Student identities, and researching these, in a newly ‘racially’ merged university in South Africa

Abstract

The paper reports on research conducted by third‐year sociology students into student identities at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal in Durban, South Africa. This university was formed as a result of a merger between two formerly ‘racially’ defined universities. The research, comprising interviews and observation and taking place at the University’s Howard College (the formerly white University of Natal), was envisaged as a way of enabling the students to apply practically theories of identity, and as a means of generating local resources. In spite of the recent merger, ‘race’ emerged as a major influence on student identifications, affecting associations on campus, what people did, where they went to in their break times and their attitudes to others. The paper investigates racialised groupings and identities on campus, how they are forged in relation to each other and students’ emotional investments in them. It draws, also, on the researchers’ own experiences, as black, white and Indian male and female students, of engaging in this research, and the issues and problems they encountered, and reflects on some of the methodological implications of students researching students and ‘race.’