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12 December 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Johan Roux
Dionne
Dr Dionne van Reenen received her PhD during the December Graduation Ceremonies at the UFS

Very seldom in modern history do we try to critically think about how our bodies and even more those of women are presented in modern popular culture. Through her PhD research project, Dionne van Reenen attempts to critically analyse ideological formations of the body in performance and its discursive distribution in the consumption of contemporary popular media, adding to existing literature and research on the topic.

Her dissertation is titled Performing the Erotic: (Re)presenting the Body in Popular Culture.

Van Reenen, a senior researcher at the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS), received her PhD qualification specialising in English on Wednesday 11 December 2019 during the final ceremony of the December Graduation.

Van Reenen has extensive experience in all areas of education. Her work at the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice is interdisciplinary, involving both everyday and institutional politics. She also holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy, which she obtained in 2013 from the UFS. In 2016, she chaired the UFS Language Policy Review Committee and established the Gender and Sexual Equity Office, which formulated the Sexual Harassment, Misconduct, and Violence Policy at the UFS. 

Changing of social constructs in media consumption

“My study focuses on performative framings of social constructs of gender, race, and class (along with size, age, and ability) in the ordering processes of society,” she says.  These performative framings in are in turn sustained by the (re)presentation of eroticised bodies in popular visual media in the 21st century. “These framings and orderings are critiqued as nothing new, but simply entertainment product that is trading in ideologies and stereotypes that have long been in sociocultural circulation, and they affect how people think, speak and act.” 

The study also shows that the dynamics of ‘virtuality’ and ‘visuality’ in the digital age are altering traditional demarcations of space, place, time, and community, and have paved the way for formations of global cultures that are, at the same time, informative, expedient, empowering, homogenising, prescriptive, and imperialising.

Whilst the #MeToo movement focused more on gender-based violence, gender inequality, and sexual violence, which are big social issues and do not exist in isolation, Van Reenen used her critical philosophical training to understand how, in the current era, the dominant discourse on representations of the body, particularly marginalised bodies, has been constructed at the popular level. 

With every PhD research dissertation the candidate’s main aim is to add new knowledge to a discipline. For Van Reenen, it is important that her research can contribute to a change in social and cultural constructs by re-imagining the (re)presentations of the body in popular media.

News Archive

Huge interest in Ms Oprah Winfrey's visit to our university
2011-06-10

 

Staff and students from our Bloemfontein Campus queued since early this morning to obtain their tickets.
Photo: Phelekwa Mpono

The atmosphere on our campuses is electric with the upcoming visit and Graduation Ceremony of Ms Oprah Winfrey in Bloemfontein.

Ms Winfrey will receive an Honorary Doctorate in Education from our university on Friday, 24 June 2011.

Every single ticket for the event was snapped up within hours of becoming available this morning (Wednesday, 15 June 2011). Staff and students queued in front of the Information Centre on our university’s Bloemfontein Campus to get their free tickets, while the general public did the same at Computicket outlets throughout the country.

The university would like to thank everyone for their positive attitude and eagerness to be part of this special day. A special thank you to all our staff and students who have volunteered their services and are helping to plan and manage the event.

The university requests everyone who has managed to secure a ticket to ensure that they arrive early on the Bloemfontein Campus that day.

On Friday, 24 June 2011, the doors of the Callie Human Centre will open for both special guests and the public in general at 13:00. The doors will close strictly at 14:00 and no one will be allowed to enter or leave the building for reasons of safety and security.

Entertainment before and after the Graduation Ceremony will be provided by acclaimed musicians such as the internationally lauded, award-winning singer Sibongile Khumalo, the Botshabelo String Orchestra, the Bloemfontein Children’s Choir and the choir of the Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind.

After the Graduation Ceremony, Ms Winfrey will formally address the 4 500 guests, after which she will conduct a Question-and-Answer Session with students from the large audience. 


Media Release
15 June 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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