The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade: mobilising creative ecologies in the Klein Karoo, South Africa
A new publication by Aja Marneweck explores the multifaceted process of creating the large-scale annual public puppetry event, The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade, in the rural town of Barrydale, South Africa.
Illumination in Dark Times: David Scott on Stuart Hall
Professor David Scott is currently Extraordinary Professor in the CHR from 2019-2021.
Suren Pillay speaks on xenophobic violence
Professor Suren Pillay of the CHR participated in a conversation around xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Professor Huey Copeland awarded Sawyer Seminars Grant
The Centre for Humanities Research warmly congratulates Professor Huey Copeland on the award of the $225,000 Sawyer Seminars grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to convene the international project, “The Black Arts Archive: The Challenge of Translation.”
Nsima Udo Wins Africa Thesis Award
Nsima Udo, CHR Doctoral Fellow with the SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory wins prestigious Africa Thesis Award from the African Studies Centre of the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.
The Final Spring
2019’s edition of the annual giant puppet parade and performance in Barrydale features electro-acoustic musical compositions, fantastical masked creatures, and a narrative exploring the global climate crisis and ecological disaster.
Call for Proposal to Organise a Workshop
The African Critical Inquiry Programme invites proposals from scholars and/or practitioners in public cultural institutions in South Africa to organise a workshop to take place in 2021.
Call for Applications: Ivan Karp Research Awards
The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2020 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled at South African universities and conducting dissertation research on relevant topics.
A Public Conversation with Mamela Nyamza
Mamela Nyamza is an award-winning artist, choreographer, dancer and performer.
Seminar: Sam Longford
Governing the ungovernable: contested legacies at the Chris Hani Memorial
Dying For Gold Screening and Discussion
The story of 120 years of gold mining and racial capitalism leads to disease and extreme poverty which endures into the present. Through more than a century of deep level gold mining in South Africa, a legacy of illness, death and inequality has left its mark on the Southern African continent.
A Tribute to Paul Grendon
On 7 September 2019, prolific photographer and friend of the CHR Paul Grendon passed away. Patricia Hayes offers a tribute to his life and work.
Call for Papers – Revolutionary Papers: Counter-Institutions, Politics and Culture in Periodicals of the Global South workshop
The workshop will examine 20th century periodicals and related print ephemera – including newspapers, cultural and literary journals, magazines, manifestoes, newsletters and political pamphlets – as sites of Left, anti-imperial and anti-colonial critical production throughout decolonization, anti-Apartheid struggles, and the post-colonial era.
The Crime Scene
Written and directed by CHR fellow Zuko Sikhafungana, The Crime Scene is on at Theatre Arts Admin Collective in early November.
The Last Season
This year’s annual giant puppet parade and performance in Barrydale features electro-acoustic musical compositions, fantastical masked creatures, and a narrative exploring the global climate crisis and ecological disaster.
Launch of Mellon South Lab in Performance Cultures and Embodied Creative Practices
The Andrew W Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Per-formance and the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects is involved in an excit-ing partnership between the CHR at UWC and the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures at the University of Virginia.
Seminar: Fernanda Pinto de Almeida
Cinema desegregation and the fall of a drive-in’s ‘Berlin Wall’
Seminar: Mahvish Ahmed
Afro-Asian World-Making from the Underground in Balochistan’s Jabbal
Other Lives of the Image: International Workshop in Visual History and Theory
From 4 – 6 October, the International Workshop in Visual History and Theory will convene around the theme Other Lives of the Image.
Art, public space, and cities of the South
Cities in Development: Between Dystopia and Utopia
CHR Director Hands Over the Baton
The Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) congratulates Professor Premesh Lalu on his 12 years as Director of the CHR, and is excited to announce the next stage of his work with the CHR and UWC.
CHR’s Valmont Layne Graduates with PhD focusing on Goema music
The CHR congratulations to Valmont Layne for graduating with his doctorate, with a thesis that focuses on the history of Goema music in Cape Town and its intricate links to Cape Jazz.
Dr Thozama April awarded The Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Award
The CHR congratulates Dr. April on receiving The Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Award.
The South African Students’ Organisation and the Black Consciousness Legacy
Dr. Saleem Badat
Seminar: Elizabeth Harney
We the North? Caravan and the Crafting of a Multicultural Toronto
Seminar: Annelize Kotze and Bongani Ndhlovu
Subjugation, exposure and healing: Human remains, museums and indigenous communities
Built Form, Design, and the Politics of the City
Visiting Scholars at the CHR Steve Akoth and Tom Asher will run a seminar on spatial formations as an object of analysis.
Seminar: Mwayi Lusaka
Heritage of Diplomacy Or ‘Scottish Exceptionalism?’:The Memory of David Livingstone and Malawi – Scotland Relations
What is the University for?
A new paper by Professor Premesh Lalu has been published in Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory.
Seminar: Okechukwu Nwafor
Funeral Poster and Pre-Funeral Visual Economy in southeastern Nigeria
CHR’s Phokeng in Curatorial Intensive Residency in Dakar
Between the months of March and May 2019, Phokeng Setai participated in a curatorial intensive residency program with the Raw Material Company in Dakar, Senegal. During this program curatorial practices were discussed in their many variations – from the early beginnings of the practice to its current formulations.
