Farred analyzes his apartheid education in ‘philosophical memoir’

Schools under the purview of the Coloured Affairs Department in 1970s South Africa were designed to under-educate students - or not educate them at all, according to scholar Grant Farred, who received his secondary and college education in precisely this system.

Yet "out of the most adverse conditions for pedagogy emerges a lifelong commitment to thinking," Farred, professor of Africana studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, writes in "The Perversity of Gratitude: An Apartheid Education."

In the book, which blends political and philosophical critique with personal reflection, Farred describes his experience of flourishing intellectually, despite and even thanks to being educated under apartheid, while also analyzing concepts that made such an education possible. Starting in 1976, he attended Livingstone High School in Cape Town and then University of the Western Cape, both segregated. Farred testifies how four remarkable teachers taught him how to think, a fundamental lesson that's guided his academic trajectory and informed his philosophy.

Read an interview with the author on the College of Arts and Sciences website.