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Dr Mchunu Khaya

Head of Fashion Department
Name: Mchunu Khaya
Location: G041, FADA Building, APB Bunting Road Campus
FADA Fashion Design Staff, FADA Management Staff  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: +27 (0)11-559-4674

Email: khayam@uj.ac.za

About Dr Mchunu Khaya

Qualification National Diploma in Fashion (UJ) Bachelor’s Degree in Technology: Fashion (UJ) Master’s Degree in Technology: Fine Arts (cum laude, UJ) Supervisors:

  • Kim Berman
  • Lara Allen
  • Desiree Smal

PhD in Visual and Performing Arts (DUT) Supervisors:

  • Rolf Gaede
  • Hester du Plessis

Research interests

  • South African fashion studies and history
  • South African dress and fashion archives for alternative fashion imaginaries and narratives
  • Community sewing circles
  • Transdisciplinarity and creative practices

Publications

1. Khaya Mchunu and Kiara Gounder. 2024. Drum magazine project: A decolonial shift in teaching fashion theory and history. DISCERN: International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Available: https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J/article/view/162.

2. Khaya Mchunu. 2023. The PhD journey: Reflections + Creative Practices. NIHSS Alumni: Doctoral Journey Reflections (Unaccredited publication)

3. Khaya Mchunu. 2023. The activism of Simon Nkoli’s clothed and styled body. Gender Questions 11(1): 1-23. Available: https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/GQ/article/view/11822

4. Khaya Mchunu. 2023. Matri-archive, matrilineality and creativity in beadwork: Toward an inclusive design process. Design and Culture. Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2022.2141802.

5. Khaya Mchunu. 2023. The boubou and post-colonial African musical performances: Ami Koïta, Bi Kidude and Sibongile Khumalo. Fashion Theory. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1362704X.2022.2102857?src=

6. Khaya Mchunu and Busisiwe Memela. 2022. Existence is resistance: A reflection on Dr. Beverly Ditsie’s 90s quare fashion. Biography: An interdisciplinary quarterly 45(3): 249-270. Available: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/882912

7. Tinashe Mutero, Khaya Mchunu, and Ivan Govender. 2021. Sewing friendship: Increasing inclusivity through creating shared social spaces for migrant and local populations in Durban. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning 9(1): 1-18. Available: https://www.cristal.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/236/292.

8. Khaya Mchunu. 2020. Self-representation in the works of Busisiwe Nzama: An analysis of the Frida ‘little travellers’ and more. Image and Text Special Issue 34: 1-30. Available: http://www.imageandtext.up.ac.za/imageandtext/article/view/221/214

9. Khaya Mchunu and Busisiwe Memela. 2019. Fashioning Resistance: The Unsung Fashions of Miriam ‘Mama Africa’ Makeba. Alternation Special Edition Volume 26. Available: http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/articles/special-editions/26/04-Mchunu.pdf

10. Khaya Mchunu. 2019. Appraising understandings of a social justice-infused pedagogy: Adinkra symbols as probes. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South 3(2). Available: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=85&path%5B%5D=47

11. Khaya Mchunu. 2019. Sewing 4 Africa – skills training, solidarity and African sisterhood. Agenda – Empowering women for gender equity 33(1). Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.2019.1598274

12. Khaya Mchunu and Sunthra Moodley. 2019. Students’ reflection on co-design: A cross-disciplinary collaboration between two SADC countries. South African Journal of Higher Education 33(2). Available: https://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe/article/view/2829

13. Khaya Mchunu and Kim Berman. 2018. Arts-based methods as tools for co-design in a South African community-based design co-operative. Cubic Journal 1(1). Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324566885_Arts-based_methods_as_tools_for_co-design_in_a_South_African_community-based_design_co-operative

14. Khaya Mchunu. 2017. Preparing fashion students for a socially engaged university project through Zulu Proverbs. Conference proceedings for DEFSA conference 2017
Theme of conference: Decolonise
Available: https://www.defsa.org.za/sites/default/files/downloads/2017conference/Mchunu%23decolonise.pdf

15. Khaya Mchunu. 2014. The use of co-operative inquiry to enhance collaboration and participatory design in a South African rural sewing co-operative.
Conference proceedings for the Cumulus Johannesburg Conference
Theme of conference: Designing with the other 90%: Changing the world by Design
Available: https://www.cumulusassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CumulusJoburgProceedings_Sep14.pdf