Departmental academic review

Sabbatical Research
Dr Lauraine Vivian returned from her 2012 one-year sabbatical in the Gender Unit, Department of General Practice at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen where she worked on a monograph titled ‘Ukoluka – Going for Circumcision’ which was a write-up on the ethnographic research that she did for her doctoral thesis on a descriptive study of psychiatric disorder in amaXhosa men following circumcision. She was mentored by Prof Margrethe Silberschmidt, an anthropologist who specializes in gender, masculinity and the customs of African autochthons in Kenya and Tanzania. She also completed two academic articles and involved herself in teaching and research at the University of Copenhagen, contributing to the life of the department and immersing herself in learning what ‘being a good citizen’ meant in Denmark. She was able to engage in debate bringing a South African perspective to medical education in Denmark and the rest of Africa as the department is engaged in active research and intervention programmes to develop health systems in Africa. The University of Copenhagen place a strong emphasis on promotion for staff involved in undergraduate medical education as the graduation of good medical doctors is crucial for the Danish health system. She sustained 3 major research projects during her sabbatical: Medical Education, Operation BraveHeart, and Masculinity and Mental Health and was given an NRF C rating and funding for the last. Dr Vivian presented a case study on how undergraduate medical students at UCT understand sexual reproduction, culture and health care at the Sexual Reproduction and Technology Conference in Copenhagen stimulating much debate on issues of equity between the developed and developing world, and the availability and suitability of sexual reproductive technology in a South African health setting.
Sarah Crawford-Browne is currently on sabbatical leave of six months to write up PhD research. At the four month mark she has drafted three chapters of her thesis. She will contribute to a SAAHE workshop on the value of critical theory in medical education, and to the WUN resilience project.