Aftermath: violence and well-being in the context of the student movement

Abstract

In 2019, HSRC researchers interviewed student activists from the 2015/16 university protests as part of a project looking at higher-education governance and the problem of violent student protests. With student activists often depicted as either 'heroic warriors' battling against injustice or lazy or entitled 'thugs', the researchers were taken aback by what they found. The participants seemed vulnerable and deeply traumatised. Thierry Luescher spoke to Antoinette Oosthuizen about a photography project that gave these students a voice.