In May 2021, Dr Cleo Karrim was officially appointed as Head of School for the School of Education at MANCOSA.
She graduated with a PhD from UKZN in 2021. The title of her research was “Negotiating femininity and marginalisation: Coloured teenage girls accommodating and resisting violence, poverty and hypersexual masculinities in a predominantly Coloured township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa”.
On 2 April 2022 she launched her first book, “Proudly Brown – Identifying You” which tells the largely untold stories of Coloured people in KwaZulu-Natal.
“Whilst there may be several stories written about Coloured people, many of these stories are set in the Western Cape. The history of Coloured people in South Africa is rich and it is important for us to understand the richness that exists within the province of KwaZulu-Natal as well,” she said.
“Proudly Brown” takes a glimpse into the lives of 13 people who have been defined as Coloured in South Africa. Their stories provide a historical overview of the lives of Coloured people pre-Apartheid, during the Apartheid era and post-Apartheid. These stories show how they have negotiated their identity in the current social, economic and political context of South Africa.
Dr Karrim is currently working on the research component of an MBA. The focus of her research is: “Exploring leadership styles and its impact on organisational performance. A case study of three schools in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal”.