial board of the South African Theatre Journal and currently holds an honorary lecturer position in the Department of Drama and Performance Studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
Before joining the HSRC, she taught at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) in Kingston, Jamaica and at the University of Cape Town.
Dr Mahali holds a Master's degree and PhD from the University of Cape Town. She spent a year of her PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a visiting scholar. Dr Mahali completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the HSRC in 2018.
Dr Mahali has published a number of journal articles, book chapters and research reports, including the important book, Studying while Black: race, education and emancipation in South African universities (2018). She has presented at many local and international conference, including several keynote addresses. Her most recent publications look at the domestic worker trope, youth activism, intersectional understandings of education and youth navigational capacities.