KINESIS: Of Moving and Being Moved
Between July 6th and July 10th 2019, the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO) at the CHR hosted a colloquium on Subject/Object relations, in an ongoing exploration of Animation, Animism, Thing Theory, the Subject and the Object, Puppetry Arts and performance.
Video: Soft Thresholds
The CHR in partnership with African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and UCT School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatic and Wolff Architects hosted a lecture titled Soft Thresholds by practicing architect and educator Rahul Mehrotra.
2020 African Critical Inquiry Workshop: Rethinking Resilience
The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is pleased to announce that the 2020 ACIP workshop will be Rethinking Resilience.
African Critical Inquiry Programme Announces 2019 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards
The African Critical Inquiry Programme has named Bronwyn Kotzen and Ngozi May Okafor as recipients of the 2019 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards.
Challenges of Translation: CHCI Global Humanities Institute Santiago 2019
Theoretical Issues, Practical Densities: Violence, Memory, and the Untranslatable
CHR’s Khalid Shamis at the CHAM Conference 2019
PRODUCING IN THE PRESENT, PRESSURING THE PAST, FOR AN IMMEDIATE FUTURE. The key to the future lies in the past. The archive of the past is our immediate future. The question is not that we merely take and place the archive. We are not merely inheritors of a culture but its inherent makers.
Luis Gimenez Amoros CD Launch
The CHR is delighted to introduce the A.W. Mellon Artist in Residence in Sound, Image and Movement for 2019, musician and musicologist, Dr Luis Giminez.
Professor Premesh Lalu celebrates David Koloane’s life
Professor Premesh Lalu celebrates David Koloane’s life as a purveyor of “a lover’s discourse” and he is described by former president Thabo Mbeki as “a fighter for the liberation of our people.”
Ukwanda Wins at Makhanda
The CHR production of Warona performed by Ukwanda Puppetry and Design Collective has been voted the 2019 Standard Bank Ovation Award at the Makhanda Arts Festival.
Other lives of the image
Call for papers: International Workshop in Visual History & Theory
Heidi Grunebaum selected for 2019/2020 Chapbook Series
Heidi Grunebaum has been selected as one of seven manuscripts for publication in the 2019/202 Chapbook Series.
Jacob Cloete Graduates with PhD in Political Studies
Congratulations to Jacob Cloete for completing his PhD studies in Political Studies with research topic that focuses on the politics of belonging in the complex context of North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Winter School 2019: Dissensus
This year’s Winter School holds three distinct thematic inquiries.
Tony Miyambo On Tour
CHR Artist in Residence Tony Miyambo is on tour performing Kafka’s Ape and The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri.
Oratorio Of A Forgotten Youth: Musical Reflections On The Youth Of ’76
CHR Artist in Residence Mandla Mlangeni presents his Oratorio of A Forgotten Youth at Artscape from 15 June 2019.
Mandla Mlangeni and Amandla Freedom Ensemble Live in Cape Town
Mandla Mlangeni leads the Amandla Freedom Ensemble in an interdisciplinary collaborative musical endeavour that took place in different venues in Cape Town and Stellenbosch between 12 – 16 May.
From platform to plotform: Artistic thinking in spaces of flux
This session shares work in progress on an African Centre for Cities (ACC) research project led by Kim Gurney called Platform/ Plotform to help forward future work and interdisciplinary outputs
Lion’s Share: Remaking South African Copyright
A Humanities in Session Lecture by Prof. Veit Erlmann
Reckoning with Africa and the Desire for a Global Mnemoscape
A new paper by Next Generation Scholars Lauren van der Rede and Aidan Erasmus has appeared in a global-e Special Issue Series on Mnemonic Solidarity in the Global Memory Space.
Democracy, Consensus and Citizenship
and the Book Launch of Consensus as Democracy in Africa by Prof Bernard Matolino (UKZN)
Seminar: Claudia Gastrow
The Discomforts of Home: Infrastructure, Aesthesis and Political Belonging
The Curricular and the Global, the Tropic and the Taxonomic
The Global Humanities Curriculum Workshop held in December of 2018 enabled a rich set of connections and convergences around questions of the curriculum.
Sex and the Profane: FAKA, Abject Erotics, and the Politics of Deviance in post-apartheid South Africa
A Humanities in Session Lecture by Assistant Professor Jordache A. Ellapen
Article in New Literary History Recognising the work of the CHR
James Chandler acknowledges the CHR in a publication on aesthetic education and sensibility.
CHR Fellows and Faculty Win at National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Awards
Heidi Grunebaum, Kurt Campbell, Reza Khota, and Kitso Lelliot won awards in the Book, Creative Collection and Digital Contribution 2019 Awards Ceremony of the NIHSS.
Net vir Pret at the Assitej Creative Arts Training Programme for After School Practitioners and The Future Focus Education Conference
Five new interns and three staff members from Net vir Pret participated in the week long workshops focused on Creative Arts development for After School Practitioners.
Global Africa: African and African Diaspora Studies in the 21st Century
Professor Premesh Lalu attended an international conference at the Africa Institute, in Sharjah (UAE).
