News

CFP: Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:18:24 +0000

Call for Papers

Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora

Dakar, Senegal

June 20-23, 2012

Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora is an international conference to be held in Dakar, Senegal, June 20-23, 2012, organized by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa(CODESRIA), the African Studies Centre, Leiden (ASC), and the University of California African Studies Multicampus Research Group (MRG). The conference features an interdisciplinary array of activities that include a public debate, training workshop, film screening, as well as four keynote addresses and academic panels.

The event is conceived as a forum with pre-circulated papers and contributions from a wide range of academics, archivists, librarians, public intellectuals, and artists from the African continent, Europe, North America, and beyond.

We are now accepting paper abstracts until November 30, 2011.
Abstracts should relate to one of the conference's five themes:

(1) Archival Absences and Surrogate Collections of the African State
(2) Performing the Archive
(3) Post-Independence Media Formations
(4) Spatialization of Art and the Archive
(5) Administering the Archive

A system for online submission of abstracts has been set up on the conference website:https://sites.google.com/site/dakarconferencecfp. A French version of the website will be available shortly and will be accessible by a link from the English version of the site.

Any questions about the conference or the submission process? Please contact: archives.diaspora@codesria.sn

HONOURS / MA / PhD Bursaries for 2012

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:48:47 +0000

PROGRAMME IN ‘LOCAL HISTORIES AND PRESENT REALITIES’
School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand

HONOURS / MA / PhD
Bursaries for 2012

Applications are invited for Honours and MA/PhD bursaries in the research programme ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’. The programme is funded through the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chairs’ Initiative, which awarded a Research Chair along with research positions and research funding to Prof Philip Bonner in 2007. The time horizon of the programme is mainly 20th to early 21st century. Its geographical horizon is the area encompassed by the North West, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Free State provinces.

A core aim of the programme is to relate local pasts to local presents. Its main focus is small/intermediate towns and their hinterlands in the area specified. The project is interdisciplinary and would welcome applications from students with distinguished academic records in the fields of History, Political Studies, Sociology, Social Anthropology and relevant but less adjacent subjects. Students may register in any one of these departments.

Successful Honours applicants will receive R25000 annually plus research expenses for 1 year of study. MA applicants will receive a bursary of R55000 annually plus research expenses for 2 years and PhD applicants will receive a bursary of R80000 plus research expenses for 3 years. Some assistance with conference funding may also be available in certain instances.

To apply please submit the following:

1. A detailed and up to date CV, which shows clearly your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and component courses of study
2. An academic transcript
3. An example of any recent written/published work
4. Letters of reference from 2 referees
5. Certified copies of degrees
6. Applicants should provide a detailed application letter explaining their proposed area of research and how it might fit into this research programme.

Bursaries can be taken up from 1 January 2012. Students must be registered at Wits and MUST apply separately to the academic department that they wish to study in.

Closing date for applications is 28 October 2011.

For further details about the research programme contact the Administrator Mrs Zahn Gowar at zahn.gowar@wits.ac.za

Applications should be sent by post or delivered by hand to:

Mrs Zahn Gowar
NRF Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities/History Workshop
Admin Office; 5th floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus
University of the Witwatersrand; Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050

Call for Papers

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:20:45 +0000

Crime and its fictions in Africa: a conversation across disciplines

The story of Africa in the world is in some ways a history of crime: from the Atlantic slave trade to the Nigerian “419” email scam, violence and illegality have often been the means by which the continent is inscribed in the Western imagination. On a more local level, crime has also served as the medium through which Africa and its peoples have negotiated engagement with globalization. Besides the obvious movement of illicit goods onto the global market, this is evident in the intricate international networks for smuggling people across the Sahara; in the prostitution rings that link parts of Africa to parts of Europe; and in the poaching syndicates driven by Asian demand for exotica such as rhino horn. The problematic role of law and/or its absence has long been the focal point of historical and social scientific work on Africa, though not without controversy over the line between voyeurism and observation.

