Seminar Programme
Contemporary History and Humanities Seminars
Established in 1993, the weekly South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar is the longest running seminar series in Southern Africa and continues to draw together faculty, graduate students and research fellows from across the Faculty of Arts at UWC and elsewhere. The seminar series, which hosts local and international academics, was initiated by the Institute for Historical Research (IHR) and the History Dept at UWC. Initially the series was known as the Contemporary History Seminar. In 2006, however, when the IHR became the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), the word ‘Humanities, was added.
The seminar series, which reflects a growing national and international reputation, is organised around a pre-circulated paper with an appointed respondent. The seminar series has been convened and chaired by Colin Bundy, Leslie Witz, Andrew Bank, Ciraj Rassool, Gary Minkley and Premesh Lalu. The current chair (2015) is Particia Hayes.
In Defence of the Ontological Category of Ubuqaba
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session Series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar.
A conversation on biographies between Margaret Kelleher and Ciraj Rassool
On Thursday 31 October, the CHR will be hosting a conversation on biographies between Margaret Kelleher (University College Dublin) and Ciraj Rassool (UWC) under the auspices of the Charlotte Maxeke-Mary Robinson Research Chair (CMMR).
What does apartheid mean for Israel: Reflections in a time of genocide
This Humanities in Session Series seminar is based on Tareq Baconi’s ongoing research into the conflict in Palestine/Israel.
Journal Launch: God, Grievance and Greed: War in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, Kronos, No.50, 2024.
The launch of the latest edition of Kronos, ‘God, Grievance and Greed: War in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’, takes place at the Iyatsiba Lab on Thursday 3 October 2024.
Legitimising Theatre in the Postcolony: Six Myths
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar.
Imperfect Solidarities: On Collecting and History Telling in Nepal.
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar. NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati in conversation with Candice Jansen (New Archival Visions Digital Curatorial Fellow).
Mine Mine Mine:
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar. Uhuru Phalafala in conversation with Dr Lwando Scott.
Inaugural Seminar for the New Ecologies of the Subject research platform
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar.
Imagining futures: Conversations from Ireland to South Africa
This event is scheduled to take place at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art on March 13, 2024, as part of the Embassy’s St. Patrick’s Day programme.
Justice and Sacrifice in the myths of Iphigenia, Antigone, and Medea
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar.
Patricia Parker visit
In April, the CHR had the pleasure of hosting Prof Patricia Parker (University of North Carolina) for a series of seminars and discussions in Cape Town.
The Hottest August
The CHR is co-hosting with DocFilmSA’s docLOVE free screenings program a film screening and discussion of The Hottest August, Wednesday 31 August 2022 at 18:00pm screening at the Bertha House in Cape Town.
Legacies of Enslavement in the Cape: Black Life in the Archive
Join us for Seminar 559 of the South African Contemporary History and Humanities seminar with Efuah Prah.
“Don’t speak of letters when you mean sounds”: Phonemes, diacritics, and the transcriptive acoustemology of Sol Plaatje
Dr Aidan Erasmus of the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape will deliver a paper titled “Don’t speak of letters when you mean sounds”: Phonemes, diacritics, and the transcriptive acoustemology of Sol Plaatje as part of the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar.
Beyond Nostalgia: Reimagining Post-Apartheid Freedom
Founding CHR director and filmmaker Premesh Lalu will be in conversation with Rashid Lombard, Jayson King, Sylvia Mndunyelwa and Dinga Sikwebu about his new film The Double Futures of Athlone at the Encounters South African Documentary International Film Festival. The panel will be moderated by Valmont Layne.
Eduardo Mondlane: social scientist, cosmopolitan and nationalist
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a presentation by professor of anthropology at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Livio Sansone.
Re-Imagining Race through Daai za Lady & Butoh
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a presentation by dancer and choreographer, theatre-maker and director, producer, and academic researcher, jackï job.
Who is the ‘community’ in Community Archaeology and what is at stake?
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a presentation by doctoral candidate Robyn Humphreys.
Muslim Identity in the Colonial South Africa
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar series presents “Muslim Identity in the Colonial South Africa” by Halim Gençoğlu.
Land Bonds
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a presentation by doctoral candidate Tara Weinberg (University of Michigan).
Our Ghosts Were Once People
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a conversation with Bongani Kona on his new edited volume Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying (Jonathan Ball, 2021).
Twice Heard and Newly Told
Join the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar on 12 October 2021 for “Twice heard and newly told,” a paper by Phindi Mnyaka.
Archival Futures and Research: Preservation, Access and UWC’s Digital Infrastructure
Prof. Patricia Hayes and Dr Valmont Layne investigate how UWC can revitalise its archival holdings for preservation, teaching, research access, and public programmes.
Everything that was made was not destroyed…
CHR Artist in Residence Juan Orrantia will present his ongoing artistic work “Everything that was made was not destroyed, but also does not exist” at the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar on 14 September 2021.
