Nicoli Nattrass

Nicoli Nattrass is a Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. She is the Co-Director of the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild),[1] and was the founding director of the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) and previously the director of the AIDS and Society Research Unit (ASRU) within the CSSR[2] at the University of Cape Town (one of the first academic organisations in South Africa to study the socio-economic and political impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic). Nattrass was active in the anti-Apartheid struggle in working with the National Union of South African Students. Nattrass is one of South Africa's most highly-recognised and -cited scholars, with an h-index of 42 and 115 outputs having at least 10 citations.[3] In addition to research articles Nattrass has published 11 books,[4] five of which are in the areas of economic policy, political-economy, and the cultural and behavioural aspects of AIDS.[5][6] Nattrass has twice won UCT's book award which recognises outstanding books written by members of staff [7]. Her most widely-cited research focuses on HIV/AIDS and the scientific governance of medicines, and on income inequalities and the political economy of post-Apartheid South Africa.[8]

Nicoli Nattrass
OccupationProfessor
Awards2005 University of Cape Town book award
2008 Bill Venter/Altron Literary Award
University of Cape Town distinguished teacher award 2001
Academic background
Alma materStellenbosch University, University of Natal, Oxford University
Thesis'Wages, Profits and Apartheid'
Academic work
Era21st Century
DisciplineEconomics
InstitutionsUniversity of Cape Town
Main interestsHIV/AIDS
Notable worksClass, race, and inequality in South Africa, The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa
InfluencedSeth Kalichman

During the period of AIDS denialism in South Africa, Nattrass was an advocate of public access to science-based AIDS treatment. In the court-case brought by civil society organisations against the South African state, Nattrass authored an affidavit in which she modelled the cost-effectiveness of HIV medicines as both a public health and human rights imperative.[9] Nattrass was critical of Thabo Mbeki's AIDS policy in South Africa, and was threatened with libel charges by a Government Minister for documenting the South African Cabinet's support for unproven HIV treatments.[10] This charge was never formally laid, and Nattrass's research on the cost-effectiveness of HIV treatment was formative in the Constitutional Court's decision to rule against the South African government and to mandate the government to provide public access to antiretroviral treatment for HIV-positive people.

In a study published in 2008, Nattrass estimated that more than 340,000 unnecessary AIDS deaths in South Africa between 1999 and 2007 were the result of this policy.[11] The results of this study were later corroborated, using a different methodology, by scientists at Harvard University.[12] They too modelled AIDS-related mortality and morbidity in South Africa as the result of the government's decision not to provide public access to HIV medicines.

Academic background

Nattrass received her undergraduate and Master's degrees from Stellenbosch University and University of Natal, a master's degree in development economics and a doctorate degree with a thesis on 'Wages, Profits and Apartheid' from Oxford University. [5] She was awarded the Rhodes Scholar in 1984 which funded her doctoral studies.[13]

Works to counter AIDS denialism
Main article: HIV/AIDS denialism

Between 2002 and 2012, Nattrass published a number of academic articles and books to examine the history, sources, characteristics of AIDS denialism and its impact on HIV prevention and AIDS treatment.[5][6]

In her book The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa, written at the height of AIDS denialism, Nattrass repudiated the South African government's claim that antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) were unaffordable. She demonstrated that by not implementing mother to child transmission prevention programs, the cost to treat sick children who acquired AIDS from their mother was greater than to prevent the tragedy from happening.[14]

Nattrass estimated that Mbeki's denialist policies led to the early deaths of more than 340,000 South Africans and 171,000 infections, which she likened to 'genocide'. She attributed the slow and ineffective governmental response to the country's massive AIDS epidemic directly to the influence of the AIDS denialists.[11]

In her 2012 article in Skeptical Inquirer[15] and book The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back,[16] Nattrass examines the landscape of the AIDS denialist community and identifies four groups of characters: hero scientists (provide scientific credibility); cultropreneurs (promote non-evidence based, unproven alternative treatment); living icons (proof that HIV is not the cause of AIDS) and praise singers (journalists and film makers who promote the cause). She observes that they each fill their own important role in the intractable propagation of the movement and their intertwined and symbiotic relationships are established through their shared anti-science and conspiratorial stance, and beliefs in alternative medicine and treatment. Nattrass describes how pro-science activists fought back by deploying empirical evidence and giving political credibility to refute AIDS conspiracy theories, as part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine and combat pseudoscience.