Seminar: Raquel Schefer
The Representation of Ritual and Cinema as a Ritual in Revolutionary Mozambique: Ruy Guerra’s “Mueda, Memória e Massacre”
Kronos: Southern African Histories 44
Missing and Missed: Subject, Politics, Memorialisation (Special Issue)
Seminar: Kass Banning
John Akomfrah’s Purple: Notes Towards Deciphering Habitus Beyond A Planetary Sublime
A Look Back at the 2019 Mellon Africa Humanities Workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
In January, CHCI held its first Africa Humanities Workshop in Addis Ababa, hosted by Elizabeth Giorgis, Associate Professor of Art History, Criticism and Theory in the College of Performing and Visual Art and the Center for African Studies at Addis Ababa University.
Seminar: Ryan Nefdt
Ideal Theory in Politics as Ideal Theory in Politics as Scientific Modelling
Africa as Concept and Method: Emancipation, Decolonization, Freedom
The Consortium of Humanities Centres and Institutes (CHCI) Africa Workshop 2019 was hosted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with scholars from the CHR attending.
2019 Annual African History Lecture
A panel discussion titled ‘The Living Legacies of Samora Machel’ will explore the iconic figure from different perspectives.
#Freespace and Places of Remembrance
Next Generation Researcher Kim Gurney will be participating in a panel discussion and public art installation
Luis Gimenez Amoros Performance at Casa Labia Cultural Centre
CHR Artist in Residence and postdoctoral fellow Luis Gimenez will perform on 1 February.
Sara Guyer to Join CHR as Affiliate Researcher
Professor Sara Guyer is the President of the Consortium of Humanities Centres and Institutes.
An Inheritance of Predicaments: Temporality, Identity, and Location
Professor Suren Pillay will deliver the keynote lecture at Yale-NUS College Diversity Week.
Thinking across hemispheres: Further notes on oversights and blind spots in disciplinary African Studies
New Publication by Professor Premesh Lalu
The Practice of Post-Apartheid Freedom
Professor Premesh Lalu joins Trinity Long Room Arts and Humanities Research Institute as Visiting Research Fellow, from January to March 2019.
Five CHR Fellows to Graduate
UWC December Graduation features CHR doctoral and masters fellows
Africa and the Crisis of Globalization
The CHR supports four scholars attending the 15th CODESRIA General Assembly
Visiting Fellows at Jackman Humanities Institute
Aesthetic Education: A South-North Dialogue
Land: Does the will of the majority trump the spirit of the Constitution?
Interview with Ralph Mathekga on Radio 702
Appointment of Professor David Scott as Extraordinary Professor 2019-2021
Professor Scott will be working with the Mellon-funded supranational project, Other Universals: Theorizing from Postcolonial Locations on Politics and Aesthetics.
Decolonizing Critical Theory: Decolonial Aesthetics and Epistemic Violence
CHR Director Professor Premesh Lalu to speak at workshop at Northwestern University
Re-Imagining as Destruction and Creation
Next Generation Scholar Kim Gurney to speak at Norval Foundation Symposium
Pan Troglodyte to travel to the Université Paris
Professor Jane Taylor to present performance/lecture in November
Reza Khota Quartet to play at Cape Town International Jazz Festival
CHR Artist in Residence to perform at 20th annual festival
Marxism, Radical Traditions and the South: Reflections on “Stuart Hall’s Voice”
The Other Universals consortium of the CHR invites you to a panel
RIVER AND REDFIN
The CHR and Net Vir Pret Annual Giant Puppet Parade and Performance, Barrydale, 16 December 2018
Jakes Gerwel – Celebrating an icon’s legacy
The life and legacy of the late Prof Jakes Gerwel, former UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, was recently celebrated with, among other things, a keynote address by anti-apartheid activist, Jay Naidoo.
2019 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards
Call for Applications for African students enrolled in South African Ph.D programmes
African Critical Inquiry Programme Call for Proposals
Call for Proposals to Organise a Workshop
Mandla Mlangeni receives 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist Award
CHR Artist in Residence in Jazz
Seminar: Philipp Schorch
Two Germanies: ethnographic museums, (post) colonial exhibitions, and the ‘cold odyssey’ of Pacific objects between East and West.
The Subject Races: Populations, Classifications, Justice
The workshop is therefore interested in how we might think, conceptually, historically, politically, about the figure of the subject races across these African experiences.
Pan Troglodyte
A Performance by Jane Taylor, Tony Miyambo, and Terry Norton at the Centre for the Less Good Idea
Seminar: Anaïs Nony
Technologies of Colonial Episteme and the Axiology of Imperial Discourse
Decolonization and the Aesthetic Cold War: Towards an Intellectual History
Seminar by Professor Peter Kalliney
A Future Museum Against Apartheid
This short documentary film showcases the work of the Art Against Apartheid collection.
Report of the Activities of the Chair of LoKO in the second quarter
LoKO (the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects) is immersed in a busy cycle of making and thinking.
