Melissa Steyn

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Melissa Steyn is the DST-NRF South African Research Chair in Critical Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the Director of the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies.

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Paul Levinson

Fordham University

Aslı Kutluk

Selcuk University (Selçuk Üniversitesi)

Shlomo Hareli

University of Haifa

Zachary A Casey

Rhodes College

Phila M Msimang

Stellenbosch University

Frédérique Langue G.

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

Merve Topcu Bulut

ATILIM UNIVERSITY

Ju Hui Judy Han

University of California, Los Angeles

Ndumiso Dladla

University of Pretoria

Mostafa Abedinifard

University of British Columbia

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Papers by Melissa Steyn

Cross culturally speaking

People Dynamics, 1994

Intersectional Delights

Critical Diversity Literacy: A framework for multicultural citizenship education

Education, Citizenship and Social Justice

We propose the Critical Diversity Literacy (CDL) framework for citizenship education in contempor... more We propose the Critical Diversity Literacy (CDL) framework for citizenship education in contemporary heterogeneous societies. It encourages an anti-essentialist, power-conscious awareness of difference beyond notions of citizenship that have been constitutive of the nation and tend to normalise masculinity, patriarchy, heterosexuality, able-bodiedness and whiteness. Using intersectionality and decoloniality heuristics, we approach multicultural citizenship from the multiple axes of our identities as we inhabit the world more complexly than mere belonging to the nation-state. The framework synthesises insights from contemporary social theory into a usable scaffolding for diversity capacitation. The ten principles focus on intersectionality, social identities and positioning, historical awareness, diversity vocabulary, the coded nature of hegemonic power and personal engagement. Taken together, they promote an approach to multicultural citizenship that focuses on social justice and pu...

Many Faces of Competence

Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa

This paper argues that postmodernism challenges the way in which intercultural communication comp... more This paper argues that postmodernism challenges the way in which intercultural communication competence has traditionally been conceptualized. The very framing of the notion as "competence" reveals its historical contingency and complicity with a particular interest group. Some of the assumptions which underpin the "received" versions of competence are examined, and are related to post-modem concerns of the nature of knowledge and truth, culture and personhood. In the course of the analysis, reference is made to the literature on competence, and suggestions are made for ways in which competence can fruitfully be explored that are more in keeping with the spirit of post-mocternism.

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4 Whiteness in the Rainbow: Experiencing the Loss of Privilege in the New South Africa

Beyond Racism

Hegemonic epistemologies in the context of Transformation: Race, space, and power in one post-apartheid South African town

This paper examines space, identity and power in Prince Albert, a small town in the South African... more This paper examines space, identity and power in Prince Albert, a small town in the South African Karoo, through analysis of white representations of urban and social change in the town since the end of apartheid. In doing so, this analysis seeks to contribute to the growing stream of critical philosophy concerned with the relationship between racialised systems of inequality and ways of knowing. By representing Prince Albert as ‘tranquil’ and ‘charming’, semigrant power elites in the town legitimate their dominance and control over the town’s resources through spatio-temporal “epistemologies of ignorance.” Through analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews with white residents and government and planning documents, this paper demonstrates the ways in which concepts of heritage and tourism, as Western ideological constructs that serve elite white interests, can be antagonistic to the broader South African national move towards Transformation.

Diagnosing Organizational Body-Scapes: A Model for Transformation Tested in South Africa’s National Research Foundation

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2019

New competencies for intercultural communication

Materiality of immigrant identity: Polish immigrants in South Africa

Critical diversity literacy: essentials for the twenty-fi rst century

New shades of "whiteness": white identity in a multicural, democratic South Africa

University of the Free State, 2000

Diversity in Basic Education in South Africa: intersectionality and Critical Diversity Literacy

Africa Education Review, 2017

ABSTRACT The notion of essentialised racial difference was a keystone of apartheid education whic... more ABSTRACT The notion of essentialised racial difference was a keystone of apartheid education which served to cement white supremacy in South Africa. More recently there is a need for socially-just education that requires a robust analytical orientation in interrogating power, privilege and difference. Therefore this article engages the following questions: What are the philosophical, epistemological and pedagogical underpinnings of diversity in education in South Africa?; and What is the possible role of diversity literacy in fostering an active and participatory citizenship in the years ahead? We engage conceptually with the understanding of diversity in education in South Africa, followed by the presentation of a framework – Critical Diversity Literacy (CDL) – and a series of curricular questions emerging from this framework that might be pedagogically useful when engaging issues of power, privilege and difference in teacher training. CDL potentially addresses the weaknesses in previous approaches to engaging with issues of diversity in education and offers grounded, contemporary, and authentic opportunities for decolonising classroom content and practice.

Decolonising the Human

A ll communities create notions of their place within the array of sentient and non-sentient bein... more A ll communities create notions of their place within the array of sentient and non-sentient beings with whom they share their worlds. The principal trouble with the grand construction of the human of Euro-modernity, however, is that it was founded on unhappy circumstances and for tragic purposes. Man, as a performative idea, created inequalities and hierarchies usable for the exclusion and oppression of the other. The status of the human was self-attributed to dominant people powerful enough to name themselves and define others. That which was categorised as non-human became things, reduced to resources, usable and disposable by the unapologetic humans. The attribute human, in other words, is not self-evident or assured. It can be wielded; given and taken away. The threat of its withdrawal from, or permanent denial to, weaker peoples in peripheralised spaces continues to define life within a climate of fear that makes being human a fragile condition and an uncertain reality (Soyinka 2004). These dispensable others and objects of power are found everywhere as black people, women, the poor and homeless, refugees and foreigners, gay, lesbian, queer and trans people, the old and vulnerable, people living with disabilities and other others. The prevailing constructs of 'man' and 'human' began with the durable handiwork of (male) European humanists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries who needed convenient and powerful tools for classifying themselves and categorising others (Mignolo 2015, 158). The male Westerner, as the Christian and paradigmatic human, entered into relationships on grossly unequal terms. Conquerors in the shape of patriarchs, empire builders, merchants Decolonising the Human

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Whiteness

Whiteness Afrikaans Afrikaners: Addressing Post-Apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens, 2018

Differences at Work: Practicing Critical Diversity Literacy

This handbook provides practical tools and concepts forged from international best practice, and ... more This handbook provides practical tools and concepts forged from international best practice, and sharpened in the context of post-apartheid South Africa, that can be used to build critical diversity literate organizations. Organizations the world over – from nonprofits to large corporations, and secondary schools to massive intergovernmental institutions – increasingly tip into crisis as they fail to meet the challenges of diverse and complex societies. Their durability is tested by how they deal with difference, and whether they break out of dominant ways of thinking about culture, merit, and success. This book is thus designed to contribute to the ongoing conversation between the strategic imperatives of organizational leaders, and the day-management of diversity interventions by diversity practitioners and human resources specialists. The authors present the CDL model in an easily understandable and practically implementable format that is grounded as much in rigorous academic research as it is in thousands of hours of industry experience. Six prominent, active critical diversity literacy practitioners offer concrete advice and insights into addressing racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and other oppressive dynamics. The text offers guidance on: • Analyzing what has changed in the local and global environment of the contemporary organization, and how to ‘read’ these challenges; • Identifying the warning signs of crisis, and addressing issues before they arise by building a responsive and flexible style of leadership; • Using the Critical Diversity Literacy framework to secure organizational alignment; • Theorizing how change happens within organizations; • Meeting and overcoming resistance from entrenched power interests; • Designing training and organizational development interventions.

Aligning the Diversity "Rubik" Cube : conceptualising transformative practice

South African Journal of Labour Relations, 2007

The purpose of this article is to critically interrogate the extent to which diversity practition... more The purpose of this article is to critically interrogate the extent to which diversity practitioners' definitions of diversity create the potential for deep transformation. By employing critical management theory and discursive analysis, we identified three dimensions to the definitions: Categories of Difference, Engagement of Difference and Site of Change. Each of these is represented as one dimension of the Diversity "Rubik" Cube. Each dimension is described individually, after which interaction between them is examined. At each point the potential for deep transformation is examined. In most cases the potential for deep transformation offered by the Category of Difference is closed down by the Engagement with Difference. This interaction represents the dominant paradigms for thinking through diversity in management studies. We suggest that there is only one alignment of the dimensions that provides for deep transformative practice and we offer the Diversity "Ru...

The diversity imperative: excellence, institutional culture, and limiting assumptions at some historically white universities

The Trouble with the Human

Decolonising the Human, 2021

Revisiting Critical Diversity Literacy

Bildung.Macht.Diversität., 2021

Das Konzept der Critical Diversity Literacy geht aus einem bald 20-jährigen Entwicklungsprozess h... more Das Konzept der Critical Diversity Literacy geht aus einem bald 20-jährigen Entwicklungsprozess hervor. 2 Critical Diversity Literacy lässt sich am ehesten als Diversitäts-Literalität übersetzen und bildet die Grundlage einer kritisch-performativen Lektürepraxis zu Fragen von Diversität (siehe Klingovsky und Pfruender in diesem Band). Critical Diversity Literacy (CDL) stellt einen Versuch dar, diejenigen analytischen Fähigkeiten in einem einzigen Konzept zu verdichten, die eine Qualifikation in Diversity Studies kennzeichnen. Das Setzen dieses besonderen Bezugsrahmens ist das Resultat verschiedener Faktoren: dem spezifischen Kontext der Hochschulbildung in Südafrika nach dem Ende der Apartheid, in dem Studierende einer Gesellschaft begegnen, die geprägt ist von einem Impuls hin zu Transformation, Integration und größerer Gerechtigkeit; der Vertiefung meiner eigenen Arbeit über »Weißsein«, die zur Ausgangslage wurde, um die Auswirkungen von Dominanz und Unterdrückung entlang weiterer Achsen der Differenz zu erkennen; und letztlich einer geglückten Begegnung mit dem Konzept der »Racial Literacy« 3 1 Dieser Text ist die ins Deutsche übertragene und revidierte Version von Melissa Steyns Text Critical Diversity Literacy: Essentials for the 21st Century (2015). Im Prozess der Übersetzung wurde der Text auf der Grundlage einer ersten Übersetzung von Dshamilja Adeifio Gosteli durch Serena Owusua Dankwa ergänzt, angereichert und erweitert. Wir danken Dshamilja A. Gosteli für ihre Mitarbeit und wertvollen Anmerkungen im Prozess der Übersetzung. Und wir danken Ulla Klingovsky und Georges Pfruender für ihre vertiefenden Kommentare und Präzisierungen. Ihre Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept der Critical Diversity Literacy hat wesentlich zu dessen Übertragung in den deutschsprachigen Raum beigetragen. 2 Siehe zum Beispiel Steyn (2010). 3 France Winddance Twine definiert »Racial Literacy« (2010) folgendermaβen: die Definition von Rassismus als ein gegenwärtiges Problem und nicht nur ein historisches Erbe; ein Verständnis davon, wie sich Erfahrungen von Rassismus durch Klassenzugehörigkeit, Geschlechterungleichheiten und Heterosexualität artikulieren; ein Erkennen des kulturellen und symbolischen Wertes von Weißsein; ein Verständnis dafür, dass rassifizierte Identitäten erlernt und das Produkt sozialer Praktiken sind; die Beherrschung einer rassismuskritischen Grammatik und eines Vokabulars, mit dem sich Rassifizierung, Rassismus und Antirassismus the