The Long Emancipation
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar invites you to a discussion of Rinaldo Walcott’s The Long Emancipation on 17 August 2021.
Flipside: The Inadvertent Archive
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar is pleased to announce that Kim Gurney will be presenting “Flipside: The Inadvertent Archive” on 22 June 2021 at 14:00.
Ambivalent at Jacana’s Virtual Book Theatre
Ambivalent will be featured at Jacana Media’s Don’t Shut Up virtual book theatre on Sunday, 23 May 2021.
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar with Carolyn Laubender
Join us for Carolyn Laubender’s paper “Travelling Analysis: Black Hamlet, Ethnopsychology, and the (De)Colonial Clinic in South Africa” at the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar on Tuesday, 18 May 2021.
The CHR’s Lee Walters Presents at ICGC Brown Bag Series
Join CHR Doctoral Fellow Lee Walters for the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Brown Bag Series on 30 April 2021.
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Presents: Materiality, Museums, and the Production of History
Lebogang Mokwena (New School for Social Research) will be presenting “Materiality, Museums, and the Production of History” on Tuesday 20 April 2021 at the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar.
The CHR’s Phokeng Setai Presents at ICGC Brown Bag Series
CHR Doctoral Fellow in Anthropology Phokeng Setai will be presenting at the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Brown Bag Series.
PAN: An Intellectual History of AI
The CHR’s Professor Jane Taylor will be giving a talk as part of the HUMA Interdisciplinary Seminar Series on 8 April 2021.
Ian Baucom: History 4° Celsius: Search for a Method in the Age of the Anthropocene
Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Western Cape, Prof. Tyrone Pretorius, has the pleasure of inviting you to a conversation with Prof. Ian Baucom on 12 April 2021.
Aesthetics and Politics: A Dialogue Across Continents
Join the CHR’s Heidi Grunebaum and members of the Other Universals Consortium Aaron Kamugisha (University of the West Indies), Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi (University of Johannesburg), and Chika Mba (University of Ghana) for an online conversation with colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
The Possibilities and Intimacies of Queer African Screen Cultures
Join CHR Next Generation Scholar Dr Lwando Scott in conversation about The Possibilities and Intimacies of Queer African Screen Cultures, a special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies, on 5 April 2021.
The CHR’s Samuel Longford Presents at ICGC Brown Bag Series
Join the University of Minnesota’s Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) Brown Bag Series this Friday for a talk presented by CHR Doctoral Fellow in History Samuel Longford
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Presents:Other Lives of the Image
The South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar will be hosting a launch of Other Lives of the Image, a special issue of the journal Kronos: Southern African Histories, on 9 March 2021.
Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment
A CHR Webinar held by the Other Universals Consortium with Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Decolonizing Theory: Thinking Across Traditions
A CHR Webinar held by the Other Universals Consortium with Aditya Nigam
Publics and Policing: Spies, Surveillance, and Colonial Subjects in Anti-Colonial French Politics
A Winter School webinar with Associate Professor Nancy Luxon
The Black Aquatic: On Water, Art and Black Movement
A Winter School webinar with Professor Rinaldo Walcott
Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting a webinar with Adom Getachew.
In Search of Africa(s): Postcolonialism and the Universal
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting an online seminar with Souleymane Bachir Diagne
LoKO: Seminar One
These online seminars will pursue many of the questions which we would pursue in the normal course of things; although things are anything but normal.
Seminar: Meleesha Bardolia
The Politics of ‘Rightful Belonging’ in Post-Apartheid South African and Post-Mabo Australian Non-White ‘Settler’ Literatures
Global Apartheid: A Genealogy of Biopolitical Sovereignty
A seminar course on Global Apartheid co-taught by Professor Cesare Casarino and Dr. Ross Truscott will take place in the first semester of 2020.
Seminar: Sam Longford
Governing the ungovernable: contested legacies at the Chris Hani Memorial
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
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
Seminar: Okechukwu Nwafor
Funeral Poster and Pre-Funeral Visual Economy in southeastern Nigeria
Seminar: Claudia Gastrow
The Discomforts of Home: Infrastructure, Aesthesis and Political Belonging
Seminar: Raquel Schefer
The Representation of Ritual and Cinema as a Ritual in Revolutionary Mozambique: Ruy Guerra’s “Mueda, Memória e Massacre”
Seminar: Kass Banning
John Akomfrah’s Purple: Notes Towards Deciphering Habitus Beyond A Planetary Sublime
Seminar: Philipp Schorch
Two Germanies: ethnographic museums, (post) colonial exhibitions, and the ‘cold odyssey’ of Pacific objects between East and West.
