Luan Staphorst

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. (2024). "Innie Malmesbugy waa os bly": Linguistic citizenship, Arabic-Afrikaans, and the Burr R in Ashwin Arendse's Swatland (2021). Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 42(S1): S67-S84. [Published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). English and/in Africa: reflections on the language question, Afropolitanism, and linguistic orientation six decades after the 'African Writers Conference'. Acta Academica: Critical views on society, culture and politics 56(1): 43-61.
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). ‘The language of the eye is not the language of the ear’: English, Translationality, and (Dis)Similarities between Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Devil on the Cross. Research in African Literatures 54(2): 58-74.
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Orange River Afrikaans, an Archaeological Genealogy. Part I: 1595-1916. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus 68: 1-23. [Published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Orange River Afrikaans, an Archaeological Genealogy. Part II: 1917-1979. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus 68: 25-44. [Published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Orange River Afrikaans, an Archaeological Genealogy. Part III: 1980-1998. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus 68: 45-63. [Published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Orange River Afrikaans, an Archaeological Genealogy. Part IV: 1999-2021. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus 68: 65-86.  [Published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. and Keet, A. (2024). Contested Criticality: An Intellectual Historiography of Critical University Studies. In: Emancipatory Imaginations: Advancing Critical University Studies. Eds. D. Belluigi and A. Keet. Stellenbosch: SUN Press: 2-21. 
  • Keet, A., Chauke, T., Staphorst, L., Hamukuaya, H. and Honeycomb, N. (2024). Critique and Disputations:  Human Rights, Africanisation, Decolonisation, and the Project of (De)Centred Critical University Studies. In: Emancipatory Human Rights and the University: Promoting Social Justice in Higher Education. Eds. F. Tibbitts and A. Keet. London: Routledge: 31-51.  
  • Keet, A., Penkler, M. A., Staphorst, L. and Rafaely, D. (2024). Plastic Refusals: The Africanisation Challenge of South African Higher Education. In: Working with Theories of Refusal and Decolonization in Higher Education. Eds. P. Mikulan and M. Zembylas. London: Routledge: 124-142.
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). On Breyten Breytenbach's Legacy at Oxford. LitNet, 18 December. [Essay published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Review: Breyvier: Over taal, burgerschap en Breytenbach, by Yves T'Sjoen. Tydskrif vir Nederlands en Afrikaans 31(2): 137-140. [Review published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. (2024). Seen elsewhere: A shared language in the unknown. LitNet, 14 May. [Photo-essay published in Afrikaans].
  • Staphorst, L. and Boehmer, E. (2024). On postcolonialism and the neerlandophone: an interview. Voertaal, 9 April.

Academic Profiles:

University of Oxford

ResearchGate

Academia.edu

Google Scholar