Public engagement as a core academic mission
- Prof. Antonio Wadley and Lethu Kapueja
A programme aimed at supporting academics delved into the shifting role of scholars and the importance of extending knowledge to society.
The latest Carnegie Diversifying The Academy (CDTA) group mentorship session, held on 8 September 2025, explored public engagement as a core dimension of academic work. Designed for fellows, the workshop built on earlier sessions on intercultural communication and difficult work relationships, now shifting focus to the question: Who am I becoming as a scholar, and who am I serving through my scholarship?
Setting the Scene
Professor Antoni Wadley opened the session by highlighting that public engagement is a topic that is very close to the DTA’s mission to support early-career academics with their broader role in society. Dr Bernadette Johnson (Director of the Transformation and Employment Equity Office) and Professor Mondli Hlatshwayo (an expert in Labour Studies and Worker Education from University of Johannesburg and long-time collaborator in activism and engaged research) facilitated the workshop, drawing from decades of experience.
As Johnson reflected: “It’s really about thinking about who am I becoming? I have my scholarship, but actually, what is motivating it, and who will I be serving through it?”
Understanding “Publics”
Hlatshwayo guided participants through exercises on identifying their publics and the processes for engaging them. He explained that publics vary by discipline: trade unions in labour studies, telecom associations in engineering, political parties in political science. Engagement, he noted, is not a one-way act: “Your publics are not empty vessels. They are co-creators of knowledge.”
Participants mapped their own publics, from rural harvesters and traditional food practitioners, to digital regulators, schools, dancers, archives, and multilateral institutions. These reflections revealed that scholarship often blurs into activism, entrepreneurship, or even becoming “a public” oneself.
Why Public Engagement Matters
The discussions underscored that whilst public engagement is often treated as the step child of the three academic missions, it can actually be a route to opportunity:
- Innovation and entrepreneurship: Scholars can generate business ideas and community enterprises.
- Visibility and recognition: Public engagement strengthens promotion and recognition within academia.
- Relevance and impact: Engagement ensures scholarship speaks to pressing political, environmental, and humanitarian crises.
As Hlatshwayo put it: “Effective engagement is part of solving poly-crises—political, environmental, and humanitarian. It is how we make our scholarship socially useful.”
Johnson added that public engagement is a form of decolonisation by being relevant, speaking to, connected with and impacting communities.
Shifting Universities, Shifting Roles
Johnson reminded participants that the academic role has shifted dramatically. “The university doesn’t exist in that old ‘academics just quietly reading and writing’ form anymore. We’ve become far more like workers, managing compliance and funding pressures,” she observed. Within this context, she urged scholars to think creatively about the value their ideas hold beyond traditional academic channels.
Rather than relying solely on increasingly scarce donor funds, academics can explore alternative ways of sustaining their work, from partnerships with communities and civil society to collaborative initiatives that draw on knowledge for tangible solutions. The message was clear: building resilience in research and engagement means recognising that knowledge has practical value in society, and that new, innovative models of support are needed to keep scholarship alive and impactful in changing times.
Looking Forward
The session ended with a vision exercise, asking each participant to reflect on:
- What impact do I want my scholarship to have?
- Which publics am I overlooking?
- How can I align my vision, publics, and impact?
Wadley closed by announcing that a reflection tool would be circulated, encouraging participants to map their publics and bring back insights to the next mentorship session.
The workshop’s lasting message was clear: excellent scholarship plus strong engagement anchors the university in society. Or, as Johnson concluded, “If your scholarship is poor, you can’t do public engagement. Nobody wants it. It is because your scholarship is excellent that you’re able to engage.”
Written by Prof. Antonio Wadley, Head of Academic Support & Coaching at the Transformation and Employment Equity Office (TEEO), and Lethu Kapueja, Equity Grants Manager for the Carnegie Diversifying the Academy Programme at the TEEO.