Seminar: Clémentine Deliss
Manifesto for the rights of access to colonial collections sequestered in Western Europe
The Photography of History: Sally Mann at Antietam
Keynote Lecture at International Workshop
A screening of Whispering Truth to Power
Filmmaker and human rights lawyer Shameela Seedat tracks Thuli Madonsela
Seminar: Swati Arora
Left to ‘biyaasi number’: Janam, Street Theatre and Urban Space in Delhi
Using Film to Reconnect South Africa to Early Liberation Heroes
A Lecture and Film Screening by Professor Chérif Keita
Seminar: Stephanie Vos
Exile and Migration: Performing Connections through the Metaphor of the Train
On the Edge of History: Photographs & African Archives
International Workshop on Visual History & Theory
Public Lecture: Elizabeth Giorgis
Professor Giorgis teaches Art Theory and Criticism in the Graduate School of the College of Performing and Visual Art at the Modern Art Museum: Gebre Kristos Desta Center at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
New Accents on the Social
Out of History, Unsettled History, and Remains of the Social Review by Crain Soudien.
New Research Collaborations
Mnemonic Solidarities, Global Humanities Institute: The Challenges of Translation
Winter School 2018
The 2018 Winter School and Retreat held from 3 – 6 July 2018 will bring together questions of desire, technology, and practice under the title After Technology.
New Work by Ukwanda Puppetry Collective and LoKO
The CHR's artists in residence, the uKwanda puppetry group, is in rehearsal, working with director Thando […]
Encounters Film Festival awards and special mentions
The CHR congratulates doctoral fellow Rui Assubuji on winning the Ster Kinekor Encounters Youth Experience Award for Best Short Film at the 20th Encounters Film Festival.
Life is Wonderful Film Screening
July 2018 is the 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth. And the Rivonia Trial is one of the most extraordinary in legal history.
Louis Moholo in conversation
CHR will be hosting a public conversation with jazz drumming great Louis Moholo at the Guga S’thebe Community Centre in Langa at 6.30 pm on June 8th 2018
The Art of Puppetry
Professor Jane Taylor, Andrew W Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance, was in conversation with Northwestern University theatre historian Professor Dassia Posner on puppetry and object theatre.
Encounters Film Festival
The CHR is pleased to announce that three documentaries produced as part of the Documentary Film course will show at this years 20th Annual Encounters South African International Film Festival.
Seminar: Sarah Godsell
“What is the point?” Potentials of Decolonising History: in teacher education spaces, and school classrooms
Public Lecture: South Africa’s Hosting of the 2018 BRICS Summit
Public Lecture hosted by The Centre for Humanities Research and the Department of Political Studies
CANCELLED Jon Soske: Book Launch Invitation
Join the NRF-DST Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities, University of the Western Cape and Wits University Press for the launch of historian, Jon Soske’s
Political Theory Reading Workshops
The Wiredu-Ezu Debate and Philosophy and “Real” Politics
Report of the Activities of the Chair of LoKO in the first quarter
The most recent very significant threshold to note is that the Greatmore building in Woodstock, which will house the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects, has finally…
CHCI Africa Workshop Addis 2019
Africa as Concept and Method: Emancipation, Decolonization, Freedom
CHR fellow invited to judge at Thola Drama Festival
This past month the CHR’s MA Fellow, Zuko Wonderfull Sikhafungana was invited to be a judge at the Third Annual Thola Drama Festival at the Lwandle Community Hall in Strand.
2018 International Roundtable at Institute for Global Citizenship (Macalester College)
Plenary Speaker Professor Premesh Lalu
A conversation with Ukwanda Puppet Artists from South Africa
Ukwanda Puppets & Designs Art Collective was developed through the mentorship of Handspring Puppet Company.
Seminar: Jacob Cloete
The pre-circulated paper for this seminar is accompanied by a short documentary by Jacob Cloete.
Workshop: Migrants, Markets and the Modalities of Rule
The Migrating Violence Research Platform of the Centre for Humanities Research presents a workshop on Migrants, Markets and the Modalities of Rule.
Honouring Handspring Puppet Company
On Saturday April 14th Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of Handspring Puppet Company were recipients of the Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts. The celebratory event took place at the Zeitz-MOCAA Museum.
Collaborative Voices Part 1. Two musicians in Johannesburg in the 1980s:
Please join us for a presentation by Biddy Partridge.
Seminar: Anita Chari
“I am your voice”: Aesthetics, Politics and the Materialization of Critique
Seminar: Armelle Gaulier
The Moppie Songs of the Colored Populations of Cape Town: Music and the Process of Creolization (South Africa)
Seminar: Valmont Layne
Tem Hawker, Yakhal Inkomo and the sentimental ‘avant-garde: Revisiting Cape jazz’s sonic archive’
Seminar: Redi Koobak
Seminar: Gender, Nation and War Art: Rethinking Artistic Responses to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan
Sexual Violence: Remembering, Representing, Resisting
Dialogue on Troubling Seasons of Hate
Two Workshops on Missingness
A workshop hosted by: African Critical Inquiry Program (ACIP), NRF Forensic History Project and Centre for Humanities Research, UWC.
Missing Subjects and the Subjects of Missingness
in collaboration with the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto
Kronos 43: What is the university in Africa for?
