Wish you were here: My great academic holiday

Abstract

Many people associate me with food. Apparently, after meeting the then chair of the Department of Psychology at Unisa at the end of 2003 to discuss my joining the department through the merger of Unisa, Technikon South African and Vudec, he reported back to colleagues: “He cooks.” From early mornings, when you pass my office on the fifth floor of the Theo van Wijk Building, you smell coffee. And you hear talking and laughing. There are two pots brewing and colleagues join for a chat and to have coffee. And of course there is often a bowl of rusks, muffins and strawberries. Food is a way of bringing people together, and I live the metaphor of breaking bread together. Room 5-52 is more than just an office. It is a space of sharing, of becoming and of being. It is a space where stories are told, meetings take place, and colleagues co-write. It is a space where new colleagues are invited and welcomed, a space that alumni students return to. In such moments when colleagues and post graduate students get together in my office and in the Marc Room next to my office, these casual talks often evolve into new initiatives that continually expand the boundaries of what we do in academia. When I get up in the mornings to go to my office it doesn’t feel much like going to work. It feels a little bit like a holiday. So today I am going to talk to you about my great academic holiday. I will be looking back on my career journey and reflect on the spaces we occupy and the initiatives that we imagine and reimagine while being in and beyond these spaces.