2020 Controversy

On 27 May 2020, the South African Journal of Science published a commentary by Nattrass, Why are black South African students less likely to consider studying biological sciences? which sought to explore why conservation biology, zoology and the other biological sciences subjects struggle to attract black South African students.[17] The commentary reported exploratory results of an opportunistic survey of 211 students (obtained by approaching students during the lunch break) conducted by the University of Cape Town's Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild). The survey results concluded that black South African students are less likely to consider studying biological sciences than other students, in part, due to career aspirations associated with materialist values and attitudes to local wildlife. Due to the relatively high proportion of black South African students who disagreed that 'humans evolved from apes', Nattrass pointed to school level failures with regard to the teaching of biological sciences as well as the strength of religiosity in South Africa. Nattrass further found a strong relationship between the number of different pets owned by students and their likelihood to consider taking up biological sciences as a course of study.

In a statement released on 05 June 2020, the University of Cape Town's executive condemned the publication and stated that it would investigate Nattrass.[18] The UCT Executive's statement alleged that the commentary was constructed on 'unexamined assumptions about what black people think', and required further investigation. Nattrass responded to the Executive of the University of Cape Town's statement rejecting its allegations and implication that the work was racist and accused the Executive of having 'legitimated scholarly intolerance' through its statement. Nattrass further accused the Executive's statement of bearing 'the hallmarks of a rushed, error-filled, hatchet-job'. She criticised the moves of the UCT Executive as an '...attempt to advance an ideological agenda through manufacturing and mobilizing outrage'.[19] The Democratic Alliance came forward in support of Nattrass and academic freedom and issued its own statement.[20] Nattrass gave a radio interview with Talk702 were she defended her piece.[21]

On 07 June 2020, South Africa's largest weekly print newspaper, Sunday Times, named Nattrass the "Mampara of the Week".[22] It claimed that her research was 'utter nonsense' and established on 'baseless racial stereotypes'. Nattrass, who has long claimed to support the principles of academic freedom, and who has taught an estimated 10,000 undergraduate students in the course of her career as an undergraduate lecturer, grader and invigilator in Economics, did not comment on this award, which parodies flawed achievements.

On 09 June 2020, the Academy of Science of South Africa issued a statement in which it asserted the principles of academic freedom and editorial independence.[23] Serialized on the 09 June 2020 and 10 June 2020 Nattrass wrote a two part series titled: "Tumult at UCT". Part 1 was subtitled 'The challenges of transformation'. [24] Part 2 was subtitled 'The dangers of allowing the thought police to take over'.[25]

On 16 June 2020, the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) expressed concern at Nattrass's failure to engage more reflexively with her contribution to a publication that has not met the minimum standards of rigorous scholarship. The statement also pointed out the implicit racial stereotypes that are embedded in the racialized logic of how Nattrass both conceptualized the study and interpreted the research results.

On 16 June 2020, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) published an article entitled: Is the Messenger the Message? Notes on Nicoli Nattrass’ ‘Commentary’ authored by Jimi O. Adesina (PhD). The article methodically critiqued the deeply troubling and very poor study design as well as the problematic presuppositions underpinning Nattrass's commentary. Adesina also critiqued the misapplication of the principle of "academic freedom" evoked by Nattrass and those who support her.

