Faculty of Natural Sciences P r o f e s s o r D e l i a M a r s h a l l t o P ac h i e v e r
HOD appointment three days into lockdown was ‘baptism of fire’ Professor Delia Marshall’s research interests lie in under- one of the major challenges was how Covid-19 amplified the algraduate physics education and methods of enabling ready existing inequalities in higher education. “Many lecturers, it seems to me, have expestudents to access the disciplinary knowledge and practices of physics. she is passionrienced similar distress witnessing their students falling behind and feeling soate about the public good purposes of cially isolated, yet being unable to higher education, and its impact on adequately connect with them or students’ life trajectories, and reprovide support. This is somecently co-authored a book titled Going to University: The influthing we perhaps need to think ence of higher education on about as an institution, if we want to mitigate the long-term the lives of young south Africans, which explored some effects.” Personally, she tried to set of these themes. up boundaries, deliberately “It is not just female academics who have been demarcating non-work time affected by the pandemic. and unplugging from emails and screens. she also tried Many of our female stuto make time for restoradents have also struggled tive activities, like planning to study from home, with walks or runs with friends, or the demands of household an early morning swim or surf. chores and childcare.” “But I certainly don’t think I got on a personal level, Prof Marthe work-life balance right a lot shall has lived very close to the of the time.” frontlines of this pandemic. “My Alongside the intensity of adapting husband is a healthcare worker to a new way of working, there were who was working closely with Covid patients on a daily basis, so there was an also moments of real joy in 2020. “I found ever-present sense of dread and vulnerabilmyself enjoying the less hurried pace of life that lockdown brought, finding pleasure in the simity in our household.” 2020 was a whirlwind for her: she ple aspects of daily life – with more “I found myself enjoying the less hurried family time together, early morning started a new job as Head of the Department of Physics & Astronopace of life that lockdown brought, finding coffee in my garden, or pausing at my just three days into the Covid my home desk to watch the birds national lockdown. “It really was a pleasure in the simple aspects of daily life …” outside my window.” Looking ahead, Prof Marshall is baptism of fire. Leading my department’s sudden shift to online learning was challenging, and I was excited about a new “science for Development” Honours modextremely grateful for the deep sense of collegiality in my de- ule being set up in the department, led by colleague Carolina partment. Colleagues stepped up to help each other master the odman, which will develop physics students’ ability to apply their technical and educational design aspects of online teaching, and scientific, mathematical, computational and data skills to broader sustainable development contexts. shared ideas and resources.”
