February 5, 2026
The CHR’s Valmont Layne will be giving a keynote at ‘The Klopse/Minstrel tradition as intangible heritage’, a seminar organised by the Salt River Heritage Society.
April 30, 2025
It’s National Archives Week.
October 22, 2024
The CHR will be screening Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat by Johan Grimonprez on Wednesday 30 October, followed by a roundtable discussion
September 5, 2024
The CHR is delighted to announce that Sound Working Group Convenors, Aidan Erasmus, Valmont Layne and Lee Walters have received a joint Creative Arts Output Award for their outstanding contributions to Research and Innovation at the University of the Western Cape.
June 20, 2024
To explore the concept of partition in the context of AI and the humanities, and with an eye towards potential cross-national collaboration on developing research and curriculum, Dr Valmont Layne co-hosted two workshops with Professor Jennifer Keating, Teaching Writing in the Disciplines Specialist at the William S. Dietrich II Institute for Writing Excellence, University of Pittsburgh.
June 17, 2024
Critical listening is the first step toward an ethics and aesthetics of care and freedom. Discarding listening habits and accepting new sound qualities afford access to other layers of history and experience.
February 16, 2024
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.
May 5, 2023
This year’s African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) Workshop, titled ‘Archiving Otherwise: Sound thinking and Sonic Practice’, brought together CHR staff and fellows, UWC faculty members and students, ACIP fellows, and sonic practitioners for a three-day workshop in early April.
July 12, 2022
The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) is pleased to announce that the 2023 ACIP Workshop will be Archiving Otherwise: Sound Thinking and Sonic Practice.
June 22, 2022
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.
December 17, 2021
Next Generation Scholar Valmont Layne examines the challenges and possibilities of music archives in Southern Africa.
September 15, 2021
Prof. Patricia Hayes and Dr Valmont Layne investigate how UWC can revitalise its archival holdings for preservation, teaching, research access, and public programmes.