Black Archives and Intellectual Histories is a Mellon funded seminar series that features eminent scholars, activists and public intellectuals from South Africa, the continent and across the Black Atlantic. This seminar series focuses on black intellectual histories and the question of the archive, paying particular attention to epistemologies, narrative, cultural production, social movements and collectives in relation to the geo-politics of the black diaspora and South Africa’s place in its imaginaries. These seminars are part of the ongoing conversation about the decolonization of higher education in South Africa, in particular how black intellectual histories can contribute to the transformation of the curriculum.
Dr Rosa Lyster’s thesis, A History of Apartheid Censorship Through the Archive, was described by one examiner as ‘as close to an ideal PhD as I have ever encountered’, and commended for its ‘substantial contribution to South African literary scholarship and the study of censorship’. Read an interview with Rosa on her project by PEN South Africa.
Dr Tara Leverton’s research into Madmen and Mad Money: Psychological Disability and Economics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature was commended as ‘well-conceived, well-researched and well-argued piece of scholarship that undoubtedly makes a contribution to knowledge in (at least) three intersecting fields: disability studies, literary studies and, indeed, medieval and early modern historiography’.
Warm congratulations to Tara and Rosa for these excellent results.
Assoc. Prof. Harry Garuba’s poem gets published as the poem of the week in the Guardian newspaper
Warm congratulations are due to Associate Professor Nadia Davids, whose newest play, What Remains, was awarded as many as 5 Fleur du Cap awards at the 2018 ceremony on Sunday 18 March. This is an extraordinary achievement, testament to a remarkable work and to the dedication and talent of the team that brought it to the stage.
Nearly 100 people packed UCT's Centre for African Studies Gallery on October 30th for the launch of Afrows: Words of Subversion – a provocative collection of protest poetry and prose by five UCT undergraduate English majors.
The yearly conference offers a space for postgraduate students to present their research-in-progress to an audience of interdisciplinary peers, cultivating dialogue and collaboration across disciplines and institutions.
The papers from all disciplines within Humanities and Law are presented. There are no restrictions in terms of topic or theme.
UCT English students will be sharing the Arts Block in March with five internationally-renowned writers, scholars and editors, when the English Language and Literature Department hosts the judging panel for the 6th Man Booker International Prize
The University of Cape Town's English Language and Literature Department is ranked in the top 50 of this international ranking system
Masters student Esthie Hugo attends international conference Locating the Gothic in limmerick Ireland.
A collaborative effort by the cast and crew of Otelo Burning, the Isiqalo Waves for Change programme, members of the Department of English at UCT and a PhD student from Stellenbosch leads to a multi-dimensional way of looking at, and doing freedom, in a new South Africa.
by Warren Jeremy Rourke