Sarita Fae Jarmack is an anthropologist currently exploring the politics of access, expression, and knowledge within the postcolonial art scene of South Africa for her PhD at the University of Amsterdam. We are talking to Sarita about the making of her PhD and get a glimpse into all the processes that happen on the way, which as she herself admits, are rarely given visibility. Sarita shares how she has come to crystalize the topic, calibrate her personal interests with those of the project as well as the biggest challenges throughout its entirety. Sarita also shares with us the key moments of trust building in oneself as a researcher, academic and individual. She also ponders on the value of her work and its place in the production of knowledge as well as on the feeling that academic space can provide, which as she says, can be both comforting and distracting. At the end we ask Sarita to give advice on what are the questions one should ask oneself before embarking on this long academic journey.

Mentioned in Podcast:

European Research Council project "Becoming Men", http://www.becoming-men.org/

Protest movement sin South Africa in 2015: #RhodesMustFall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes_Must_Fall; 

#FeesMustFall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeesMustFall

Social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saritafaejarmack/

https://www.instagram.com/awkward.ethnographer/