2017 Special Issue edited by Ross Truscott and Maurits Van Bever Donker
Publication: Fred Bidandi
The CHR would like to congratulate Migrating Violence Postdoctoral Fellow Fred Bidandi
Seminar: Julie MacArthur
Dissident Citizens: Genealogies of Sovereignty, Violence, and Belonging along the Kenya-Somali Frontier
New Research Grants Announcement
The Centre for Humanities Research is pleased to announce the award of two new research grants, beginning in 2018, from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.
Renosterbos: Barrydale Festival 2017
The end of each year, for Handspring Puppet Company and the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR, DST-NRF Flagship), has in the past eight years culmin
Ne’er So Much The Ape
The CHR invites you to a performance of Ne’er So Much The Ape, a work produced, directed and written by Professor Jane Taylor, and performed by Jane Taylor, Tony Miyambo and Terry Norton .
Ilze Wolff Nominated for Female Architect of the Year
The CHR congratulates Architectural Fellow Ilze Wolff on being shortlisted for the Women in Architecture Awards.
Hypocrisy: ‘Wherein the Action and Utterance of the Stage, Bar, and Pulpit are Distinctly Consider’d’
by Jane Taylor in Performing The Secular: Religion, Representation, and Politics (Eds) Milija Gluhovic and […]
New Jerusalem
The CHR is pleased to invite you to the opening of ‘New Jerusalem’, an exhibition of photographic work by the Visual History class of 2017.
Publication: Suren Pillay
Thinking the State from Africa: Political Theory, Eurocentrism and Concrete Politics
Unstitching Rex Trueform: The Story of An African Factory
A new publication by CHR Architectural Fellow Ilze Wolff
Awakenings: The Art of Lionel Davis
The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape is proud to […]
Public Screening: I Am Not Your Negro
The CHR will be hosting a public screening of Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro.
Seminar: G. Arunima
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
INDODA Film
The CHR is delighted to announce that Honours fellow, Zuko Sikhafungana’s latest achievement in the arts.
Seminar: Fernando Rosa
Travelling Spirits and the Civilisation de l’universel: Apotropaic Writing and the Myth of Disenchantment
Workshop: the (visual) subject
International Workshop on Visual History and Theory, Cape Town, 22-23 September 2017
Athlone in Mind Virtual Gallery
The virtual gallery of the Athlone in Mind exhibition is now live. The exhibition, book […]
Seminar: Ross Truscott
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Publication: Mwayi Lusaka
The CHR would like to congratulate doctoral fellow Mwayi Lusaka on the publication of his article.
CHCI Annual Meeting: The Humanities Improvised
The 2017 annual meeting of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) will explore the multiple ways in which improvisation has …
Jane Alexander
The CHR is happy to announce artist Jane Alexander as festival artist for the CHCI […]
The African Choir 1891 Re-imagined
An exhibition bringing into memory the performances of an Eastern Cape Choir touring the UK […]
Call for abstracts: the (visual) subject
The (visual) subject International Workshop on Visual History and Theory Cape Town 22 - 23 […]
Derek Gripper and Reza Khota
In preparation for their upcoming show at this year’s CHCI meeting at the Castle of […]
2018 African Critical Inquiry Workshop
Organizers of Missing and Missed, the 2018 ACIP Workshop: Nicky Rousseau and Ciraj Rassool
International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs
In June 2017, Premesh Lalu delivered a lecture on the Humanities and the Critique of Global Apartheid in Shanghai
Reza Khota Quartet at Standard Bank Jazz Festival
The National Arts Festival presents the Reza Khota Quartet as part of the Standard Bank Jazz Festival.
Say No to Sexual Violence
The CHR congratulates Honours Fellow Zuko Sikhafungana on winning first place in UWC’s HIV & AIDS Unit’s film competition.
Jazz and the Politics of Co-Creation
On Friday 23 June, Kelley gives a presentation titled Jazz and the Politics of Co-creation. Hosted by […]
Book Launch: Out of History and Unsettled History
The CHR and the Department of History, UWC invites you to a joint launch of […]
Reza Khota Quartet Inner Space Tour
The Inner Space Tour Inner Space is a play on the inner world of music […]
Public Lecture: Comparative Political Theory and Global Challenges
Vasileios Syros is a Senior Research Fellow of the Academy of Finland at the Finnish Centre of Political Thought & Conceptual Change.
Justice After Genocide: Namibia, Germany and Colonial Amnesia
Reinhart Kössler, a German scholar who studies the consequences of German colonial rule, its impact on the descendants of victims of the genocide
Seminar: Natasha Vally
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Olifantland
The Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, Handspring Puppet Company, Ukwanda, Net […]
Seminar: Roger Levine
Lived Racism in Segregation-era South Africa: a research agenda and a case study
Conversations: Hilton Schilder
Conversations is a new series of public dialogues with jazz musicians and their legacies convened by […]
Remains of the Social
The CHR and Wits University Press is pleased to announce the publication of: Remains of […]
Seminar: Todd Cleveland
Centre for Humanities Research and the Department of History, University of the Western Cape South […]
Public Lecture: Professor Gopal Guru
The formation and practice of Social and Political Theory in the Indian conceptual imagination have, by and large, been a low profile enterprise.
