Reimagining Belonging: To Whom Does the University Belong?

This article investigates the phenomenon of belonging and the lived precarity of postdoctoral research fellows (hereafter postdocs) in the South African academy. It particularly references the author's lived experience of precarity as a postdoc in two South African historically white universities (WHUs) between 2023 and 2025 using a combination of mixed methods from critical autoethnography, multiple storytelling and case studies to highlight the effects of racial oppression and challenges of belonging among postdocs in modern university educational system in the Global South. The article is framed through the theoretical lens of decolonial theory and Black existentialism. Postdoc precarity, facultyless , immaturity and postdoc invisibility are some of the common themes that are linked to the shared dimensions of the struggles of postdocs in the South African neoliberal university. As a Black postdoc, the author engages the intersection between neoliberal precarity and Black-specific experiences of postdocs and how forces of neoliberalism and colonialism combine to shape Black postdocs’ sense of belonging, identity and academic trajectories. The findings suggest that although Black postdocs experience precarity compared to postdocs of other racial backgrounds, however, their situation is distinct owing to legacies of racial oppression and colonialism.