Rehana Thembeka Odendaal is a joint degree PhD student between the University of Pennsylvania’s Sociology department and the Education, Culture and Society program in the Graduate School of Education. She is a Fulbright International Fellow from Cape Town, South Africa where she completed her BSocSci and MA degrees at the University of Cape Town.
Originally trained as a historian, Rehana’s previous research includes topics like; the public roles and responsibilities of higher education institutions, public memorialization, and oral histories with a focus on 20th-century South Africa. She is particularly interested in how political and civic education contribute to social change, and the impact of transnational and global experiences on African development. This interest draws on her experiences as co-ordinator for Stellenbosch University's JustLead! co-curriculum, online leadership development course (2018-2019), and her ongoing work with Dr. Krystal Strong’s African Youth Leadership Study.
Rehana's doctoral work is interested in understanding how youth's positioning in the global South/North shapes their understanding and organizing around climate change and environmental justice.
BSocSci, University of Cape Town - Majors: Historical Studies, Sociology and Economics
BA(Hons), University of Cape Town - Historcial Studies
"You never hear people talk about it you know" Popular Remeberings of the Athlone Trojan Horse Shootings 1985-2014.
Master of Arts, University of Cape Town - Historical Studies with Distinction
Wits Imagined: An investigation into Wits University’s public roles and responsibilities,1922 -1994
Education; Transnational/Global Sociology; Social Reproduction; Youth Activism and Social Movements; International Education and Development; Universities; Technology and Society; Civics and Citizenship Education; Environmental Justice
Odendaal, R. T,. (2024) "The 'Open' Performance: Institutional Autonomy over Academic Freedom in the 1950s Academic Freedom Campaigns" in History Through Narratives of Education in Africa (Eds.) Vea Rosnes, Guidi and Martineau (Brill: Leiden and Boston) p.281 - 304. Available at: https://brill.com/display/title/69443
Strong, K; Odendaal, R. T., and Kallon Kelly, C. (2022) "Education for Subordination: Youth and the Afterlives of Coloniality and Racialization in Africa" in World Yearbook of Education 2023: Racialization and Educational Inequality in Global Perspective (Eds.) Scott and Baja (Routledge, New York)
Shakeir, R; Odendaal, R. T., and Rosado-Virques, A. M, (2021) “Decolonizing Educational Mindsets” in Critical Leadership Praxist: Leading Educational and Social Change. (Eds.) Pak and Ravitch (Teachers College Press, New York)