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Mapping Capacity to Deal with Difference: Towards a Diagnostic Tool for Critical Diversity Literacy

African Journal of Employee Relations (Formerly South African Journal of Labour Relations), 2018

South Africa today faces both increasingly radical calls for systemic change from various sectors... more South Africa today faces both increasingly radical calls for systemic change from various sectors, and apparently intransigent organisational cultures whose performance in delivering racial â€œtransformationâ€ and equality in the workplace has been extremely disappointing. It is argued that a different way of managing organisations is possible, but that this requires both a commitment to a new set of values, and the possession of the skills to deal with difference, which are summarised as critical diversity literacy (CDL). In order to improve CDL capacity within organisations, baseline measurements are necessary to tailor interventions and to track progress. We propose a preliminary metric based on data gathered from practical interventions, including leadership interviews in a large national organisation, that revolve around five thematic hooks: (1) society at large, (2) the organisationâ€™s understanding of the past, (3) ideologies around change, (4) apportioning of responsibilit...

Cross culturally speaking

People Dynamics, 1994

Intersectional Delights

Critical Diversity Literacy: A framework for multicultural citizenship education

Education, Citizenship and Social Justice

Many Faces of Competence

Communicare: Journal for Communication Studies in Africa

Download

4 Whiteness in the Rainbow: Experiencing the Loss of Privilege in the New South Africa

Beyond Racism

Hegemonic epistemologies in the context of Transformation: Race, space, and power in one post-apartheid South African town

Diagnosing Organizational Body-Scapes: A Model for Transformation Tested in South Africa’s National Research Foundation

The International Journal of Organizational Diversity, 2019

New competencies for intercultural communication

Materiality of immigrant identity: Polish immigrants in South Africa

Critical diversity literacy: essentials for the twenty-fi rst century

New shades of "whiteness": white identity in a multicural, democratic South Africa

University of the Free State, 2000

Diversity in Basic Education in South Africa: intersectionality and Critical Diversity Literacy

Africa Education Review, 2017

Decolonising the Human

Download

Whiteness

Whiteness Afrikaans Afrikaners: Addressing Post-Apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens, 2018

Differences at Work: Practicing Critical Diversity Literacy

Aligning the Diversity "Rubik" Cube : conceptualising transformative practice

South African Journal of Labour Relations, 2007

The diversity imperative: excellence, institutional culture, and limiting assumptions at some historically white universities

The Trouble with the Human

Decolonising the Human, 2021

Revisiting Critical Diversity Literacy

Bildung.Macht.Diversität., 2021

Download

Mapping Capacity to Deal with Difference: Towards a Diagnostic Tool for Critical Diversity Literacy

African Journal of Employee Relations (Formerly South African Journal of Labour Relations), 2018

Mapping Capacity to Deal with Difference: Towards a Diagnostic Tool for Critical Diversity Literacy

by Melissa Steyn, Scott Burnett, and Nceba Ndzwayiba

African Journal of Employee Relations, 2018

South Africa today faces both increasingly radical calls for systemic change from various sectors... more South Africa today faces both increasingly radical calls for systemic change from various sectors, and apparently intransigent organisational cultures whose performance in delivering racial "transformation" and equality in the workplace has been extremely disappointing. It is argued that a different way of managing organisations is possible, but that this requires both a commitment to a new set of values, and the possession of the skills to deal with difference, which are summarised as critical diversity literacy (CDL). In order to improve CDL capacity within organisations, baseline measurements are necessary to tailor interventions and to track progress. We propose a preliminary metric based on data gathered from practical interventions, including leadership interviews in a large national organisation, that revolve around five thematic hooks: (1) society at large, (2) the organisation's understanding of the past, (3) ideologies around change, (4) apportioning of responsibility, and (5) the conception of difference. Ways of identifying capacity (positive scripts) or lack thereof (negative scripts) are proposed and discussed as a preface to future work on deepening and refining the model.

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Melissa Steyn

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