Other works

Nattrass has collaborated with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development for which she co-authored the South African study for the project ‘Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes’.[26] Nattrass also was a visiting professor at Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University.[27]

In 2019 she co-authored the book Inclusive Dualism: Labour-intensive development, decent work and surplus labour in Southern Africa with Jeremy Seekings.[28]

Awards
  • Nattrass's first book on the subject of AIDS, The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa won the 2005 University of Cape Town book award[29] and the 2008 Bill Venter/Altron Literary Award.[30]
  • University of Cape Town distinguished teacher award 2001.[5]
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References
  1. "iCWild - Our team". Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. "ASRU - Overview - Researchers". Centre for Social Science Research. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. "Nicoli Nattrass (Google Scholar)". Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  4. "Nicoli Nattrass". Office of Visiting Scholars, Exchanges, and Fellowships. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  5. "Prof Nicoli Nattrass". Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  6. "Nicoli Nattrass Research & Publications". School of Economics, University of Cape Town. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  7. "University of Cape Town Book Award". Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  8. Seekings, J.; Nattrass, N. (2008). Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12875-8. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  9. Heywood, Mark (2004). "Preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in South Africa" (PDF). South African Journal of Human Rights. 19 (2).
  10. Nattrass, Nicoli. Mortal combat: AIDS denialism and the struggle for antiretrovirals in South Africa. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
  11. Nattrass, Nicoli (2008). "AIDS and the Scientific Governance of Medicine in Post-Apartheid South Africa". African Affairs. Oxford University Press. 107 (427): 157–176. doi:10.1093/afraf/adm087.
  12. Chigwedere, Pride; Essex, M. (8 January 2010). "AIDS Denialism and Public Health Practice". AIDS and Behavior. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 14 (2): 237–247. doi:10.1007/s10461-009-9654-7. ISSN 1090-7165.
  13. "Rhodes Scholar List". Oxford University. Archived from the original on 23 December 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  14. Nattrass, Nicoli (2004). The Moral Economy of AIDS in South Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 224. ISBN 0521548640.
  15. Nattrass, Nicoli (2012). "The Social and Symbolic Power of AIDS Denialism". Skeptical Inquirer. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. 36 (July/August): 34–38.
  16. Nattrass, Nicoli (2012). The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back. Cambridge University Press. pp. 240. ISBN 0231149123.
  17. Nattrass, Nicoli (27 May 2020). "Why are black South African students less likely to consider studying biological sciences?". South African Journal of Science. 116 (5/6). doi:10.17159/sajs.2020/7864. ISSN 1996-7489. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  18. Moholola, Elijah. "Statement by the UCT executive on research paper by academic" (pdf). uct.ac.za. Communication and Marketing Department - UCT. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  19. McCain, Nicole (6 June 2020). "UCT prof at centre of race storm hits back, accuses varsity of 'hatchet-job' response". News24. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  20. "UCT is on a slippery slope to censoring its own academics and must retract its ill-considered reaction to Professor Nattrass' research paper". Democratic Alliance. 7 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  21. "I don't understand why anyone thinks this is dehumanising or racist - UCT Prof". 702. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  22. HOGARTH (7 June 2020). "Mampara of the week: Prof Nicoli Natrass". TimesLIVE. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  23. "ASSAf statement on Nattrass article". Home. 1 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  24. Nattrass, Nicoli (9 June 2020). "Tumult at UCT Part 1 - the challenges of transformation". Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  25. Nattrass, Nicoli (10 June 2020). "Tumult at UCT Part 2: The dangers of allowing the thought police to take over". Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  26. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. "Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes". Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  27. "Visiting Professor, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs". Yale University. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  28. Nattrass, N.; Seekings, J (2019). Inclusive Dualism: Labour-Intensive Development, Decent Work, and Surplus Labour in Southern Africa. Critical Frontiers of Theory, Research, and Policy in International Development Studies. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-884146-3. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  29. "Book marries ethical and economic aspects of AIDS". University of Cape Town. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  30. "Nicoli Nattrass Wins Top Academic Book Prize". University of Cape Town, School of Economics. 8 July 2008. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
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