374      12 February: Geraldine Frieslaar (CHR, UWC) & Olusegun Morakinyo (Robben Island Museum), The UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives and the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies (APMHS) in the nexus of Public Historical Scholarship. Discussant: Helena Pohlandt-McCormick (University of Minnesota)

375      19 February: Dag Henrichsen (Basler Afrika Bibliographien) in collaboration with the South African Empire workshop, The travels of Hans Schinz in south-western Africa (1884-1886): Biological transfer and the professionalisation and popularisation of (African) botany in Zurich. Discussant: Shirley Brooks (UWC)

376      26 February: Phindezwa Mnyaka (CHR, UWC), Pursuits of a heroic vision and the ambivalence of the photographic field: Joseph Denfield’s treks through Nigeria and Basutoland, 1944-1958. Discussant: Lorena Rizza (UWC/University of Basel)

377      26 March: Paige Sweet (CHR, UWC), Unauthorised Appropriations: Anxieties of Creative Surplus. Discussant: Herman Wittenberg (UWC)

378      9 April: Sarah V Melton (Emory University), The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Challenges of a Global Public History of Apartheid. Discussant: Noëleen Murray (UWC)

379      16 April: Helena Pohlandt-McCormick (CHR, University of Minnesota), Taking Risks in the Post-Colonial Archive: Towards a Post-Colonial Thinking of the Archive.  Discussant: Ciraj Rassool (UWC)

380      23 April: Diane Detournay (CHR, UWC), Feminism, Racial Difference and the Category of Women: The Civilisational Architecture of Women’s Human Rights and Transnational Feminism. Discussant: Desiree Lewis (UWC)

381      30 April: Giacomo Loperfido (CHR, UWC), Crisis and the changing parameters of social existence: Xenophobia as a side-effect of systemic reorganisation. Discussant: Laurence Piper (UWC)

382      7 May: Alan Mabin (University of the Witwatersrand), Debating ‘southern theory’ and cities of the south (and the north) of the world: Conceptual problems, issues of method and empirical research. Discussant: Ruchi Chaturvedi (UWC)

383      14 May: Roger Field (English Dept, UWC) The Classics, mythology and African Literature. Discussant: Mark Hermans (UWC)

384      21 May: Ross Truscott (CHR, UWC), Oedipus and the post-apartheid nation: A South African story of disavowal. Discussant: Tammy Shefer (UWC)

385      16 July: G. Arunima (Centre for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University), Intimate portraits: Sunil Gupta, Dayanita Singh, and experiments with the photographic image. Discussant Heike Behrend (Berlin)

386      23 July: Marissa Moorman (History Department, Indiana University), Radio Remediated: La Vie Sur Terre and Moolaadé. Discussant Patricia Hayes (UWC)

387      30 July: John and Jean Comaroff (African and African-American Studies, & Anthropology, Harvard University), The Return of Khulekani Khumalo, Zombie Captive: Identity, Law, and Paradoxes of Personhood in the Postcolony. Discussant: Premesh Lalu (CHR, UWC)

388      6 August: Carlos Fernandes (CHR, UWC), ‘We Shall Never Forget!’ – The Politics of ‘Organised Remembrance’ and State Legitimization in Post-colonial Mozambique: The History Workshop (1980-1986). Discussant Ciraj Rassool (UWC)

389      13 August: Naomi Scheman (Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies Department, University of Minnesota), The “extraordinary ordinary” and notes towards Stones, Stories, and the Twenty-first Century Research University: A provocation. Discussant Paige Sweet (UWC)

390      20 August: Premesh Lalu (CHR, UWC), The absent centre: human capital, nationalism and the postcolonial critique of apartheid. Discussant: Paolo Israel (UWC)

391      27 August: Richa Nagar (University of Minnesota), Five truths of story telling and coauthorship in feminist alliance work. Discussant: Naomi Scheman (University of Minnesota)

392      10 September: Maurits van Bever Donker (CHR, UWC), On the limit of community: coming to terms with apartheid’s grounds. Discussant: Ross Trusscott (CHR, UWC)

393      17 September: Marijke du Toit (Historical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal), “Anginayongishoindibilishi!” The Gender Politics of “Native welfare” in Durban, 1930-1939. Discussant: Siphokazi Sambumbu (CHR, UWC)

394      1 October: Ciraj Rassool (History Department, UWC), District Six Revisited. (This seminar was presented in partnership with the African Programme in Museum and Heritage studies (UWC and Robben Island Museum). Discussant: Shaun Viljoen (Stellenbosch University)

395      8 October: Anna Selmeczi (UWC and University of Fort Hare), Dis/placing political illiteracy. Discussant: Bernard Dubbeld (Stellenbosch University)

396      15 October: Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi (English Department, UCT), Carribean Regionalism, South Africa and Redefining New World Studies. Discussant: Maurits van Bever Donker (CHR, UWC)

397      22 October: Rob Gordon (Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, and University of the Free State), Mary and Max in the Mongu Masquerade: Gluckman’s fieldwork adventures in Loziland. Discussant: Andrew Bank (UWC)

398      29 October: Leslie Witz (History Department, UWC), Hunting for Museums. Discussant: Shirley Brookes (UWC)

399      5 November: A documentary film by Mark J. Kaplan & Heidi Grunebaum, “The Village under the forest – When greening is an act of obliteration”, followed by a Q & A session with the director and scriptwriter

Sep 1, 2015

Seminars 2013

374      12 February: Geraldine Frieslaar (CHR, UWC) & Olusegun Morakinyo (Robben Island Museum), The UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives and the African Programme in Museum […]
Sep 1, 2015

About South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar

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 […]

The CHR fellowship programme will continue in 2022 through online platforms and, where permitted, limited live events hosted in compliance with COVID-19 protocols. Please follow our events page for updates about events.

For queries, please email us at

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