Documentary Film Workshop
From 18 - 20 April 2017, the CHR in collaboration with the Jackman Humanities Institute […]
Seminar: Women Miners and Mining Spaces
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Film Screening: Noma
The CHR's platform on Aesthetics and Politics invites you to a film screening as part […]
Reading Group and Seminar with Prof. Carlos Forment
Citizenship and Justice: Rethinking Political Theory and Political Philosophy.
Seminar: Cleaning the Slate of Distrust
The Vance Mission and the (Dis-)appearance of the ‘Amnesty Question’ on/from the Agenda of the Transitional Negotiations and in internal ANC
Seminar: Gramsci’s Bergson
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Book Launch: Thinking Freedom in Africa
Please join us for the launch of ‘Thinking Freedom in Africa: Toward a Theory of Emancipatory Politics’, a new book by Professor Michael Neocosmos
Tribute to Ncedile Daki and Mluleki Sam
The Factory of the Arts of the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape invites to you a tribute to artists Ncedile Daki and Mlu
Nigel Gibson Seminar on Fanon
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Voortrekker Gateways Exhibition Opening
Please join us for the opening of ‘Voortrekker Gateways’, an exhibition of work by Visual […]
I See You Wins Best New South African Script
The CHR is excited to announce that I See You, a play by Mongi Mthombeni, […]
Visiting Scholar Fellowship 2017
We invite established scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences to join a team of scholars and artists who, in conversation and coll
Workshop: Violent Pasts, Violent Futures?
The Migrating Violence research platform of the CHR presents a day workshop titled: Violent Pasts, […]
“Freedom Within the Walls:” Thomas Mott Osborne’s Participatory Panopticon
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Seminar: The African Resistance Fighter Jacon Marengo
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
The Passing of Ncedile Daki
It is with the greatest sorrow that we announce the death of our dear colleague […]
Seminar: Hostile Visual Encounters
Seminar in Contemporary History & Humanities Special Seminar Hostile visual encounters: fighting to control photographic […]
I See You Nominated for Fleur Du Cap Awards
Mongi Mthombeni’s play I See You has been nominated in a number of categories in […]
Seminar: State-Building and Techno-politics in Somaliland
South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar
Global Apartheid Course at the CHR
A Genealogy of Biopolitical Sovereignty February – May 2017 Centre for Humanities Research Professor Cesare […]
International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs
In December 2016, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a three-and-a-half year, $1,525,000 grant to […]
Museums, Publics and the Work of Activism
The field of museums, heritage, and memory work has seen significant developments in Canada and […]
Publication: Bongani Ndhlovu
The CHR is pleased to announce a new publication by post-doctoral fellow Bongani Ndhlovu.
In Equity: Experiences in the Arts
The Factory of the Arts presents a workshop and conversation on, “In Equity: Experiences in the Arts”.
Call for Proposals: Closing date: Monday 1 May 2017
Call for proposals to organize a workshop
African Critical Inquiry Programme: Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards – Closing date: Monday 1 May 2017
The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2017 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research […]
Publication: Recognition and Ethics in World Literature
The CHR is pleased to announce a new publication by former fellow Vincent Van Bever Donker.
Empathy’s Echo: post-apartheid fellow feeling
The CHR is pleased to announce a new publication Next Generation Scholar Ross Truscott.
SARChI Visual History and Theory Post-doctoral Fellowship
The SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory is part of the South African Research […]
Publication: Nationalism and Exile in an Age of Solidarity
The CHR is pleased to announce a new publication under the Migrating Violence research platform […]
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Workshop
As part of a three-year collaborative venture with the CHR and the Jackman Humanities Institute […]
Olifantland – Trailer
A Film by Stanley John The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance, called Olifantland, a […]
Publication: Suren Pillay and Carlos Fernandes in conversation with Souleymane Bachir Diagne
The CHR is pleased to announce a new publication by Senior Researcher at the Centre […]
Filmmaking Practices in Africa Conference
Dear colleagues and friends, Attached, please find the announcement for the Documentary Filmmaking Practices in […]
Season’s Greetings from the CHR (UWC)
Dear Colleagues and Friends, On behalf of the staff and fellows of the Centre […]
10th Symposium of the Ghent Africa Platform
Professor Premesh Lalu, director of the DST-NRF Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities, as […]
From Mozambique to the Cape: Performance Encounters in Music, Masks, Movement, Poetry and Painting
Venue: at the Factory of the Arts Time: 7pm Date: Tuesday 29 November. The Factory […]
Olifantland – Barrydale parade
The 2016 Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance brings you Olifantland, a multilingual visual theatre show […]
Igniting Conversations about Science
CHR Director Professor Premesh Lalu delivered an address at the media launch of Science Forum […]
Visual Gateways Exhibition
Between February and May 2016 postgraduate students in Visual History from UWC took their cameras […]
Video: State Capture?
