Reflection

Tori Harwell

Reflects on Their Time in Cape Town

It is eerie to be the last 3 third-year Mellon to go to the University of Cape Town (UCT), the last in the country. Over the last year, Mellon has become a home I can connect with people across the globe who will intellectually challenge me and, with open arms, embrace my presence without question. It is a safe space, so to see that space dissolve in front of me is quite alarming. After this year, the Mellon Mays Foundation has chosen to sunset the Mellons Undergraduate program across South Africa. This is extremely concerning, and the effects are far more reaching than expected.

According to the World Economic Forum, Africa “ is home to 15% of the world’s population [...], but it produces just 2% of the world’s research output,”1 with South Africa being the highest producer of research on the continent.2

Mellon Mays helped increase a pipeline to access academia as a viable career path for diverse students in South Africa. Without this pipeline, I am wary of the future of the academy globally. The production of epistemologically just research and the creation of culturally inclusive education models threaten to dissipate under a lack of diverse professors and researchers.

1Kariuki Tom and Kay Simon, “There Are Not Enough Scientists in Africa. How Can We Turn This Around?,” World Economic Forum, May 3, 2017, https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2017/05/scientists-are-the-key-to-africas-future/

2Duermeijer Charon, Amir Mohamed, and Lucia, “Africa Generates Less than 1% of the World’s Research; Data Analytics Can Change That,” Elsevier Connect, accessed April 3, 2023, https://www.elsevier.com/connect/africagenerates-less-than-1-of-the-worlds-research-data-analyticscan-change-that.