Saneze Tshayana is a PhD researcher at the International Studies Group, University of the Free State. Her current research is focused on black love in South Africa in the post-1994 era. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, Saneze examines whether the dawn of democracy in South Africa has, in any way, affected how black people practice giving and receiving love. She has a BA (Hons) from the University of Pretoria and an MA from the University of Witwatersrand, both with distinction. For her Honours thesis, she analysed the novels of black authors who wrote about the city of Pretoria, to investigate how they negotiated their relationship with this formerly hostile city in post-apartheid South Africa. For her Masters, she was awarded an NIHSS ‘Underground Politics in Africa’ Bursary, through the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her Masters thesis also employed interdisciplinary methods to examine counter-insurgency during apartheid, arguing that a complex network of factors were at play in people becoming askaris. In 2018, she co-organised a Wits History Workshop entitled ‘The Politics of Armed Struggle in Southern Africa’, which resulted in a special issue for the South African Historical Journal.

Awards

• PhD studentship, International Studies Group, University of the Free State, 2023
• MA scholarship, NIHSS ‘Underground Politics in Africa’ University of Witwatersrand, 
  History Workshop, 2018
• First Prize for BA (Hons) mini-dissertation, University of Pretoria, 2016