Decolonization and the Aesthetic Cold War: Towards an Intellectual History
Seminar by Professor Peter Kalliney
Seminar: Clémentine Deliss
Manifesto for the rights of access to colonial collections sequestered in Western Europe
Seminar: Stephanie Vos
Exile and Migration: Performing Connections through the Metaphor of the Train
Seminar: Swati Arora
Left to ‘biyaasi number’: Janam, Street Theatre and Urban Space in Delhi
Seminar: Sarah Godsell
“What is the point?” Potentials of Decolonising History: in teacher education spaces, and school classrooms
Seminar: Jacob Cloete
The pre-circulated paper for this seminar is accompanied by a short documentary by Jacob Cloete.
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
Seminar: Julie MacArthur
Dissident Citizens: Genealogies of Sovereignty, Violence, and Belonging along the Kenya-Somali Frontier
Seminar: G. Arunima
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar G. Arunima (Centre for Women’s […]
Seminar: Ross Truscott
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Ross Truscott (Centre for Humanities […]
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 Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Natasha Vally (Next Generation Fellow, […]
Seminar: Roger Levine
Lived Racism in Segregation-era South Africa: a research agenda and a case study
Seminar: Todd Cleveland
Centre for Humanities Research and the Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Todd Cleveland (Department of […]
Seminar: Women Miners and Mining Spaces
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Asanda Benya (Department of Sociology, […]
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
Nigel Gibson Seminar on Fanon
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Nigel Gibson (Institute for Liberal […]
“Freedom Within the Walls:” Thomas Mott Osborne’s Participatory Panopticon
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Shai Gortler (PhD Candidate, University […]
Seminar: The African Resistance Fighter Jacon Marengo
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Ulrike Lindner (History Department, University […]
Seminar: Hostile Visual Encounters
Seminar in Contemporary History & Humanities Special Seminar Hostile visual encounters: fighting to control photographic meaning in the DRC’s digital age. Aubrey P. Graham, 2016 […]
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 Casarino University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of […]
Video: State Capture?
Earlier this year we had an important Local Government Election. Now, as we debate how to fund public higher education equitably, this seminar explores the […]
Seminar: Education or State Politics? – Elizabeth Giorgis
Education in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Addis Ababa University Dullah Omar Centre for Critical Thought in African Humanities of the Centre for Humanities […]
Discussion with Mira Nair
A discussion was held with the film director, Mira Nair, about her work and new film, “The Queen of Katwe” at the CHR on 20 […]
Seminar: State Capture?
The Dullah Omar Centre for Critical Thought in African Humanities of the Centre for Humanities Research (DST-NRF UWC Flagship) invites you to a public seminar […]
Joint Seminar: Jennifer Tucker and George Agbo
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Invites you to a double […]
Seminar by George Agbo: The Technology of Visual Digital Activism
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar George Emeka Agbo (History Department/Centre […]
Seminar by Shari Eppel: Bones In The Forest
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Shari Eppel (Director, Solidarity Peace Trust, […]
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 Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Marijke du Toit (UWC) Date: […]
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 Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Paul S. Landau (Department of […]
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 Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Patricia Hayes (DST/NRF SARChI Chair […]
Global Apartheid – A Genealogy of Biopolitical Sovereignty
DST NRF Flagship Next Generation Researcher Dr. Maurits Van Bever Donker will be co-teaching a graduate seminar alongside Professor Cesare Casarino in the Comparative Literature […]
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 Studies Department at UWC invite you to a seminar by […]
Seminar: Portugal’s Photographic Play: Drew Thompson
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Drew Thompson (Department of History, […]
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
Seminar: The Practice of Post-Apartheid Freedom
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Premesh Lalu (Centre for Humanities […]
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 Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar By Toral Jatin Gajarawala (English […]
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 West Indies) on "Sylvia Wynter's Black Metamorphosis and the World […]
Seminar: Stasis Anxiety: Contemporary Fictions of South African ‘Waithood’
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Andrew Van der Vlies (Department […]
Seminar: Traversing the Social
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Ross Truscott, Maurits van Bever Donker, […]
Seminar: Mueda Massacre: The Musical Archive
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History, University of the Western Cape South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Mueda Massacre: The Musical Archive […]
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 History and Humanities Seminar" The Varieties of Secular Experience: Magical […]
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 a seminar at the Department of English at Stellenbosch University […]
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 Humanities Seminar Speaker: Ruchi Chaturvedi (Sociology, UCT) Date: 8 March […]
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 Leadership, University of Minnesota and Macalester College) Shobha Das (UNHCR) Date: 23 […]
Seminar: Epistemological restlessness. Trajectories in and out of history
Centre for Humanities Research & Department of History ( UWC) South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar Speakers: Leslie Witz, Jung Ran Forte & Paolo […]
Lecture in African Humanities and Letters Hassan El Geretly Neo Muyanga
On 20 February 2015, the Centre for Humanities Research hosted the first Distinguished Lecture in its African Humanities and Letters Lecture Series for 2015 at […]