Page 16 - Transformation Report 2021

has submitted partnership proposals to the South African Critical University Studies across Africa (ACUSAfrica)
Local Government Association and the National School of network and hosted Dr Su-Ming Khoo, who delivered a
Government. presentation on Sustainability, Transdisciplinarity and the
Public Epistemic Role of Higher Education.
The Faculty forged a strategic relationship with the
National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The Centre for Women and Gender Studies (CWGS)
the main funder of humanities research in South Africa. spearheaded the celebration of 150 years of Charlotte
A two-year research grant was awarded for a research Maxeke’s life in collaboration with the Chair in African
project on Maternal Legacies of Knowledge Production Feminist Imaginations, the Charlotte Maxeke Institute,
(from the Department of Sociology). In addition, another and the Charlotte Maxeke Residence. The CWGS hosted
four research projects associated with COVID-19: Insights a month-long national webinar series in August, which
from the Humanities and Social Sciences, were shortlisted attracted notable women from across the continent, and
for funding. Humanities Executive Dean, Professor Pamela the Chair also launched her book Female Fear Factory.
Maseko, was awarded a grant of R1-million by the National
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences to build the
African Languages Literary Heritage Research Hub.
This project aims to undertake focused research on the
intellectual histories of selected African women, beginning
with Dr Brigalia Bam, Nosekeni Mandela and Nongqawuse
Mhlakaza.

The Transdisciplinary Institute for Mandela Studies (TIMS)
hosted a virtual workshop in April to identify and explore
fresh lines of inquiry to inform the Mandela University
identity and posture while also configuring Critical
Mandela Studies. This workshop benefitted from the
insights of Professor Verne Harris from the Nelson Mandela
Foundation, who proposed six lines of inquiry within the
rubric of Mandela Studies, namely:
• the longer histories of the Eastern Cape before
colonisation;
• the work of feminist economists in the context
of an embrace of neoliberalism in South
Africa during the transition to democracy;

• patriarchies, modernisms and other intersecting
vectors of oppressive power;

• histories of non-racialism and black consciousness;
• Mandela and the arts; and
• the commodification of Mandela.

In August, TIMS hosted another workshop which focused
on the politics and cultures of naming.

The Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education
Transformation (CriSHET) collaborated with the Centre
for Philosophy in Africa, the Faculty of Humanities, and
the Emengini Institute for Comparative Global Studies in
the United States on the Africa and Knowledge Seminar
Series. In August, it hosted a seminar by Prof Antjie Krog
on ways of reading South African novels. CriSHET rounded
off the year-long Africa and Knowledge seminar series in
September in collaboration with the Faculty of Humanities,
the Centre for Philosophy in Africa, as well as the Emengini
Institute for Comparative Global Studies with a seminar
by Prof Martin Ajei on Development and the Quest
for Modernity in Africa. CriSHET was also involved in
organising the final seminar of the year for the Advancing

16 | 2021