Multifaceted Science Engagement

For historical reasons, South Africa has a dire shortage of scientists, and it is well recognised that for socio-economic development of our country the number of people involved in SET needs to be drastically increased. As practising scientists, we have an important role to play: We need to communicate our research to the wider public to stimulate an interest in science and to challenge the negative perceptions and stereotypes around Science, especially those concerning who can or cannot “do” Science.  In the South African context, the added challenges are the broad lack of societal understanding of the scientific process and the unequal access to high quality infra-structure (e.g. internet) in the country.  Thus, scientific engagement in South Africa needs to be multifaceted to engage with diverse communities with varied circumstances. In this presentation, I will reflect on some of my personal experiences in terms of engagement with the public, and I will showcase how I have tried to overcome some of the barriers to effective science engagement in a local (and to some extent international) context.

Presented by Prof. Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, University of Cape Town, Dept of Biological Sciences; Twitter: @palaeo_prof