Dr Joseph Bazirake
Postdoctoral Fellow

Joseph Bazirake, Besigye (Joe) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) at Nelson Mandela University. His current research focus is on institutional change in Higher Education. Joe holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies (UFS, 2020), a masters in Peace and Conflict Studies (MUK, 2014) and a bachelor’s degree with a specialisation in International Relations (MUK, 2008). His scholarly publications bring forth a unique blend of interdisciplinary insights on topics such as: [Expounding] the contemporary global refugee crisis (2017); motivating an empathic approach to Race-based conflict (2016); Students as agents of change (2016); the conceptual and practical limitations of the Responsibility to Protect (2015); the potential for volunteer-tourism among African youth (2015); the climate change discourse in Peace-building (2013); and the role of Rotary clubs in peacebuilding (2013). Joe’s work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Human rights, Peace Review, International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences and the International Journal of Diversity in Organisations. Two of these works were republished in subject-specific international handbooks on the Responsibility to Protect (Routledge, 2017) and Environmental Security (Sage, 2014). In 2021, Joe contributed a chapter to the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Global Development: Problems, Possibilities and Pedagogy with a focus on Forced Migration and Asylum Seeking, and how the field of education can enhance the human development capacities of both ‘locals’ and migrants, by creating glocal learning spaces in complex social contexts of migrancy.