Earlier this year we had an important Local Government Election. Now, as we debate how […]
African Critical Inquiry Programme 2017
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS IVAN KARP DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARDS FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS ENROLLED IN SOUTH AFRICAN […]
African Critical Inquiry Programme: Call for proposals to organize workshop
Closing Date: Monday 1 May 2017 The African Critical Inquiry Programme invites proposals from scholars […]
Postdoctoral, PhD, MA and Honours Awards Announcement for 2017
The closing date for applications and referee letters has been extended till 15 November 2016 […]
Tribute to Emile Maurice
We said goodbye to Emile two months ago. This is a short clip of the […]
CHR receives two grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
We are immensely delighted and honoured to report that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in […]
Seminar: State Capture?
The Dullah Omar Centre for Critical Thought in African Humanities of the Centre for Humanities […]
TRC workshop programme
The TRC workshop is the inaugural activity of the CHR's collaborative partnership with the Jackman […]
Discussion with Mira Nair
A discussion was held with the film director, Mira Nair, about her work and new […]
Seminar: Education or State Politics? – Elizabeth Giorgis
Education in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Addis Ababa University Dullah Omar Centre for […]
The Borderlands: Jo Ractliffe and Patricia Hayes
The Centre for Humanities Research invites you to a book launch and discussion between Jo […]
Joint Seminar: Jennifer Tucker and George Agbo
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History University of the Western Cape South African […]
Seminar by George Agbo: The Technology of Visual Digital Activism
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
The Reza Khota Quartet with live art by Dathini Mzayiya
A very special audio- visual collaboration comes together on 28 September with The Reza Khota […]
Seminar by Shari Eppel: Bones In The Forest
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary […]
CHCI 2017 Annual Meeting: The Humanities Improvised
Centre for Humanities Research University of the Western Cape 10–13 August 2017 The 2017 annual […]
Changing the Idea of the University
The DST NRF Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities as part of a lecture […]
Mothers’ pensions and the ‘civilised’ black poor: the racialised provision of child maintenance grants, 1921-1940
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Images from Factory of the Arts
Arts Education Workshops in Puppetry, Performance and Visual Arts Arts Education workshops were conducted with […]
Against the Metaphysics of Racial Difference by Siba Grovogui (Cornell University, USA)
Siba Grovogui (Cornell University) presented a lecture titled ‘Against the Metaphysics of Racial Difference’ at On The Subject of Citizenship.
A Nervous State by Nancy Rose Hunt: Book Launch
Duke University Press, Clarke’s Bookshop and the Centre for Humanities Research, UWC invite you to […]
Seminar by Rachel Hatcher: The Omnipresent Chameleon
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
People You May Know: A Performance at the Factory of the Arts
People You May Know was a collaborative performance and exhibition featuring Dathini Mzayiya, Brydon Bolton, […]
Seminar by Bongani Ndhlovu: ‘Apartheid’s Golden Age’
Reconnoitring alternative forms of resistance to apartheid South Africa, c1966-1979
Seminar by Janeke Thumbran: “Sisters are Building it for Themselves:”
Architecture, Self-Reliance and Trusteeship at the University of Pretoria, 1943 to present times
Seminar: The Making of MK: Whose Violence & to What End? The Debates of 1960–1 – Paul S. Landau
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Die Name Wat Ons Gee/The Names That We Give
2015 Barrydale Festival with Net Vir Pret and Handspring Puppet Company
On the Subject of Citizenship: A colloquium marking 20 years since the publication of Mahmood Mamdani’s Citizen and Subject
A colloquium marking 20 years since the publication of Mahmood Mamda-ni’s Citizen and Subject
Global Apartheid – A Genealogy of Biopolitical Sovereignty
DST NRF Flagship Next Generation Researcher Dr. Maurits Van Bever Donker will be co-teaching a […]
Seminar: Empty photographs: Ethnography and the lacunae of African history: Patricia Hayes
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
A Tale of Two Cities: Finding Storyville in the Archives: A Seminar by Emily Landau
The CHR DST/NRF Flagship in Critical Thought in African Humanities and the Women’s and Gender […]
The CHR welcomes Visiting Scholars Professor Paul Landau and Dr Emily Landau
The Centre for Humanities Research and the Womens’ and Gender Studies Department at the University […]
Exhibition Launch: USAKOS: Photographs beyond Ruins
The Centre for Humanities Research and the Library invite you to the launch of an […]
Podcast: Timothy Campbell: The Generosity of the Mancus: Biopower, Neoliberal Gifts and Comedy
Professor Timothy Campbell (Cornell University, New York) delivered a lecture on the 16th of October 2014.
Seminar: The Performance of Race: Passing-Out Parades, Street Soccer, the ‘Civilized Body’, and the Creation of the ‘Perfect Other’ (c. 1940s-1960s)
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar
Virgil Slade (Department of History
For The Water: A Presentation by Sandy Spieler (Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Minneapolis)
We are excited to invite you to a presentation by visiting artist, Sandy Spieler from In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Minneapolis,
Transitional Justice in the Making: The Case of Colombia and Lessons from South Africa
On 22 June, 2016 the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) […]
2017 African Critical Inquiry Workshop: Secret Affinities
The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is pleased to announce that the 2017 ACIP workshop […]
Book Launch: Remembering Historian, Activist and Author Martin Legassick
You are invited by Wits University Press, UWC's Centre for Humanities Research and The Book […]
In Service of What? The University’s Contemporary Conundrums: Public Lecture by Catarina Antunes Gomes
This is part of a lecture series on the Idea of the University in Africa.
