Narratives of the silent: Exploring women's stories in South African communities
How do we as a society live with silences? How are untold stories shaped by social silence?
Narratives of the silent: Exploring women's stories in South African communities
12 Feb 2026, 12:00 – 13:30
Academics and researchers are told repeatedly of the importance of the ‘golden thread’, the collective research aims and objectives in their work.
In this seminar, Bianca will explore that thread in her research: communicating the marginalised stories of particular groups of women in South African communities. This journey has not simply been a straightforward call to honour the stories these women tell, but also to explore how we, as a society live with silences, and how untold stories are shaped by social silence.
Bianca will reflect on some of the opportunities and challenges of doing feminist narrative research, as well as the researcher role in confronting and challenging the oppression of silenced populations as the beginning of the intersection between narrative and feminist ethics. Through understandings of reflexivity and empowering outcomes, she will explore a research method that is at the same time both feminist and narrative, bearing careful witness to stories that are central to understanding and evaluating not just the unique circumstances of South Africa women’s lives, but the wider moral contexts in our society within which we all exist.
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Alex Jones via Unsplash.
She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Mediation in Africa at the University of Pretoria.
She has published widely on the lived experiences of marginalised and vulnerable communities in South African society, with a specific concentration on women and gender. Her research has been recognised with a Special Commendation from the British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Women and Equalities Section.
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