Increasingly, fiction writers and literary scholars have also got in on the act. In South Africa, authors such as Deon Meyer and Margie Orford have topped the best-seller lists with their crime fiction, and the genre has gathered steam across the continent. What explains this development? What, if any, is the connection between the boom in writing about crime, and the problem of crime as it is experienced day to day? Finally, how can we both acknowledge crime’s dominant place in African narratives (and narratives about Africa), and question the limitations of this negative paradigm?

We invite scholars from across the disciplines working on crime in Africa and related subjects to a conference at Yale University on March 23rd, 2012. Young and established scholars are welcome at what we hope will be an open and informal forum for pondering these issues. Those interested in delivering papers as part of themed conference panels should submit abstracts to crimeinafrica @gmail .com by no later than January 9th, with copies of accepted presentations to be sent in by no later than March 16th.

Essay Competition for Young Adult South Africans

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:31:14 +0000

If you are a South African citizen between the ages of 21 and 35 or lecture to students of this description, you may with to have a look at the details of this essay competition. Details hyperlinked here.

African Research Fellowship at London School of Economics

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:51:03 +0000

The Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS invites applications for the new African Research Fellowships. Details about how to apply can be accessed as a pdf here.

MAand PhD Bursaries available

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:57:08 +0000

THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AT WITS UNIVERSITY IS PLEASED TO OFFER BURSARIES FOR THE PROGRAMME IN 'LOCAL HISTORIES AND PRESENT REALITIES'

Information on how to apply may be uploaded by clicking here.

South African Society for History Teaching Conference 2011

Waetjent1@ukzn.ac.za (Thembisa) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:59:15 +0000

The South African Society for History Teaching will hold their conference next year at UNISA in Pretoria, Gauteng.

Click here to find a flyer. Please post widely and pass along to colleagues interested in issues of youth and historical agency.

Join or renew membership

niall.mcnulty@gmail.com (Administrator) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:46:34 +0000

The Membership Renewal/Application Form, with full details of terms and benefits, is attached as a pdf file here and as a word document here. We request that you complete it in full even if you are a long standing member so that we can ensure that our membership list is up-to-date.

Please send all membership forms and records of payment to Anton Ehlers at aehl@sun.ac.za or by post to Dr. Anton Ehlers, Dept of History, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. Please find relevant account details on the membership form.

Please note our new membership structure, which offers a two-year .

From 2011 members can join in four different time brackets, but all membership will expire on 31 December 2012.
The quarterly issues of the South African Historical Journal will be received from the term in which the member joins.
Submission of membership form and fees before 31 March will be entitled to reduced conference fee for the 23rd Biennial conference of the SAHS, UKZN, Durban, 27-29 June 2011.

Southern African members:

Join between 1 January and 31 March 2011: R450 (entitles member to 8 issues of the SAHJ + reduced conference fee)
Join between 1 April 2011 and 30 June 2011: R400 (entitles member to 7 issues of the SAHJ)
Join between 1 July 2011 and 31 December 2011: R350 (entitles member to 6 issues of the SAHJ)
Join between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012: R300 (entitles member to 4 issues of the SAHJ)

Overseas members: (includes postage and banking fees)

Join between 1 January and 31 March 2011: US$70 and £55 (entitles member to 8 issues of the SAHJ + reduced conference fee)
Join 1 April 2011 and 30 June 2011: US$65.00 and £50.00 (entitles member to 7 issues of the SAHJ)
Join between 1 July 2011 and 31 December 2011: US$60.00 and £45.00 (entitles member to 6 issues of the SAHJ)
Join between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2012: US$55.00 and £40.00

This new structure aims to achieve administrative efficiency, particularly so that we can update the distribution list for our flagship journal, the South African Historical Journal (SAHJ), on a regular basis.

It also means that you only have to make one payment for 2011 and 2012!