Reza Khota Quartet Performance at the Blah Blah Bar
The Reza Khota Quartet launched their debut album: "Transmutation" in 2014. Gwen Ansell writes in […]
What is The University and its Worlds? Response by CHR Fellow Nehna Singh
The University of the Western Cape together with the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) hosted […]
Encounters Festival: Films by UWC’s CHR fellows and Department of English students
The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape is proud to announce the debut of two short films and a full length film at t
Seminar: The Practice of Post-Apartheid Freedom
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Other Universals Public Lecture: “Sylvia Wynter’s Black Metamorphosis and the World We Live In”
Other Universals presents a public lecture by Dr. Aaron Kamugisha (Cultural Studies, University of the […]
Seminar: Stasis Anxiety: Contemporary Fictions of South African ‘Waithood’
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Seminar: The Postman and the Tramp: Commitment in an Age of Cynicism
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
I See You opens at the Fugard Studio Theatre in Cape Town
Acclaimed play by Mongiwekhaya will run at the Fugard from 5 – 28 May 2016
The University and its Worlds: A Panel Discussion with Achille Mbembe, Judith Butler, Wendy Brown, and David Theo Goldberg
The Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities invites you to a panel discussion on […]
African Critical Inquiry Programme: Call for Proposals to Organise a Workshop
The African Critical Inquiry Programme invites proposals from scholars and/or practitioners in public cultural institutions […]
Seminar: Traversing the Social
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary […]
African Critical Inquiry Programme: Call for Applications Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards for African PhD Students
The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2016 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research […]
Seminar: Mueda Massacre: The Musical Archive
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African […]
Seminar: The Varieties of Secular Experience: Magical Thinking, Occult Economies, and Puppetry
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary […]
Panel Discussion on Richard Turner’s Eye of the Needle
The CHR DST NRF Flagship for Critical Thought in African Humanities and the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you
Seminar by Heidi Grunebaum: “No Consolation:The Poetics of Lament and the Insistence of Complicity”
Senior Researcher in the Flagship for Critical Thought in African Humanities Heidi Grunebaum will deliver […]
Lecture Series on the University in Africa: Brian Raftopoulos
“From Rhodes(ia) to Zimbabwe: Rhodes Must Fall, Post-colonial Politics, and University Transformation” Speaker: Brian Raftopoulos […]
Seminar: Exalted Faces and Awkward Bodies: ‘Third Wave’ of Protests in Africa, Political Imaginations and Global Sociology
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History ( UWC) South African Contemporary History and […]
Launch of the new edition of Turner’s The Eye of the Needle
Described by Nelson Mandela as a source of inspiration, Richard Turner was a central figure […]
Factory of the Arts Artist in Residence Reza Khota Launches SA Tour
Artist in Residence Reza Khota launches his 2016 South African tour on the 26th and […]
Seminar: Emerging Possiblities – Diaspora engagement and the global initiative on Somali refugees
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History (UWC) Speakers: Dianna Shandy (Center for Integrative […]
Seminar: Epistemological restlessness. Trajectories in and out of history
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History ( UWC) South African Contemporary History and […]
Usakos – Photographs Beyond Ruins: The Old Location Albums
Namibian exhibition on photography and forced removal now opens at the District Six Museum […]
Artist in Residence Mongi Mthombeni premieres ‘I See You’ at Royal Court
Mongi Mthombeni, an artist in residence at the Centre for Humanities Research, premieres his play, […]
“The Crisis in Syria”: A Question of Futures’ by Na’eem Jeenah
The Dullah Omar Centre for Critical Thought in African Humanities, a satellite project of the […]
What is the university for?
By Premesh Lalu " In the wake #FeesMustFall protests that electrified South Africa one week ago, much has been […]
The African Critical Inquiry Programme Ivan Karp Doctoral research awards for African students enrolled in South African Ph.D programs
Closing Date: Monday 2 May 2016 Download the form here The African Critical Inquiry Programme […]
The African Critical Inquiry Programme call for proposals to organise a workshop
Closing Date: Monday 2 May 2016 Download the Form here The African Critical Inquiry Programme […]
Art Week Cape Town 2016
The Factory of the Arts, a satellite of the CHR at UWC will be participating […]
Die Name Wat Ons Gee/The Names that We Give
To celebrate South African Reconciliation Day, Net Vir Pret, the Handspring Trust and the Centre for Humanities Research (UWC) present […]
Call for Proposals for 2016 Ivan Karp Award and 2017 African Critical Inquiry Programme Workshop
Please download the documents below. ACIP_CFP_ResearchGrants2016_FillableForm ACIP_CFP_Workshops2016_FillableForm
The Crisis in Syria
The Dullah Omar Centre for Critical Thought in African Humanities of the CHR (UWC) is […]
The Insurrections Ensemble returns
The Insurrections Ensemble returns to the Homecoming Centre at District Six for two performances on […]
Jon Berndt Collection donated to the CHR
The Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) is delighted to announce the donation of the ‘jon […]
Patricia Hayes awarded an NRF SARChI Chair
Congratulations to Professor Patricia Hayes on being awarded an NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History […]