Mr Luan Staphorst
Research Assistant

Luan Staphorst is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar (2020-2021) and Abe Bailey Fellow (2019) who has been affiliated with the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation since February 2019. He leads the Chair’s CUS research project and coordinates the Chair’s research portfolio and network of research associates and honorary, visiting, and adjunct professors. He has a MA (Philosophy) from the University of the Western Cape, a MA (Linguistics) from Nelson Mandela University, and a MSc (African Studies) from the University of Oxford. He is pursuing his DPhil from the University of Oxford, where his studies are supported by the Clarendon Fund, Open-Oxford-Cambridge Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership, Lincoln College Kingsgate Fund, and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. His research has, amongst others, appeared in Educational Philosophy and Theory, Critical Arts, Journal of Southern African Studies, and the Palgrave Handbook of African Oral Traditions and Folklore.

Latest Publications:

  • Staphorst, L. (2023). “No More Space”: The University in the Short Stories of Marlene van Niekerk. In: Marlene van Niekerk: Die tempteerbare oog. ’n Huldiging. Ed. M. Crous. Cape Town: Naledi: 246-285. 
  • Staphorst, L. (2023). “fokkol graad vi jou nie” (fuck all degree for you): Black Afrikaans Poets, Critical University Studies, and Transcripting the Afrikaans University. Journal of African Cultural Studies 35(1): 22-36.
  • Keet, A., Staphorst, L, Penkler, M. and Phuza, N. (2023). 'Emergencies' and Techno-Rationality: The Tasks of Decentred Critical University Studies. Southern African Review of Education.
  • Fataar, A., Motala, S., Keet, A., Lalu, P., Nuttall, S., Menon, K., and Staphorst, L. (2023). The university in techno-rational times: Critical universities studies, South Africa. Educational Philosophy and Theory 55(7): 835-843.
  • Staphorst, L. (2023) “Something about this left us uneasy”: the relationship between “unlaagering” and the colonialesque in recent Afrikaans linguistic and literary discourses. LitNet Akademies 20(3): 271-302.
  • Staphorst, L. (2023). On the trail of presumed plagiarism: holographic archaeology, GR von Wielligh, and the Bleek and Lloyd archive. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe 63(3): 475-480.
  • Staphorst, L. (2023). “the veiled depth”: GR von Wielligh’s complex Afrikaans recordings of late 19th century |xam culture. South African Journal of Cultural History | Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Kultuurgeskiedenis 37(1): 1-22. 
 

Academic Profiles:

University of Oxford

ResearchGate

Academia.edu

Google Scholar