Ph.D Dissertation presentation by DaQuan Lawrence (Howard University)
31 March @ 5:45 pm – 6:45 pm
In honour of Human Rights Month, Howard University Ph.D. candidate DaQuan Lawrence, presents research findings from his dissertation entitled, “Urban Class Structure in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Case Studies from Johannesburg and Tshwane”.
Amid the 32nd anniversary of South Africa’s transition to a democratic and post-apartheid society, Lawrence research consists of an investigation of the class structure in post-apartheid South Africa’s municipalities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. The study seeks to discover how race continues to shape urban class constructions in South Africa, and how the middle class defined in urban South Africa.
Lawrence seeks to construct rudimentary but sophisticated class categories that are informed by South Africans. Utilizing class analysis tools provided by African diaspora scholars the theoretical bases of class in advanced industrialized societies of Western civilization are revised in order to allow application to 21st century, urban South African conditions.
DaQuan Lawrence is an international human rights activist and Sasakawa Young Leaders Foundation Fellow who hails from Harlem, New York. Lawrence currently works as a middle school educator, international freelance journalist and an African Studies Ph.D. candidate at Howard University. With a background in NYC foster homes and experience in urban poverty, he uses public policy research and human rights advocacy to equip young people, marginalized communities, nonprofit practitioners, as well as public and private sector representatives with the tools to change social and economic conditions.
His current research focuses on public policy in Africa, and his dissertation is a qualitative mixed methods study that investigates class and urban segregation through a Marxist, Weberian, and pro- and pan-African conceptual framework. Lawrence seeks to develop new post-Marxist, international class categories based on an African perspective of the global political economy, that can be utilized in both developed and underdeveloped nations. He utilizes his experience to lead the nonprofit he cofounded, Strong Men Overcoming Obstacles Through Hard-work, (SMOOTH) Inc., which is a mentoring, professional development and community service organization for Black males. He is also the founder and CEO of the business consulting firm Lawrence International, and creator of GlobalBlackForum.com, a network that connects the African diaspora across nations, sectors and generations.
Lawrence has worked for Washington D.C.-based nonprofits and international nongovernment organizations such as the Urban Institute and the Center for African Studies at Howard University on policy programs, research, and human rights advocacy. He has experience working on public policy research in Haiti, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Liberia, South Africa and in the United States. Lawrence is a graduate of Morgan State University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a delegate for the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
The event will also be livestreamed here and here