Commitment to social justice: Doctoral student receives DAAD award

"Nomaswazi Mthombeni's academic achievements and socio-political commitment are exemplary. She is a cosmopolitan and promising young scholar who is aware of her social responsibility," said Prof. Dr. Aram Ziai (Department of Development Policy and Postcolonial Studies), who nominated her for the award.

Mthombeni holds a master's degree in sociology from the prestigious University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. She is pursuing her doctorate at the Kassel-based International Center for Development an Decent Work (ICDD), where her dissertation focuses on gender and work in post-apartheid South Africa. She is one of the PhD representatives at ICDD, works in the GLOCALPOWER research group at the University of Kassel and as an assistant to the Internationalization Officer of the Department of Social Sciences.

She is part of the Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD) and belongs to the collective that founded the first "Black and People of Color" (BPOC) group in Kassel. The group works against racism and for social justice at the university and in the society of the city of Kassel. It brings together international students, people with migration and refugee backgrounds, and other members of ethnic minorities with the goal of challenging, changing, and building an inclusive, intersectional, and anti-racist community together. It promotes exchange among each other and assists with barriers members experience due to the intersection of race, color, class, gender, and language. The group also organized actions such as the Black Lives Matter anti-racism demonstration in Kassel, Black History Month in February 2021, and the first BPOC festival in August 2021 with a series of lectures and workshops. "I find our work and our shared goals encouraging and healing," describes Mthombeni. "We are not only making visible the various invisible struggles, but also calling for further steps towards real systemic change in our community. This is the only way we can fight structural and institutional racism in Kassel and beyond."

The University's DAAD Award, worth 1,000 euros, is presented once a year to an international student or doctoral candidate at the University of Kassel.

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