Publications Archives - The Centre for Humanities Research

March 27, 2025

‘Sensory Experiments, Sensory Orders, and Aesthetic Education’, by Premesh Lalu.

Erica Fretwell's Sensory Experiments: Psychophysics, Race, and the Aesthetics of Feeling (2020) raises crucial questions about the making of a concept of difference through marshaling the senses to the ends of a sensory order in postbellum United States.

March 24, 2025

‘Unseating Mastery: The University and the Promise of the New’, by Premesh and Erich Hörl

This conversation between Erich Hörl and Premesh Lalu draws on their extended conversation on efforts to link discordant temporal and spatial encounters with the idea of the university and how, more importantly, to care for the future of its educational responsibilities.

February 23, 2025

Texturing Difference: “Black Consciousness Philosophy”and the “Script of Man”, by Maurits van Bever Donker.

The book launch for Texturing Difference: “Black Consciousness Philosophy”and the “Script of Man”, by Maurits van Bever Donker, will take place at the Iyatsiba Lab on Friday 14 March.

January 20, 2025

Cover illustration: Berni Searle, ‘Lifeline’

Texturing Difference: “Black Consciousness Philosophy”and the “Script of Man”, by Maurits van Bever Donker.

Maurits van Bever Donker’s Texturing Difference “Black Consciousness Philosophy”and the “Script of Man”, was published with Polity Press in December 2024.

November 19, 2024

Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects.

The CHR is pleased to announce the publication of Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, which includes a chapter by senior lecturer and convenor of the Laboratory of Kinetic Objects (LoKO), Aja Marneweck, and Handspring Puppet Company co-founder Jill Joubert.

November 6, 2024

Pro-Vocation: Roots and Wings, Puppetry for all ages at the Theatre Arts

In November 2024, the Centre for Humanities Research at UWC present Pro-Vocation: Roots and Wings, the 4th iteration of Pro-Vocation, in partnership with the UNIMA Professional Training Commission, the UNIMA Africa Commission, and UNIMA SA.

June 4, 2024

Economic Sovereignty in South Africa, African Economic History

We are pleased to announce the publication of an African Economic History special issue on: Economic Sovereignty in South Africa. Edited by Ndumiso Dladla and Anjuli Webster, and featuring CHR research affiliate Bongani Ndlovu.

February 16, 2024

Kronos, Oral/Aural: Pastness and sound as medium and method

We are pleased to announce the publication of Kronos: Southern African Histories under the theme of Oral/Aural: Pastness and Sound as Medium and Method, edited by Dr Valmont Layne, CHR, and Dr Aidan Erasmus, Department of Historical Studies, UWC.

February 7, 2024

Flipside: The inadvertent Archive, by Kim Gurney

Architectural plans of a former house inspire the narrative structure of a new book by Kim Gurney, called Flipside: The inadvertent Archive, which takes the reader on a thematic journey from room to room as it follows the trail of specific archival artefacts lodged in the building’s attic.

September 21, 2023

Publication announcement: Dr Kim Gurney, ‘Epistemic Disobedience’.

Institution-building as artistic practice is the topic of a paper published by the CHR’s Dr Kim Gurney, as part of artistic research conference proceedings. 'Epistemic Disobedience’ posits Nafasi Art Space in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as a paradigmatic example of independent art spaces in Africa and their key working principles.

July 24, 2023

Transformative Constitutionalism: Afrika Focus, Vol 36

The latest Afrika Focus is now available. Edited by the CHR’s, Maurits van Bever Donker and Lwando Scott, this volume focuses on the question of transformative constitutionalism.

July 19, 2023

New Publication: Into the Megatext

The CHR’s Dr Kim Gurney has contributed a chapter to a comprehensive book about the oeuvre of Bruce Arnott (1938-2018) – artist, academic and former director of The Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT.