sllm 2016 research report - wits.ac.za · professor dan ojwang was, from 1 april to 30 june 2016,...
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SLLM 2016 Research Report
Introduction
The School of Literature, Language and Media experienced a productive year in terms of research.
Alongside our intensive full-time undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programme, the School
produced some 84 units of published research. Aside from the many indexed research articles
authored or co-authored by researchers in or associated with the school, a number of notable
monographs were also produced. Media Studies produced three monographs in 2016: Consumption,
Media and the Global South: Aspiration Contested (Palgrave MacMillan and UKZN Press) by Mehita
Iqani; The End of Whiteness: Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa by Nicky
Falkof (Jacana); and The Politics of Technology in Africa: Communication, Development and Nation-
Building in Ethiopia by Iginio Gagliardone (Cambridge University Press). Judith Inggs (Translation &
Interpreting) published Transition and Transgression: English Young Adult Fiction in Post-Apartheid
South Africa (Springer). Peter and Anette Horn (German) published Der Schrei ist das einzig Ewige: Die
Romane Thomas Bernhards (Athena).
A number of edited collections were also produced. Mehita Iqani (Media Studies) co-edited
Consumption, Media and Culture in South Africa: Perspectives on Freedom and the Public. London.
Michiko Kaneko (SASL) co-edited Introducing Sign Language Literature: Folklore & Creativity.
Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
LINK published three issues of the DHET-accredited journal, The African Journal of Information and
Communication (AJIC) in 2016: Thematic Issue 17: Economic regulation, regulatory performance and
universal access in the electronic communications sector, edited by Dr Luci Abrahams with guest
editor Prof Simon Roberts of the Centre for Competition Regulation and Economic Development
(CCRED) at UJ; Thematic Issue 18: Informatics and digital transformation, edited by Dr Luci Abrahams,
with guidance from Prof Jason Cohen (Information Systems at SEBS, Wits); and Thematic Issue 19:
Knowledge governance for development, guest edited by LINK Visiting Researcher Dr Chris Armstrong
and Dr Tobias Schonwetter of the UCT IP Law Unit.
Research grants continue to be raised by researchers in the school. Notably, Dr Iginio Gagliardone succeeded in harnessing a significant grant from UNESCO for a project about world press freedom on which he is principal investigator. Prof Dan Ojwang has been leading as the co-investigator on a major DAAD-funded project on Literary Cultures of the Global South, in which several staff members in the School have participated. The number of rated researchers in the school increased to 19.
Prizes, awards and honours African Literature Professor Pumla Gqola was awarded the 2016 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award for Non-Fiction for her book Rape: A South African Nightmare. Professor Pumla Gqola was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Fiction panel of the National Humanities and Social Sciences Awards.
Professor Dan Ojwang was, from 1 April to 30 June 2016, the Eric Auerbach Visiting Chair of Global Literary Studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany. Linguistics Milani Tommaso M. University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Humanities Teaching and Learning
Award Postgraduate studies.
Journalism
International Association of Literary Journalism Studies prize for Best Article published in the
association’s journal, Literary Journalism Studies, in 2016, to L Cowling for “Echoes of an African Drum:
the Lost Literary Journalism of 1950s South Africa,” published May 2016.
Carolyn Raphaely was awarded a fellowship by North Western University’s Medill Justice Project (MJP)
in Chicago, in the United States.
Ruth Hopkins was awarded the inaugural Sylvester Stein Fellowship for 2016. Ruth spent two and a
half months in the United States investigating the similarities between issues facing both the American
and South African criminal justice systems.
Ruth Hopkins was awarded an Honourable Mention in the 2016 World Justice Project Anthony Lewis
Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism.
Paul McNally was selected as a Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University for 2016.
The fellowship ran for six week and provided short term research opportunities to journalists working
on innovative and original projects committed to fostering progress in the field of international
journalism.
Media Studies Mehita Iqani was awarded a Certificate of recognition for “Most highly cited researcher” in the Wits Faculty of Humanities in 2016, for her 2016 paper on selfies co-authored with Jonathan E. Schroeder. Media Studies received the Vice-Chancellors Team Teaching Award for 2016 for their curriculum development and teamwork. Importantly, in the context of research-led teaching and teaching-led research, in 2016 Oxford University Press has contracted Mehita Iqani to co-edit (with Sarah Chiumbu) a new book on Decolonial Media Theory. This book is the outcome of the collaborative research-led teaching development work done by the department. Creative Writing Phillippa Yaa de Villiers was shortlisted for Bellagio Residency. Phillippa Yaa de Villiers served on the judging panel, African Poetry Book Prize, English Department, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Ivan Vladislavić’s novel Double Negative (translation) shortlisted for Internationaler Literaturpreis in June 2016. English Prof Chris Thurman elected as president of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa.
Accredited Publications
Journal articles
African Languages
Brenda Mhlambi
2016 – ISI 2016
Embodied Discordance: Vernacular Idioms in Winnie: The Opera. African Studies, 2016, 75 (1) pp. 48-
73.
Brenda Mhlambi, Donato Somma, Naomi Andre
2016 – ISI 2016
Winnie: The Opera and Embodying South African Opera. African Studies, 2016, 75 (1) pp. 1-9.
Brenda Mhlambi
2016 – IBSS 2016
Wena ungubani (Who are you)?: Post-1994 identity and memory through ukuthakazela in the ‘new’
media blog. South African journal of African languages/Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir Afrikatale, 2016,
36 (1) pp. 109-122.
Boni Zungu
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
‘Direct indirectness’: evidence of ancestral veneration in the personal names within traditional
polygynous families in KwaMambulu, Kranskop. Nomina Africana: Journal of the Names Society of
Southern Africa/Tydskrif van die Naamkundevereniging van Suider Afrika, 2016, 30 (2) pp. 89-103.
Boni Zungu
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
“Ungethuki Yimina?” Naming process in light of Africa’s community-based identity in the Zulu
Anthroponymic system. Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 2016, 15 (3) pp.
269-284.
African Literature
Pumla Gqola
2016 – IBSS 2016
Intimate foreigners or violent neighbours? Thinking masculinity and post-apartheid xenophobic
violence through film. Agenda, 2016, 30 (2) pp. 64-74.
Pumla Gqola
2016 – IBSS 2016
A peculiar place for a feminist? The New South African woman, True Love magazine and Lebo(gang)
Mashile. Safundi: journal of South African and American studies, 2016, 17 (2) pp. 119-136.
Danai Mupotsa, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt
2016 – IBSS 2016
Xenophobia, nationalism and techniques of difference. Agenda, 2016, 30 (2) pp. 13-20
Eddie Ombagi
2016 – IBSS 2016
Notes on the Nation: A Conversation with Sara Ahmed’s Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-
Coloniality, The Cultural Politics of Emotion and Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others.
Agenda, 2016, (2) pp. 147-152
Zukolwenkosi Zikalala
2016 – IBSS 2016
A nation awakened out of its sleep paralysis: A review of Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Rape: A South African
Nightmare. Agenda, 2016, 30 (2) pp. 153-158
Carli Coetzee
2016 – ISI 2016
Afro-superheroes: prepossessing the future. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 2016, 28 (3) pp. 241-
244.
Carli Coetzee
2016 – ISI 2016
Contemporary Conversations: Afropolitanism: Reboot. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 2016, 28 (1)
pp. 101-103.
English Studies
Merle Williams
2016 – ISI 2016
‘A Shape… Crouching within the Shadow of a Tomb’: Shelley’s Qualified Apocalypse in ‘The Triumph
of Life’. Studia Neophilologica, 2016, 88 pp. 4-18.
Merle Williams
2016 – ISI 2016
Protean Form in Washington Square: Linguistic Experimentation and the Anticipation of Life.
English Studies in Africa, 2016, 59 (2) pp. 101 -113.
Merle Williams
2016 – ISI 2016
A Tale of Two Oskars: Security or Hospitality in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly
Close. American Literary History, 2016, 28 (4) pp. 702-720.
John Masterson
2016 – ISI 2016
‘It’s Not Dark Yet, but It’s Getting There’: Listening for the End times in the Contemporary American.
Novel. Studia Neophilologica, 2016, 88 pp. 68-80.
John Masterson
2016 – ISI 2016
Floods, Fortresses, and Cabin Fever: Worlding “Domeland” Security in Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun and The
Circle. American Literary History, 2016, 28 (4) pp. 721-739.
Michael Titlestad
2016 – ISI 2016
This is not the way the world ends: Richard Hughes’s rejoinder to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Studia Neophilologica, 2016, 88 pp. 33-46.
Michael Titlestad
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
No Time like the Present: Nadine Gordimer and the Burden of Telos. Journal of Literary Studies, 2016,
32 (2) pp. 1-12.
Michael Titlestad
2016 – IBSS 2016
Conspiracy, apocalypticism, and contingency in Smith Henderson’s Fourth of July Creek
Safundi: Journal of South African and American studies, 2016, 17 (4) pp. 447-459.
Barbara Boswell
2016 – IBSS 2016
Rewriting apartheid South Africa: race and space in Mariam Tlali and Lauretta Ngcobo’s novels.
Gender, place and culture: a journal of feminist geography, 2016, 23 (9) pp. 1329-1342.
Barbara Boswell
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
“Conjuring up her wholeness”. Post-transitional black South African women’s poetry and its
restorative ethic. Scrutiny2 (Unisa English Studies), 2016, 21 (2) pp. 8-26.
Christopher Thurman
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
Imraan Coovadia: Essay and/as Transformation. Current Writing: Text and Reception, 2016, 28 (1) pp.
73-87.
Charne Lavery
2016 – ISI 2016
‘The Darker Side of Durban’: South African Crime Fiction and Indian Ocean Underworlds. Journal of
Southern African Studies, 2016, 42 (3) pp. 539-550.
Hazel Frankel
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
A panorama of portraits: Elements of empathy in the Yiddish poems of David Fram. Literator, 2016,
37 (1) pp. 1-10.
Hazel Frankel
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
From steppe to veld: The landscape poems of the Yiddish poet David Fram. Journal for
Semitics/Tydskrif vir Semitistiek, 2016, 25 (1) pp. 235-252.
Linguistics
Tommaso Milani, E Levon
2016 – ISI 2016
Sexing diversity: Linguistic landscapes of homonationalism. Language & Communication, 2016, 51 pp.
69-86.
Tommaso Milani, D Machin, C R Caldas-Coulthard
2016 – ISI 2016
Doing critical multimodality in research on gender, language and discourse. Gender and Language,
2016, 10 (3) pp. 301-308.
Maxwell Kadenge, A Chebanne, C Phili
2016 – IBSS 2016
Making the form fit: Repair strategies in IKalanga loanword phonology. South African journal of African
languages/Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir Afrikatale, 2016, 36 (2) pp. 231-241.
Maxwell Kadenga, G Mavunga
2016 – ISI 2016
Shona Slang used by Zimbabwean Sex Workers operating from Inner City Johannesburg, South Africa.
Journal of Communication, 2016, 07 (2) pp. 222-230.
Maxwell Kadenge, K Gotosa
2016 – IBSS 2016
Some Reflections on Politeness Strategies among Shona Speaking Couples in Zimbabwe. Journal of
sociology and social anthropology, 2016, 7 (2) pp. 92-100.
Ramona Kunene Nicolas, Saaliha Ahmed
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Lexical development of noun and predicate comprehension and production in isiZulu. South African
Journal of Communication Disorders, 2016, 63 (2) pp. 1-10.
Journalism
Franz Kruger
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Discourse Ethics and the Media. African Journalism Studies (Formerly Equid Novi – African Journalism
Studies), 2016, 37 (2) pp. 21-39.
Ewan Sutherland
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
China and Africa: Alternative Telecommunication Policies and Practices. African Journal of Information
& Communication, 2016, 17, pp. 165-195.
Media Studies
Antonio Ciaglia
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Democratising Public Service Broadcasting: The South African Broadcasting Corporation – Between
Politicisation and Commercialisation. African Journalism Studies (Formerly Equid Novi - African
Journalism Studies), 2016, 37 (2) pp. 95-115.
Sarah Chiumbu
2016 – ISI 2016
Media, Race and Capital: A Decolonial Analysis of Representation of Miners’ Strikes in South Africa.
African Studies, 2016m 75 (3) pp. 417-435.
Glenda Daniels
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Chasing Hashtag#25 in the newsrooms presents challenges for Journalism Education. But what are
they? African Journalism Studies (Formerly Equid Novi – African Journalism Studies), 2016, 37 (2) pp.
1-18.
Glenda Daniels
2016 – ISI 2016
Paradoxical Splits: Race and Journalists’ identity in Post-apartheid South Africa. African Studies, 2016,
75 (3) pp. 436-448.
Nicky Falkof
2016 – ISI 2016
ENG/AFR: white masculinity in two contemporary South African films. Critical Arts-South-North
Cultural and Media Studies, 2016, 30 (1) pp. 15-30.
Mehita Iqani, Jonathan E Schroeder
2016 – ISI 2016
#selfie: digital self-portraits as commodity form and consumption practice. Consumption Markets &
Culture, 2016, 19 (5) pp. 405-415.
Mehita Iqani, Pontsho Pilane
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Miss-represented: A critical analysis of the visibility of black women in South African Glamour
magazine. Communicare: Journal for Communication Sciences in Southern Africa, 2016, 35 (1) pp. 126-
171.
Nicky Falkof
2016 – ISI 2016
Out the back: Race and reinvention in Johannesburg’s garden cottages. International Journal of
Cultural Studies, 2016, 19 (6) pp. 627-642.
Ufuoma Akpojivi, Ayesha L Bevan-Dye
2016 – ISI 2016
South African General Y students’ self-disclosure on Facebook. South African Journal of Psychology,
2016, 46 (1) pp. 114-129.
Modern Languages
Fiona Horne
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
The repositioning of literature in French foreign language teaching in South Africa:
Performing dialogue, diversity and difference. Journal of Language Teaching: (SAALT Journal for
Language Teaching), 2016, 50 (1) pp. 11-27.
Alexia Vassilatos
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
The transculturation of Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka. Tydskrif Vir Letterkunde, 2016, 53 (2) pp. 161-174.
Alexia Vassilatos
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
Au croisement des cultures: Reine Pokou de Veronique Tadjo au niveau des etudes superieures dans
le contexte sud-africain. French Studies in Southern Africa, 2016, 46 pp. 132-148
Anita Virga
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
Pamela ovvero la ‘Venere Bianca’: II racconto dissidente di fausta cialente. Italian Studies in Southern
Africa, 2016, 29 (2) pp. 75-97
Nereida Ripero-Muniz
2016 – ISI 2016
Metropolitan nomads: a journey through Jo’burg’s “little Mogadishu”. Anthropology Southern Africa,
2016, 39 (3) pp. 232-240.
Peter Horn
2016 – DHET South African List (January 2016)
Warum drucken wir etwas aus? Zu einigen Gedichten Gottfried Benns. Acta Germanica, German
Studies in Africa, 2016, 44 (1) pp. 219 – 231.
South African Sign Language
Morgan Ruth, Glaser Meryl, Magongwa Lucas
2016 – DHET South African list (January 2016)
Constructing and rolling out the new South African Sign Language (SASL) Curriculum. Reflexive Critique
Per Linguam: A Journal of Language Learning, 2016, 32 (2) pp 15-29.
Senna Tshegofatso
2016 – IBSS 2016
Deaf women’s lived experiences of their constitutional rights in South Africa. Agenda, 2016, 30 (1) pp.
65-75.
Chapters
African Literature
Bheki Peterson – 2016
Sol Plaatje’s Native life in South Africa: Past and Present
Chapter 2 – In B. Peterson & B. Willan & J. Remmington (eds.)
Modernist at large: The aesthetics of Native life in South Africa.
(pp. 18-36) Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
978-1-86814-981-0
Media Studies
Glenda Daniels – 2016
South African Arab or Democracy to Come? An analysis of South African Journalists’ Engagement with
Citizenry through Twitter.
Chapter 7 – In B. Mutsvairo (eds) Participatory Politics and Citizen Journalism in a Networked Africa.
(pp. 107-122) BASINGSTOKE: Palgrave MacMillan.
978-1-137-55449-9
Dina Ligaga – 2016
Writing the Postcolony: Narrative, (re)Memory and the Imaginary in The Blind Kingdom and Queen
Pokou.
Chapter 2 – In D. Kabwe-Segatti & S. Cordova (eds.) Ecrire, traduire, peindre Veronique Tadjo.
(pp. 121-137) Paris: Presence Africaine, 978-2-7087-0892-1
Ufuoma Akpojivi – 2016 / M Fosu
Indigenous Language Media, Language Politics and Democracy in Africa.
Chapter 6 – In M.B. Chibita & A. Salawu (eds.) Indigenous Language Broadcasting in Ghana: Retrospect
and Prospect. (pp. 121-150) England: Palgrave MacMillan, 978-1-137-54729-3
Johanna Willems – 2015
The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media.
Chapter 7 – In C. Atton (eds.) Alternative mediation, power and civic agency in Africa.
(pp. 88-99) Abington, Oxon and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 978-0-415-64404-4
Johanna Willems – 2015
Race and the Reproduction of Colonial Mythologies on land: A Post-Colonial reading of British Media
discourse on Zimbabwe
Chapter 15 – In W, Mano (eds.) Racism, Ethnicity and the Media in Africa: Mediating conflict in the
twenty-first century. (pp. 298-315) London: IB Tauris 978-1-78076-706-2
Modern Languages
Luigi Robuschi – 2016
Cavalieri Mediterranei e Corsari Caraibici: L’ordine di Malta nelle Antille Francesi.
Chapter 5 – In G. Spani & M. Marino (eds.)
Visioni Mediterranee. Itinerari e Migrazioni Culturali.
(pp. 73-89) Lanciano: Casa Editrice Rocco Carabba.
978-88-6344-398-1
Andreas Hettiger – 2016
Babel in Regenbogenland?
Chapter 2 – In K. Wermbter & Martin. Neef (eds.) Babel re-searched: Braunschweiger Beitrage zu
Mehrsprachigkelt und Interkulturalitat. (pp. 147-174) Marburg: Tectum Verlag. 978-3-8288-3735-5
Authored Books
African Literature
Pumla Gqola – 2015
Rape: A South African Nightmare. (1st edition): Johannesburg: Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd. 192 pp.
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Judith Inggs – 2016
Transition and Transgression: English Young Adult Fiction in Post-Apartheid South Africa. (1st edition):
Gewerbestrasse: Springer. 120 pp.
Media Studies
Mehita Iqani – 2016
Consumption, Media and the Global South: Aspiration Contested.
(1st Edition): Pietermartizburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. 232 pp.
Iginio Gagliardone – 2016
The Politics of Technology in Africa: Communication, Development and Nation-Building in Ethiopia.
(1st Edition): Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 177 pp.
Modern Languages
Anette and Peter Horn – 2016
Der Schrei ist das einzig Ewige: Die Ramone Thomas Berhards. (1st Edition): Oberhausen: Athena
Verlag. 258 pp.
Non-Accredited Publications but Peer-Reviewed
Journal articles
African Literature
Isabel Hofmeyr - Editorial
2016 – ISI 2016
Durban and Cape Town as Port Cities: Reconsidering Southern African Studies from the Indian Ocean.
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2016, 42 (3) PP. 539-550.
Creative Writing
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
The Package. 2016 In Source: The Photographic Review 87 (Autumn), 23-25.
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
This is what I talk about when I talk: the portraits of Zanele Muholi. 2016 ZUM Magazine.
Ivan Vladislavić
Excerpt from Double Negative, in Betti-Sue Hertz, Frank Smigiel and Dominic Willsdon (eds), Public
Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa (Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts, San Francisco,
2016).
Ivan Vladislavić
‘Vaggsång’ (story), Karavan, No. 1 2016 (Stockholm, 2016; Swedish translation of ‘Lullaby’).
Ivan Vladislavić,
‘De blankenbank’ (story), Tirade, 464 September 2016, Jaargang 60 (Amsterdam, 2016; Dutch
translation of ‘The Whites Only Bench’).
Ivan Vladislavić
‘101 Detectives’ (story), in The Offing, Los Angeles Review of Books, 2016.
Ivan Vladislavić,
‘On first looking into Godot’ (essay), Thesis Eleven, Vol. 136, No. 1, October 2016.
English
Barbara Boswell; Jane Bennett; Tanekwah Hinds; Jody Metcalfe and Ivy Kabura Nganga
Activist Leadership and Questions of Sexuality with Young Women: A South African Story
2016 Feminist Formations: Vol. 28 No. 2 (Summer) pp. 27 – 50.
Media Studies
Iginio Gagliardone and Frederick Golooba-Mutebi
The Evolution of the Internet in Ethiopia and Rwanda: Towards a “Developmental” Model? 2016
Journal of Security & Development. 5(1): 8: pp 1-24.
Modern Languages
Nereida Ripero-Muniz
2015. Mayfair: “A Somali Island In Johannesburg”. Itch. The Creative Journal. Volume 15. Available from: http://itch.co.za/writing/mayfair-gallery
Nereida Ripero-Muniz and Salym Fayad. 2015. “Mayfair, el barrio somalí de Johannesburgo”, EL PAÏS, Planeta Futuro, Blog Seres Urbanos. Available from: http://blogs.elpais.com/seres-urbanos/2015/04/mayfair-el-pulso-del-barrio-somal%C3%AD-de-johannesburgo.html
Nereida Ripero-Muñiz, Nereida and Salym Fayad 2015. ”Metropolitan Nomads A journey through Joburg’s Little Mogadishu”, Afrikan Sarvi, 2. Available from: http://afrikansarvi.fi/issue10/109-matkakertomus/266-metropolitan-nomads-a-journey-through-joburg-s-little-mogadishu
Véronique Tadjo
Écrire, traduire, peindre (Writing, Translating, Painting) Présence Africaine
Kathleen Thorpe
Temeswarer Beitráge Zur Germanistik 2015 Verlag; Band 12. 193-201
Anette Horn – Online article
2016 Metaphorische Gratwanderungen göttlichen Scheiterns. In: Polylogzentrum für Kunst, Kultur, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft 2016-08-27 für Kunst, Kultur, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft http://www.polylogzentrum.at/weltprojekt-der-berge/dokumentation/anschauungen-der-
berge/metaphorische-gratwanderungen-goettlichen-scheiterns/
Peter Horn
2016 Die Namen der Berge im Südlichen Afrika. In: Polylogzentrum für Kunst, Kultur, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft 2016-08-27. http://www.polylogzentrum.at/welt projekt-der-berge/dokumentation/die- namen-der-berge/die-namen-der-berge-im-suedlichen-afrika/
Peter and Anette Horn - Editorial
2017 Peter Horn & Anette Horn (Edited by). 100 Poems from Bangladesh. Edition Delta, Stuttgart
Andreas Hettiger
Der Beitrag von Sprachenzentren zur Internationalisierung der Hochschulen, in: 2016 Fremdsprachen
und Hochschule (FuH). Bochum: AKS-Verlag, Vol 91; pp 9-22
Philina Wittke
Curriculum Transformation at the University of the Witwatersrand; Thoughts of a Lecturer in German
Studies. 2016 eDUSA Deutschunterricht im Südlichen Afrika Teaching German in Southern Africa Vol
11/1
Chapters
Media Studies
Iginio Gagliardone and Matti Pohjonen
Chapter 2, pp 25-43, Engaging in Polarized Society: Social Media and Political Discourse in Ethiopia
Book: “Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in sub-Saharan
Africa”
Modern Languages
Andreas Hettiger
Chapter 2, pp 147-174, Babel im Regenbogenland? Book: Babel re-searched: Vraunschweiger Beitrage
zu Mehrsprachigkeit und Interkulturalitat
Peter Horn
2016 „We all sat round a faia“. In: Lawrence J. Trudeau (ed.) Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Gale, Farmington Hills, MI. p.3-8. ISBN 13-978-1-4103-1598-4. Reprint rom: UCT Studies in English 7 (1977): pp. 28-36.
Authored Books
Creative Writing
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
The Printmaker, Umuzi; pp9-267
Media Studies
Mehita Iqani and Bridget Kenny
Consumption, Media and Culture in South Africa: Perspectives on freedom and the public.
Routledge; pp 1-173.
Modern Languages
Peter Horn – Book translation
2016 M.N.K. Mtileni (Translator): Switlhokovetselo Swa Peter Horn. Nhlalala Books. [Poems translated
into Xitsonga]
South African Sign Language
Michiko Kaneko Sutton-Spence, Rachel & (2016)
Introducing Sign Language Literature: Folklore & Creativity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Commercial long-form publications:
Davie, Kevin: Through Sinai, the land of Moses, in the time of Islamic State, by bicycle (Mail &
Guardian, 27 Sep 2016) https://mg.co.za/data/2016-09-27-mosess-path-in-islamic-state-times-on-a-
bicycle
Sampear, Aldrin: The blood-stained chronicles: undercover as a homeless windscreen washer
(Mail&Guardian, 25 October 2016) https://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-25-the-blood-stained-
chronicles-undercover-as-a-hillbrow-homeless-windscreen-washer
Davie, Kevin: The ghosts that accompany endurance cyclists (Mail&Guardian 9 January, 2016),
https://mg.co.za/article/2016-01-27-the-ghosts-that-accompany-endurance-cyclists
PG students completed (PhD, MA dissertation, MA Course-Work and
Research Report) African Literature 1. Anne Ajulu-Okungu (PhD) 2. Modupe Adebawo (MA) 3. Unifier Dyer (MA) 4. Linda Thango (MA) 1 PhD 3 MA English 1. Josiah Nyanda (PhD) 2. Carla Chait (MA) 3. Baron Glanvill (MA) 4. Kate Sidley (MA) 1 PhD 3 MA Creative Writing 1. Baikie, T. MA by research. With distinction. 2. Kurgan, T. MA by research. With distinction. 3. Oldert, N. MA by research. With distinction. 4. Gabonewe, T. MA by research. 5. Sidley, K. MA by research. 6. Jacobs, P. MA by research. 7. Johaardien, A. MA by research. 8. Langer, M. MA by research. With distinction. 9. Thomas, R. MA by research. 9 MA Journalism 1. Brigitte Read – MA Course work and Research Report
2. Moagasi Sibanda – MA Course work and Research Report
3. Kate Ferreira – MA Course work and Research Report
4. Nooshin Erfani Ghadmi – MA by Research
5. Richard Frank – MA Course work and Research Report
6. Lisa Steyn - MA Course work and Research Report
7. Mike Smurthwaite – MA Course work and Research Report
8. Sintha Chiuma – MA Course work and Research Report
8 MAs
Linguistics 1. Tasmia Khan MA by research 2. Dakom Damun MA by research 3. Nonhlanhla Ntuli MA by research 4. Megan Edwards MA by research 5. Kate Ferrera MA by research 5 MAs
Media Studies 1. Tendai Chari, PhD 2. Zvenyika Mugari, PhD. William and Ntihila Kupe Prize for Postgraduate Research Excellence for
best PhD thesis in 2016 3. Christi Kruger, PhD. Registered in Wiser but supervised in Media Studies. Winner of 2015 Monica
Wilson Prize for best article published in Anthropology South Africa 4. Sally Kumwenda, MA 5. Jessica Pereira, MA. Stuart Hall Prize for best Masters dissertation in 2016 6. Simphiwe Emmanuel Rens, MA 7. Megan Edwards, MA. Co-supervised with Linguistics 3 PhD 4 MA Publishing Studies 1. C Willis, MA Coursework and Research Report 2. C Jelegat, MA Coursework and Research Report 3. G Marx, MA Coursework and Research Report 3 MA SA Sign Language 1. Nyeleti Nkwinika (MA Dissertation) 2. Donovan Wright (MA Dissertation) – dissertation submitted in December 2016, corrections
submitted in March 2017. 2 MA School Total: 5 PhD, 24 MA
PhD students registered
African Literature 1. Francis Anolue 2. Rangarirayi Mapanzure 3. Nomonde Ntsepo 4. Femi Eromosele
5. Thabang Nkuna 6. Natasha Himmelman 7. Byron Sherman 8. Rangoato Hlasane 9. Addamms Mututa 10. Eddie Ombagi 11. Felix Ndaka 12. Jane Wakarindi 13. Joshua Kumwenda 14. Vusi Mchunu Creative Writing 1. Greta Schuler 2. Joanne Hichens 3. Rohan Dickson 4. Kgafela Magogodi 5. Bronwyn Law-Viljoen English 1. Anthea Buys 2. Leila Hassim 3. Barbara Janari 4. Tafirenyika Madziyauswa 5. Edwin Mhandu 6. Manosa Nthunya 7. Natalie Paoli 8. Robyn Pierce 9. Daniela Pitt 10. Clea Schultz 11. Sergio Teixeira 12. Marinus van Niekerk 13. Karl van Wyk 14. Alexandra Wheeler Linguistics 1. Saaliha Ahmed
2. Cynthia Mazibuko
3. Nonhlanhla Ntuli
4. Gilles Baro
5. Megan Edwards
6. William Kelleher
7. Clive Vanderwagen 8. Steven Fielding Journalism 1. Ms. Dineshree Balliah – In progress (Supervisor - Dr. Glenda Daniels)
2. Mr. Franz Kruger – In Progress (Supervisor – Professor Sue Van Zyl)
3. Mr. Emeka Umejei – Proposal submitted (Supervisor – Dr. Iginio Gagliardone)
Media Studies (supervisor’s noted by initials) 1. Onkopotse JJ Tabane – on final draft 2. Dinesh Balliah – busy with fieldwork 3. David Wigston – investigating his drop out out 4. Siyasanga Tyali (Submitting thesis for examination in June) 5. Last Alfandika 6. Lwazi Mjiyako 7. Yolanda Vamusse 8. Gloria Ernest-Samuel 9. Anthony Ambala 10. James Smurthwaite (writing up) 11. Gloria Ooko (commencing) 12. Vidhya Sana (Fieldwork) 13. Catherine Duncan – writing up 14. Katlego Disemelo – busy with fieldwork 15. Yolo Siyabonga Koba – thesis under examination, submitted January 2017 16. Sphesihle Khanyile – just submitted proposal (April 2017) 17. Hugh Ellis – writing up 18. Beauty Muromo – writing up 19. Viraj Suparsad – fieldwork 20. Emeka Umejei – submitting 21. Job Mwaura – commencing 22. Edwin Tallam – commencing Publishing Studies 1. Griffin Shea
Staff with/without PhDs
Permanent Academic Staff with/without PhDs
Of the total permanent staff complement of 54, 45 or 83% already have PhDs.
Four members of academic staff are currently registered for a PhD, one of these being a tutor.
One is registered for an MA (submitted).
Of the remaining four the staff members without PhD, one holds an Honours degree and is a
Distinguished Professor (Creative Writing), one holds an MA degree (English), and the remaining two
are tutors.
Staff working on postgraduate degrees are provided with support through writing retreats and
teaching buy-outs.
AFRICAN LANGUAGES
4 members of staff, 2 with PhD
1 Associate Professor
1 Lecturer
1 Principal Tutor
1 Tutor, registered for a PhD
AFRICAN LITERATURE
5 members of staff, all with PhDs
3 Professors (1 Research Professor)
1 Associate Professor
1 Lecturer
CREATIVE WRITING
3 members of staff, 1 with PhD
1 Distinguished Professor
1 Associate Professor
1 Lecturer
ENGLISH
13 members of staff, 12 with PhDs
4 Professors
2 Associate Professors
2 Senior Lecturers
4 Lecturers
JOURNALISM
3 members of staff, one with a PhD
1 Adjunct Professors 1 registered for PhD
1 Associate Professor
1 Lecturer
LINGUISTICS
4 members of staff, all with PhDs
2 Associate Professors
1 Senior Lecturer
1 Lecturer
MEDIA STUDIES
7 members of staff, 7 with PhDs
2 Associate Professors
4 Senior Lecturers
1 Lecturer
MODERN LANGUAGES
French Studies
3 members of staff, 3 with PhD
1 Senior Lecturer
2 Lecturers
German Studies
1 member of staff, with PhD
1 Professor
Italian Studies
3 members of staff, 2 with PhDs
2 Lecturers
1 Tutor
Spanish
1 member of staff with PhD
1 Lecturer
South African Sign Language
3 permanent members of staff, 2 with PhDs
3 Lecturers (1 at 50%)
(1 Associate Lecturer 50%)
Translation & Interpreting Studies
3 members of staff, 3 with PhDs
1 Associate Professor
1 Senior Lecturer (50%) (resigned July 2016)
1 Lecturer
LINK CENTRE
1 members of staff, with PhD
1 Senior Lecturers
Table 6: Distribution in 2014 – permanent staff only
Positions Totals and percentage
Tutors 3 (5%)
Principal Tutors 1 (2%)
Lecturers 20 (37%)
Senior Lecturers 10 (19%)
Associate Professors 11 (20%)
Adjunct Professors 1 (2%)
Professors 8 (15%)
Totals 54
Associate Lecturers 2
Breakdown by discipline: Profs, Aspros, Snr Lects, Lects, Assoc Lects, Tutors
African Languages
Assoc. Professor (1): Mhlambi, I.
Lecturer (1): Zungu, Boni, Dr
Principal Tutor (1): Setshedi, Q. Mrs
Tutor (2): Mjiyako, L.
African Literature
Professor (3): Hofmeyr, I.; Peterson, B.; Gqola, P
Assoc. Professor (1): Ojwang, D.
Lecturer (1): Mupotsa, D.
CREATIVE WRITING
Professor (1): Vladislavic, I.
Assoc. Prof (1): Law-Viljoen, B.
Lecturer (1): De Villiers, P.
English
Professor (4): Houliston, V.; Williams, M.; Titlestad, M; Muponde, R.
Ass. Professor (3): Gaylard, G.; Thurman, C.;
Senior Lecturer (1): Jones, T; Boswell, B.
Lecturer (3): Adler, M.; Gordon, C.; Kostelac, S.; Van Schalkwyk, S; Fanucchi, S.
JOURNALISM
Adjunct Professor (2): Kruger, F.
Assoc. Prof (1): Cowling, L.
Lecturer (1): Balliah, D.
LINGUISTICS
Ass. Professor (1): Milani, T; Kadenge, M.
Senior Lecturers (2): Van Der Spuy, A. Dr;
Lecturer (1): Kunene-Nicolas, R. Dr
MEDIA STUDIES
Assoc. Prof (1) Iqani, M; Falkof, N.
Senior Lecturer (3): Ligaga, D; Daniels, G.; Akpojivi, U.; Van Staden, C.;
Lecturer (3): Gagliardone, I.
MODERN LANGUAGES
French Studies
Sen. Lecturer (1): Vassilatos, A.
Lecturer (2): Horne, F. Dr; Moji, P. Dr
German Studies
Professor (1): Horn, A.
Italian Studies
Lecturer (2): Robuschi, L. Dr; Virga, A. Dr
Tutor (1): Gianoglio, C. Mrs.
Portuguese
Associate Lecturer (1)
South African Sign Language
Lecturers (3): Janse Van Vuuren, N. Ms; Kaneko, M.; Morgan, R. (50 %)
Associate Lecturer (1): Wright, D. (50%)
Spanish
Lecturer (1): Ripero-Muniz, N. Dr
TRANSLATION & INTERPRETING STUDIES
Ass. Professor (1): Inggs, J.
Senior Lecturer (1): Fléchais, O. Dr (50%) (until mid-2016)
Lecturer (1): Fotheringham, C. Dr
LINK CENTRE
Senior Lecturer (2): Abrahams, L.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Linguistics
Dimitris Kitis 07 November 2013 to 08 November 2016
English/African Literature
Charne Lavery 23 January 2014 to 24 January 2017
English/Creative Writing
Hazel Frankel 01 January 2015 to 30 March 2017
English
Lara Buxbaum 01 April 2015 to 31 March 2017
French
Katia Gottin 05 October 2015 to 30 September 2017
International research collaborations African Literature The DAAD-funded Thematic Network on “Literary Cultures of the Global South.” The research network, which is funded to the tune of 1 million euros over a 4-year period (2015-2018) involves academics and postgraduate students from 8 universities. The network organizes students and staff exchanges, conferences, annual summer schools and student workshops. The Wits team is coordinated by Prof Dan Ojwang.
Journalism Indra de Lanerolle is a member of the World Internet Project international research group that
includes members from more than twenty countries in North and South America, Asia, the Middle
East and Europe. The research group meets annually and aims to produce quantitative research on
Internet access and use.
Indra de Lanerolle was appointed as a member of the Making All Voices Count Research Outreach
Team in 2016 by the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, one of the
leading development research institutions in the world. He works with researchers in the UK,
Philippines, East Africa, Indonesia and Ghana to develop research, evidence and learning approaches
for the Making All Voices Count programme which aims to strengthen the use of Internet and related
technologies in transparency and accountability.
Indra de Lanerolle concluded a research study with partners in the UK, Norway and Kenya on
processes of technology selection and development in transparency and accountability in South Africa
and Kenya. The study was published in May 2016.
Bob Wekesa is a steering committee member of the Chinese in Africa, Africans in China Research
Network with partners from USA, China (including Hong Kong), Belgium and Norway. This initiative
includes an active google group with over 700 members. Wekesa represents Africa in the group.
Bob Wekesa representing Wits Africa China Reporting Project in an ongoing project with Friedrich
Ebert Stiftung (Germany Foundation) and Institute for Global Dialogue (South Africa) aimed at
developing an African policy towards China.
Alan Finlay ran a two-day pre-event at the Internet Governance Forum in Guadalajara in Mexico on
the topic of economic, social and cultural rights and the internet, on behalf of the Association for
Progressive Communications.
Linguistics Kunene Nicolas R. 4-Year, Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES), Seventh
Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, Grant number: GEST_LAN_D
PIRSES-GA-2013-612563 “Gesture and Language Development across Romance and Bantu Languages.
€52164 (Euros)/ +R890,000 for Wits partner. Principal Investigator for Wits, Co-PI for collaboration. A
4 year international partnership between the university of Grenoble Alpes, France, (GLADD) Lab at the
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) of the National Council for Research (CNR) of
Italy and the university of Cape Town.
Milani Tommaso M. Research Council of Norway. 3-year International Partnership (NOK 3 978 000)
between the University of Oslo, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town, University
of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University. Main applicant is Professor Elizabeth Lanza
(University of Oslo). The aim of the network is to develop a North/South dialogue on issues of
multilingualism.
Milani Tommaso M. Danish Agency for Science and Innovation. 1-year International Partnership on
“Language, Gender and Sexuality in a Global Materialility Perspective” (DKK 199 000). The aim of the
collaboration is to initiate a North/South and South-South dialogue on issues of gender, sexuality and
language. The collaboration involves researchers from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark),
University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Wits University (South Africa). Main applicant is Dr Marie Megaard
(University of Copenhagen).
Van Der Spuy, Andrew: ‘The embedded indexical value of /s/-fronting in Afrikaans and South African
English.’ Joint project with Prof Ian Bekker, NWU, and DR Erez Levon, Queen Mary’s College, London.
(Co-editor with Lutz Marten, SOAS, and DR Kristina Riedel, UFS) Special edition of Nordic Journal of
African Studies (forthcoming).
Media Studies Ufuoma Akpojivi worked with Teke Ngomba (Aarhus University, Denmark); Michael Coynette
(Okanagan College, Canada); Jose Luis Gomez (UDEN Spain).
Iginio Gagliardone won a major grant from UNESCO, on which he is the principal investigator. The
project is on World Trends of Freedom of Expression and Media Development. The Co-Investigator is
Emanuele Fantini on UNESCO-IHE project on Water Diplomacy and the Media on the Nile Basin.
Mehita Iqani worked with Dr Simidele Dosekun (Sussex, UK) on convening a workshop on ‘Luxury
Aesthetics in Africa’ in November 2016, which will be turned into a book project.
Nicky Falkof worked with Moradewun Adejunmobi from UC Davis on a journal special issue; and is
working towards a joint article with Sara Orning from Oslo University
SA Sign Language Michiko Kaneko Ongoing collaboration with Prof Anne Baker from Stellenbosch Creative Writing Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is a Fellow, Centre of Transcultural Research, Lancaster University, and Fellow, Africa Study Centre University of Leiden, and Guest editor, special edition of Atlanta Review poetry journal, Georgia Institute of Technology. English Prof Merle Williams is the South African leader of the “Fictions of Threat” collaboration with the University of Uppsala in Sweden and the University of Sussex, UK (2013-2017). The group has received a grant of 1.541 million Swedish krona from STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) and has hosted an international research colloquium annually since 2014. The 2016 colloquium was themed “Cultures of Risk: Management, Speculation, Symptom”. Other colleagues involved in this project are Prof Michael Titlestad, Dr Simon van Schalkwyk and Dr Lara Buxbaum. Research articles emerging from the collaboration have been published or are forthcoming in issues of the journals English Studies in Africa, Safundi and Studia Neophilologica. When Tomorrow Comes, a visual arts exhibition co-curated by Prof Titlestad, opened at the Wits Art Museum in March 2016. Prof Merle Williams is volume editor for The Complete Fiction of Henry James, the first-ever critical edition of James’s fiction which is being produced by an international group of scholars for Cambridge University Press in Cambridge.
Prof Chris Thurman is the project leader of “‘Our’ Shakespeare: Performance, Translation, Education” (2015-2017), a collaboration between South African and German Shakespeare scholars, theatre makers, translators and educationists co-funded by the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).
Conferences, symposia, public lectures/talks/seminars and visiting
speakers Hosted and organised: The Literary Humanities in the Global South: The Question of University Pedagogies. Danai Mupotsa, Barbara Boswell, Harry Garuba, Simon During, Elsie Cloete, etc. 27-28 June 2016, University of Tübingen. Conference organized by Dan Ojwang and Russell West-Pavlov. ‘Luxury Aesthetics in Africa’ Workshop on 15 November 2016. Johannesburg, SA. Speakers: Hlonipha Mokoena (University of the Witwatersrand); Alexia Smit (University of Cape Town); Simidele Dosekun (University of Sussex); Amah Edoh (MIT); Ilana van Wyk (University of Cape Town); Pamila Gupta and Joni Brenner (University of the Witwatersrand); Ndapwa Alweendo (The university currently known as Rhodes); Mehita Iqani (University of the Witwatersrand). Organised by Mehita Iqani. Radio Days Africa: Wits Journalism hosts an annual conference of radio practitioners, the largest of its
kind on the continent. The 2016 edition took place at Wits between 29 June and 1 July, and drew
around 300 participants. Details at http://www.journalism.co.za/radiodays.
AIJC: Wits Journalism hosts the annual African Investigative Journalism Conference. The 2016 edition
took place on 7 – 9 November, and drew around 450 participants. Details at
http://www.journalism.co.za/aijc/.
Taco Kuiper awards: Wits Journalism awards the largest prize for investigative journalism in the
country. The prize is awarded at an annual event with a prestigious international speaker. Details at
http://www.journalism.co.za/tacokuiper/.
Ruth First Fellowship and lecture: Wits Journalism annually awards the Ruth First Fellowship, and
fellows then deliver the results of their research at a public lecture timed to mark pioneering journalist
First’s death in August. At the 2016 event, research papers were delivered by Lwandile Fikeni, Leigh-
Ann Naidoo and Nolwazi Tusini. Details at http://www.journalism.co.za/projects-a-fellowships/ruth-
first/.
Carlos Cardoso lecture: Wits Journalism hosts the annual Carlos Cardoso Lecture to highlight media
freedom issues in Africa, it is timed to coincide with the AIJC. The 2016 event took place on 8
November, and was delivered by Rwandan journalist Bob Rugurika, director of the private radio
station Radio Publique Africaine. Details at http://www.journalism.co.za/blog/2016-carlos-cardoso-
memorial-lecture/.
“Workshop in Sign Linguistics”. Names of Speakers: Professor Anne Baker (University of Amsterdam), Morgana Proietti (Ca Foscari University), Michiko Kaneko (Wits), Naomi Janse Van Vuuren (Wits) 09/03/2016 Name of organiser: Michiko Kaneko. In Media Studies: Cobus van Staden arranged several school seminars in 2016, most notably a roundtable on press freedom. Nicky Falkof gave two public launches for her book, The End of Whiteness. Iginio Gagliardone collaborated with Wits Journalism in the launch of a series on seminars on Internet Research. Publishing Studies hosted a number of seminars:
Christopher Fotheringham – Translation issues in publishing
Isabel Hofmeyr – Introduction to book history
Melanie Law, Programme Leader: Language Practice, School of Languages, University of North West – Onscreen copyediting
Joanne Fedler, author – marketing your books as an author
Andrew Joseph, digital publisher, Wits University Press - Digital academic publishing
Bernita Naudé, publishing director, Macmillan Publishers - Digital publishing for SA schools
Griffin Shea, PhD student and bookseller – bookselling in inner city Johannesburg Creative Writing has hosted the South African Literature series: University of Pretoria, as well as an ongoing seminar series: ZAPP – researcher on South African Poetry Project, a 3-year Indigenous knowledge research project. In 2016 the English Research Seminar series, convened by Prof Merle Williams and Dr Sonia Fanucchi, included eight seminars on various aspects of English literature presented by visiting scholars, members of staff and postgraduate students. Presented: Organised in alphabetical order by staff member name. Akpojivi, Ufuoma . 5-12 December 2016. New Social Movement and Activism: #BringBackOurGirls and
the Feminism Discourse in Nigeria. Akpojivi, Ufuoma. 25-26 August, 2016. Representation of the #BringBackOurGirls Social Movement in
Nigeria: Case Studies OF vanguard and Guardian Newspapers. Boswell, Barbara. 24/08/2016. “African Feminist Literature as Decolonial Praxis”. Decolonising
Feminism. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Boswell, Barbara. 27/06/2016. “Centering African Feminist Thought in the Decolonization Project”.
The Literary Humanities in the Global South: The Question of University Pedagogies. University of Tübingen, Germany.
Boswell, Barbara. 14/04/2016. “Black Feminist Geography in South African Literature”. Spatial Justice and the Postcolony. University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Buxbaum, Lara. 30/06/2016. “Intimacy and Risk in The Alphabet of Birds, The Reactive and Risk”.
Cultures of Risk: Management, Speculation, Symptom. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Buxbaum, Lara. 15 April 2016. “Xenophobia and Animality in Zoo City, Zebra Crossing and Wolf, Wolf”. Stranger in a Strange Land: SAVAL/SASGLS Colloquium. UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa.
Daniels, Glenda. 19 October, 2016. Censorship in South Africa today. Second day Plenary/keynote address, conference presentation at the Reporting Race conference: presentation at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. Johannesburg.
Daniels, Glenda. 23 July 2016. The Saga of the SABC. Keynote address to the Broadcast Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA). Magaliesberg.
Daniels, Glenda. 22 April 2016. What is the master signifier in the discourse of journalists around political party membership? Sacomm roundtable. UJ.
Daniels, Glenda. 19 July 2016. Censorship and Freedom of Expression at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism on Racism, Moderator of public panel discussion: Johannesburg.
Daniels, Glenda. 6 June 2016. SABC and Censorship. Panelist on panel discussion on Maggs on Media at eNCA. Johannesburg.
Daniels, Glenda. 18 May 2016. Media Transformation/ State of the Newsroom race and gender transformation. Panel discussion hosted by the SLLM. Wits University. Johannesburg.
Daniels, Glenda. 29 March 2016.The SA Media Landscape: Issues in the newsrooms. Seminar presented to Medill Journalism School (Chicago), students at a conference/seminar hosted by Fray Media Institute. Johannesburg.
Falkof, Nicky. 7-9 September 2016. ‘Lovers not Fighters: Black Masculinity in the Contemporary
Johannesburg Romcom’. African Studies Association of the UK Biannual Conference. University of Cambridge.
Falkof, Nicky. 30 June-2 July 2016. ‘Blood, Crime and Consumption: The “Plasma Gangs” Scare in Alexandra Township’. Cultures of Risk: A Fictions of Threat Symposium. Sussex University.
Falkof, Nicky. 14-16 June 2016. ‘Blood, Crime and Consumption: The “Plasma Gangs” Scare in Alexandra Township’. Anxiety in and About Africa. CRASSH, Cambridge. Also invited to speak on conference roundtable.
Falkof, Nicky. 2 May 2016. ‘Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa’ book seminar. Invited speaker. Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo. Invited speaker.
Falkof, Nicky. 25-27 May 2016. ‘Christian Nightmares: “Satanist Murders” in South Africa’. Promises of Monsters. University of Stavanger, Norway. Invited speaker.
Falkof, Nicky. 25 January 2016. ‘Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa’ book seminar. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Invited speaker.
Fanucchi, Sonia. 26/08/2016. “Newman’s ‘Callista’: An Apology for Ritual”. Imagining Transformation
in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. SASMARS, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Finlay, A. facilitated a media perceptions survey on gun ownership and control in South Africa for the
School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The survey is administered by the Poynter Institute and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gagliardone, Iginio. 10 December 2016. “Innovation and development in communication technologies
in Africa”. Peking-Stanford-Oxford Internet Law and Policy Conference. Shenzen, China. Gagliardone, Iginio. 22-24 June 2016. “Hate speech and securitisation: an empirical investigation of
online debates, political contestation, and terrorism in Ethiopia”. Vox-Pol: Taking Stock of Research on Violent Political Extremism. Dublin, Ireland.
Gagliardone, Iginio. 22-24 September 2016. “Hate speech and political polarization in Ethiopia” ASAI. Catania, Italia.
Gqola, Pumla. (18/05/2016). “Writing Miriam Tlali: Authority, Voice and Black Feminist Imagination”.
Inaugural Lecture, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Gqola, Pumla. (08-13/03/2016). Keynote Address. Women of the World Festival. Southbank Centre, London, UK.
Gqola, Pumla. (09-12/4/2016). Keynote Address. African Feminist Forum. Harare, Zimbabwe. Gqola, Pumla. (28-30/7/2016). Keynote Address. FEMRITE @20: Rethinking African Literature
Conference. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. Gqola, Pumla. (31 August-4 September). Keynote Address. Africa Utopia Festival. Southbank Centre,
London, UK. Houliston, Victor. 27/08/2016. “From Tragic Scene to Spectacle: St. Thomas More on the Jesuit
Schoolboy Stage”. Imagining Transformation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. SASMARS, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
de Lanerolle, Indra 01.07.16 World Internet Project annual meeting Taipei, Republic of China.
De Lanerolle, Indra 18-20.7.16 Research Outreach Team meeting for development of Country Learning Plans for Making All Voices Count programme. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK.
de Lanerolle, Indra 10.10.16 African Storytelling Guest Lecture at African Leadership University,
Mauritius.
De Lanerolle, Indra, 10.11.16 Facilitator and Presenter and Making All Voices Count South African Community of Practice on approaches to learning. Johannesburg, South Africa
De Lanerolle, Indra convened – with Lucienne Abrahams, the Director of the LINK Centre a new Internet research seminar which was attended by scholars from Media Studies, Software Engineering, the LINK Centre and others. The first meeting was held in October 2016.
Inggs, Judith. 15-17/09/2016. “The Re[a]d Diary: exploring the fluidity of meaning and interpretation across texts and images”. 8th Congress of the European Society for Translation Studies, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
Iqani, Mehita. 16 November 2016. “Happy birthday Mama Winnie! Nostalgia and the power of
historical images on the Twitter feed of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela”. Black Portraitures III. Johannesburg, SA.
Iqani, Mehita. 27-29 July 2016. “Happy birthday Mama Winnie! Nostalgia and the power of historical images on the Twitter feed of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela”. IAMCR Annual Conference 2016. Leicester, UK.
Iqani, Mehita. 14-16 April 2016. “Race, taste and the transnational celebrity: A critical analysis of the online self-promotion of Irene Major”. Kern Conference on Visual Communication. Rochester, NY. Invited speaker.
Janse van Vuuren, N. 3/10/2016. “SASL Curriculum at the University of the Witwatersrand”. Workshop
on Designing and Improving SASL Acquisition Curricula. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Janse van Vuuren, N. 3/10/2016. “SASL – SAQA Unit Standards”. Workshop on Designing and Improving SASL Acquisition Curricula. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Kaneko, Michiko. 4-7/01/2016. “Neologism in South African Sign Language”. Theoretical Issues in Sign
Language Research,12. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Kaneko, Michiko. 4-7/01/2016. “Onomatopoeic Mouth Gestures in Creative Sign Language”.
Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research,12. La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Kunene Nicolas, R., Ahmed, S., Ntuli, N. (2016). Spontaneous gestures in lexical items of Zulu speaking
children. Oral presentation. International ISGS 7 Conference, Paris, July, 18-22, 2016.
Kunene-Nicolas, R., Ntuli, N. (2016). The role of gesture in two Bantu languages and a non-standard language variety. Oral presentation. International ISGS 7 Conference, Paris, July, 18-22, 2016
Sparaci, L., Brookes, H., Kunene-Nicolas, R., Capirci, O., Hadian-Cefidekhanie, A., Colletta, J.M. (2016). Preliminary data on representational gesture in Romance & Bantu languages using PinG. Oral presentation. International ISGS 7 Conference, Paris, July, 18-22, 2016.
Kunene Nicolas, R, Amiroodeen, R, Bhowan T. (2016). Lexical Assessment of Zulu children in early acquisition. LSSA/SAALA/SAALT Annual Joint Conference 2016. 4-7 July 2016, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Kunene Nicolas, R & Judin, S. (2016). Predicate Comprehension and Production in the early acquisition period of isiZulu. LSSA/SAALA/SAALT Annual Joint Conference 2016. 4-7 July 2016, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Coertze, N & Kunene Nicolas, R . (2016). A Multimodal Comparative Study of Oral Narratives: Typical and Atypical populations. LSSA/SAALA/SAALT Annual Joint Conference 2016. 4-7 July 2016, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. 11 May 2016. ‘Time Tracks: On Oral Poetry’. Africa Week, Wits University,
Johannesburg. Panel moderator with Keorapetse Kgositsile, Lebo Mashile, Richard Quaz Roodt, Koleka Putuma, David wa Maahlamela and Modiegi Njayayana.
Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. 7 September 2016, ‘From Papers to Page’. Open Book Festival, Cape Town. Panel discussion with Nancy Richards (moderator), Michela Wrong and Steven Robins.
Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. 8 September 2016, ‘Author as Curator’. Open Book Festival, Cape Town. Panel discussion with Steve Kretzman (moderator), Bongani Madondo and Nick Mulgrew.
Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn. 8 September 2016, ‘Switching Courses’. Open Book Festival, Cape Town. Panel discussion with Yewande Omotoso (moderator), Michela Wrong and Laurie Kubuitsile.
Ligaga, Dina. 26-30 September, 2016. Presence, agency and African women on digital media in Kenya.
ASAUK. Mexico City, Mexico. Ligaga, Dina. 7-9 September, 2016. Popular culture and the emergent digital public in Kenya. ASAUK.
Cambridge University, UK. Ligaga, Dina. 7-9 September, Presence, agency and African women on digital media in Kenya. ASAUK.
Cambridge University, UK.
Milani Tommaso M. Queering critique: Discourse, body, affect. Keynote address at the 6th International Conference on Critical Approaches To Discourse Across Disciplines (CADAAD), Catania, 5-7 September 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Homotopias: Discursive and ambivalent time/space nexus points. Keynote address delivered at the 9th International Gender and Language Association Conference (IGALA) “Time and Transition: Gender, Sexuality, Discourse and Language”, Hong Kong, 19-21 May 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Organizer with Erez Levon (Queen Mary University of London) of the panel Sexual Politics Revisited: Language, Queer Theory and (Anti)Normativity, 9th International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) Conference, Hong Kong, 19-21 May 2016. Speakers: Holly Cashman (University of New Hampshire), Mie Hiramoto (National University of Singapore), Lucy Jones (University of Nottingham), Erez Levon (Queen Mary University of London), Phoebe Pua (National University of Singapore).
Milani Tommaso M. Organizer with Michelle Lazar (National University of Singapore) of the panel Language, Gender and Sexuality: Southern Perspectives, 9th International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) Conference, Hong Kong, 19-21 May 2016. Speakers: Rodrigo Borba (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Scott Burnett (University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg), Brian W. King (City University, Hong Kong), Michelle Lazar (National University of Singapore).
Milani Tommaso M. Invited discussant on the panel “Heterogeneities in representation: Mimicry and media” organized by Jannis Androutsopoulos and Ana Deumert at Sociolinguistics Symposium 21, 15-18 June 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Invited discussant on the panel “Multimodality, language and gender in the ‘new’ South Africa” organized by Quentin E. Williams and Amiena Peck at 9th International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) Conference, Hong Kong, 19-21 May 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Queering diversity. Invited talk delivered at University of Gothenburg, 7 April 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. FAQ on academic publishing. Invited workshop held at University of Gothenburg, 6 April 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Multilingualism: Quo Vadis? Invited talk delivered at University of Gothenburg, 4 April 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Queer performativity. Invited talk delivered at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, 22 March 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Gender and Language: Where are we now? Invited talk as part of the Roundtable “Gender Studies: Theories and Applications”. Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, 21 March 2016.
Milani Tommaso M. Queering Israeli homonationalism: Re/deterritorializations in the making. Invited talk delivered at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 18 March 2016.
Raphaely C. presented at the “Removing Legal Barriers to Prison Health and Rights” training
conference about human rights abuses that take place in SA prisons. (15 March 2017) Ripero-Muñiz, Nereida. 23-26/05/2016. “Inclusion and exclusion among Somali Women in Nairobi and
Johannesburg: Hostility, Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Translocality”. Inclusion and Exclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa: Migrants’ Challenges in Comparative Perspective, Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, University of Pretoria
Ripero-Muñiz, Nereida. 16-20/05/2016. “Metropolitan Nomads: challenges on the field”. Symposium Using Art-based Methods in participatory Research. Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University.
Robuschi, Luigi (14-16/06/2016). “Adapt or Die: The Birth of the Cultural and Political Myth of Venice”.
“Adaptation in the Arts: Theory and Practice”, Emery Community Arts Center, University of Maine at Farmington, Farmington (ME), USA
Ojwang, Dan. (23/05/2016). “Multiculturalism and the Language Question in South African
Universities,” Public lecture at the Intercultural Education and the Refugee Crisis Ringvorlesung, Eric Fromm Institute, University of Tubingen, Germany.
Ojwang, Dan. (13/06/2016). “Ethnography and the Emergence of East African Fiction in English,” Inaugural Lecture: Eric Auerbach Visiting Chair of Global Literary Studies, University of Tubingen, Germany.
Peterson, Bheki. “African Print Cultures”, Maropeng, Cradle of Mankind, 20-23 June 2016. Peterson, Bheki. (October & November 2016). National book launches of Bheki Peterson, Janet
Remmington and Brian Willan (eds), Sol Plaatje’s Native Life in South Africa: Past and Present (Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2016).
Peterson, Bheki. (08/06/2016). “Students Rising: Reflections on student and youth struggles since 16 June 1976.” History Workshop Colloquium. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Thorpe, Kathleen. (4/4/2016). “Cultural Studies - Home for the Foreign Languages?“. International
Cultural Studies Conference. University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon. University of Yaoundé I
Thorpe, Kathleen. (21/6/2016). „Erinnerungskultur und Vertreibung in Schwitzers Die gestohlene Erinnerung.“ Grenzen und Migration. Afrika und Europa. Universität zu Köln, Cologne, Germany. Universität zu Köln, Philosophische Fakultät
Thurman, Chris. 14/10/2016. “Shakespearean Singularity”. World Literatures – Shakespeare and
Cervantes. Humboldt-Stiftung, Bonn, Germany. Thurman, Chris. 01/10/2016. “Shakespeare: We need new names” (Keynote address). Decolonising
Shakespeare. University of KWaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Thurman, Chris. 27/08/2016. “Introducing Coriolanus to South Africa’s classrooms (and stages)”.
Imagining Transformation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. SASMARS, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Thurman, Chris. 06/07/2016. “Singular Shakespeares: Towards a new model for Will-in-the-world”. Shakespeare – Religion, Psychology, Anthropology. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
Thurman, Chris. 06/02/2016. “‘Our virtues lie in the interpretation of the time’: Possibilities for teaching Coriolanus in South Africa today”. IEB English Conference. Birchwood Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Van Der Spuy, A. ‘The Origins of Language: Our Best Conjectures’. Invited talk delivered at The
Parkviews Society, July 2016. Van Schalkwyk, Simon. 30/06/2016. “Risk Society and its Doubles: Analysts, Janissaries, and Gamblers
in Don DeLillo’s The Names, Moshin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland”. Cultures of Risk: Management, Speculation, Symptom. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Van Staden, Cobus. Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network Conference: Nairobi August
2016 Van Staden, Cobus. Africa-China Journalists Forum, Johannesburg, October 2016 Van Staden, Cobus. Public lecture on Japanese pop culture fandom at University of Pretoria’s Centre
for Japanese Studies, March 2016 Van Wyk, Barry. (18-20/08/2016). “Snapshots of Africa in Chinese Media Beyond Xinhua”.
Convergences and Divergences: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Media and Communications in Africa-China Engagement”, the 4th Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Conference. The Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Africa-China Journalists Forum. Richard Poplak, Kevin Bloom, Cobus van Staden, Bob Wekesa, Shi Yi,
John Grobler, Phillip de Wet, Hu Jianlong, et al. (10/11/2016). Africa-China Reporting Project,
Wits Journalism
Virga, Anita. (21-23/04/2016). “Identità e alterità della Sicilia di Capuana”. AAIS Conference. Baton
Rouge (LA), USA. Vladislavić , Ivan. 3 May 2016. ‘Jozi Literary Allstars’. Reading at David Krut Books, Johannesburg, with
Harry Kalmer, Fred Khumalo, Kleinboer, Yewande Omotoso and James Whyle. Vladislavić , Ivan. 21 May 2016. ‘Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry’. Panel discussion with
Claire Robertson and Michele Magwood, Kingsmead Book Fair, Johannesburg. Vladislavić , Ivan. 25 June 2016. Internationaler Literaturpreis 2016. Fest der Shortlist, Haus der
Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Reading and conversation on literary materials with Thomas Brückner, Michael Krüger and Thomas Böhm.
Vladislavić , Ivan. 13 July 2016. University of the Free State Book Festival, Bloemfontein. Long table discussion on the work of Willem Boshoff, chaired by Francis Halsell, with Johann Rossouw, Katja Gentric, Helene Smuts, Josef van Wyk and the artist. 14 July 2016. ‘How is Africa represented?’ University of the Free State Book Festival,
Bloemfontein. Panel discussion, chaired by Francois Smith, with Ingrid Winterbach, Chika Unigwe and Wilfried N’Sonde.
Vladislavić , Ivan. 14 July 2016. ‘The Other 80s’. University of the Free State Book Festival, Bloemfontein. Panel discussion chaired by Johann Rossouw, with Kirby van der Merwe and Jacob Dlamini.
Vladislavić , Ivan. 6-17 September 2016. German book tour to promote the German translations of Double Negative (A1 Verlag) and Exploded View (Osburg Verlag). The tour included the following events with German translator Thomas Brückner and others:
Vladislavić , Ivan. 7 September 2016. Frankfurt Literaturhaus, reading and public discussion. Vladislavić , Ivan. 8 September 2016. Zürich Literaturhaus, reading (with Miriam Japp) and public
discussion. Vladislavić , Ivan. 9 September 2016. Münster Volkshochschule, reading and public discussion. Vladislavić , Ivan. 10 September 2016. International Literature Festival Berlin, performance at Berliner
Festspiele with Thomas Brückner and Günter Baby Sommer. Vladislavić , Ivan. 16 September 2016. Tübingen University. Postgraduate workshop on translation
chaired by Russell West-Pavlov, with Thomas Brückner and Mark Sanders. Vladislavić , Ivan. Katie Kitamura, interview in BOMB Magazine, No. 135, Spring 2016, pp. 72-8.
Peter Beilharz and Sian Supski, ‘Ivan Vladislavić – A Tale in Two Cities’, interview in Thesis Eleven, Vol. 136, No. 1, October 2016.
Wekesa B. was lead organizer for the, The fourth Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network
(CAAC RN) conference: Interdisciplinary approaches to media and communications in Africa-China engagement, August 18-21 2016, Aga Khan University, Kenya, Nairobi
Wekesa B. presented a paper entitled: African agency in Africa-China media engagements: The case of Wits China Africa Reporting Project, August 18-21 2016, Aga Khan University, Kenya, Nairobi
Wekesa B. presented a paper entitled, An African agency conceptual approach in the analysis of Agenda 2063, SDGs and FOCAC, Oxfam Africa China Dialogue Platform, September 28, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Wekesa B. presented a paper entitled, Media-based approach to investigating China's presence in Eastern Africa hydrocarbons sector, April 21-12 2016, University of Dundee, UK, Dundee
Wekesa B. presented a paper entitled: Chinese media and diplomacy in Africa: Theoretical pathways, January 14-16 2016, University of Nottingham, UK, Nottingham
Williams, Merle. 06/02/2016. “Protean Form in Washington Square: Linguistic Experimentation and
the Anticipation of Life”. IEB English Conference. Birchwood Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Williams, Merle. 16/04/2016. “The ‘Mistake’ of ‘Not Living All You Can’: Memory and Lost Possibility in The Awkward Age and The Ambassadors”. Henry James and Memory. British Library Conference Centre, London.
Williams, Merle. 11/07/2016. “Tracing the Foreign and the Other: From The Ambassadors to Foreign
Bodies”. Commemorating Henry James – Commemoration in Henry James. Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Williams, Merle. 30/06/2016. “Traces of Literary Speculation: From The Aspern Papers to The Messiah of Stockholm” Cultures of Risk: Management, Speculation, Symptom. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Wittke, Philina. (22/6/2016). „Schmuggler und Schwalben. Grenzübertritte in der deutschen
Migrationsliteratur.“ Universität zu Köln, Cologne, Germany. Universität zu Köln, Philosophische Fakultät
Grants and Fellowships Received
Name Department Grant for 2017
ADLER M Mellon P/G Mentoring-M Adler ENGLISH R 141 500,00
AKPOJIVI, U Institute of International Education
MEDIA STUDIES -$2500
BUXBAUM L NRF POST-DOC ENGLISH R 45 000,00
FALKOF N 2017 SELLSCHOP MEDIA STUDEIS R 140 401,00
GAGLIARDONE, IGINIO
UNESCO/OXFORD UNIVERSITY MODERN LANGUAGES
R 251 942,00
GAGLIARDONE, IGINIO
UNESCO/DELFT MODERN LANGUAGES
R 666 808,00
GAYLARD GP GAYLARD MELLON 2010 ENGLISH R 150 000,00
HOFMEYR CI ISABEL_H MELLON PROGRAMME AFRICAN LITERATURE
R 93 403,00
IQANI, M SELLSCHOP MEDIA STUDIES
Third Year
KUNENE-NICOLAS
NRF-COE GRANT LING-LINGUISTICS R 149 940,00
LIGAGA D NRF POST-DOC ENGLISH R 131 447,00
MILANI TM INTERPART WORKSHOP 2016/7 LINGUISTICS R 435 062,00
MOJI P Mellon P/G Mentoring-M Adler MODERN LANGUAGES
R 28 300,00
NEWFIELD DR NRF IKS ENGLISH R 250 000,00
PETERSON BK NARRATIVE ENQUIRY FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
AFRICAN LITERATURE R 538 320,00
PUMLA GQOLA NIHSS CATALYTIC RESEARCH PROGRAMME - Rape & the South African Feminist Imagination
AFRICAN LANGUAGES R 85 000,00
ROBUSCHI, L Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: Research Grant
ITALIAN STUDIES R30.000,00
THURMAN CJ NRF HSGR -96156 ENGLISH R 59 000,00
WILLIAMS MA WILLIAMS MELLON 2010 ENGLISH R 91 034,00
Conference Funding
COWLING, L. IALJS-12 JOURNALISM R 20 000,00
DANIELS, G IAMCR2017 MEDIA STUDIES R 20 000,00
MOJI, P ICLA-21 MODERN LANGUAGES
R 17 508,00
VAN STADEN, C
IAMCR2017 MEDIA STUDIES R 20 000,00
Virga, A AAIS/CSIS Joint Conference
MODERN LANGUAGES
R 15 000,00
NRF Ratings
New
Falkof, N Professor
Daniels, G Dr
Re-rating
Horn, PRG Professor
Inggs, Judith Professor
Previous
Akpojivi, U Dr
Gqola, P Professor
Hofmeyr, CI Professor
Horn, AC Professor
Houliston, V Professor
Iqani, M Professor
Ligaga, DA Dr
Mhlambi I Professor
Milani, T Professor
Muponde, R Professor
Newfield, D Professor
Ojwang, D Professor
Peterson, B Professor
Thurman, CJ Professor
Titlestad, MF Professor
Research Thrusts African Languages
Members of the department are in involved in research in the discourse of popular culture, media,
ethnomusicology and computational linguistics individually. Each member of the department has
found a niche with each sub-discipline and pursuing either to fulfil degree requirements or for
academic growth.
African Literature
African literary studies; African intellectual histories; literatures of the Indian Ocean world; literatures
of the African Diaspora; postcolonial literary and cultural theory; cultural studies.
Creative Writing
Creative writing is engaged in research on the place of creative writing in the academy; the
relationship of oral to literary forms of creative work; contemporary South African literature.
The interaction of languages within the creative process.
The teaching of creative writing.
Creative writing and/as research.
Creative writing and translation.
English
The department is particularly strong in Southern African literature, with Michelle Adler and Chris
Thurman particularly concerned with the earlier periods, and Barbara Boswell, Lara Buxbaum, Gerald
Gaylard, Sofia Kostelac, Clea Schulz and Michael Titlestad specializing in post-apartheid and
postcolonial studies. Sofia Kostelac and Robert Muponde are authorities in Zimbabwean literature,
attracting a growing number of PhD students from Zimbabwe. Gerald Gaylard has a particular interest
in Ivan Vladislavic, who is also the School’s writer-in-residence; so too has his former PhD student,
Kirby Mania, Senior Lecturer in the ADU of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, which
is closely associated with our department. Barbara Boswell is well known for her work on gender, race
and sexuality especially in black women’s writing. Gender studies links many of these individual
research projects.
Merle Williams, Lara Buxbaum and Hazel Frankel work in the area of trauma studies, linked often but
not exclusively to the holocaust. Merle Williams does research into contemporary Hebrew poetry and
fiction. It may be worth noting that the late Joseph Sherman was a leading international authority on
Yiddish literature.
Chris Thurman, Colette Gordon and Victor Houliston are active in Shakespeare studies, especially in
colonial and postcolonial contexts, where Chris Thurman is particularly well known. Both he and
Colette Gordon have a special expertise in Shakespeare in performance, education and contemporary
culture. Victor Houliston is a leading figure in the growing field of early modern British Catholic
studies.
Merle Williams works on Henry James and Shelley, and is highly regarded internationally in both these
areas. Robyn Pierce specialises in William Blake, Sonia Fanucchi in nineteenth-century fiction, and
Simon van Schalkwyk in American poetry.
Michael Titlestad is one of the most prolific scholars in the country, with a wide range of expertise,
most notably maritime literature, where he is in great demand internationally. Natalie Paoli is doing
research into contemporary East European literature.
Journalism
Research on transparency, accountability and open data (Network Society Programme, Indra de
Lanerolle)
Relevant publications
Wilson, C. and de Lanerolle, I. ‘Test It and They Might Come: Improving the Uptake of Digital Tools in
Transparency and Accountability Initiatives’ IDS Bulletin. Volume 47 Issue 1 Published: 24 January
2016 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.19088/1968-2016.110
De Lanerolle, I., Walker, T., Kinney, S. ‘Sometimes it is about the tech: choosing tools in South African
and Kenyan transparency and accountability initiatives.’ Research Report published by Institute of
Development Studies, Brighton.
De Lanerolle was appointed as a member of the Making All Voices Count Research Outreach Team by
the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, one of the leading development
research institutions in the world. In this role he supported innovation in uses of new technologies in
transparency and accountability in South Africa providing research and learning support. He also
developed a learning programme which is being implemented in 2017.
Research on Mobile phones access and use
Following a quantitative study on Internet access and use in South Africa published in 2012, de
Lanerolle led a new qualitative research project which investigates mobile phone use amongst South
Africans on low incomes. The study is being done in partnership with researchers at UCT and Rhodes
and will be completed in 2017.
Research on tech hubs and innovation in journalism and media
In preparation for the launch of a new journalism and media innovation lab being started at the new
Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in conjunction with the Johannesburg Centre for
Software Engineering, Indra visited a number of tech hubs, incubators and accelerators in California
and East Africa.
Research on media and public debate
Lesley Cowling was awarded a research fellowship at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative
at UCT, to co-edit (with Prof Carolyn Hamilton) a book on The Public Life of Ideas. The project is part
of an ongoing research collaboration, hosted by APC, around public intellectual life and media and
public debate, which includes scholars from Wits, Rhodes and UCT.
Research on media histories project
Lesley Cowling participated in a Mellon-funded workshop on African Print Cultures, jointly run by
Derek Peterson of the University of Michigan and Prof Isabel Hofmeyr of Wits. There is an agreement
in principle to collaborate with UJ, UCT and UP on a media histories project arising from that workshop,
with potential seed funding from NIHSS.
Bob Wekesa published a journal paper (January 2017), New Directions in the study of Africa-China
media and communications engagements, Journal of African Cultural Studies, Taylor & Francis,
Abingdon, UK
Bob Wekesa published journal paper (2016), Deborah Brautigam’s Will Africa Feed China?: A critical
media-centric review, African East-Asian Affairs, Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch University,
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Bob Wekesa published book chapter (2016), Building blocks and themes in Chinese soft power toward
Africa, in China's media and soft power in Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, USA, New York
Ruth Hopkins contributed an article on her investigation into a G4S run prison in Mangaung for the
report: "Dirty Profits 5: Report on companies and financial institutions benefitting from violations of
human rights” for the organisation Facing Finance.
Finlay, A (ed) 2016. Global Information Society Watch: Economic, social and cultural rights and the
internet. Association for Progressive Communications, Montevideo, 2016.
Finlay, A. and Brown, D. 2016. Key considerations: Economic, social and cultural rights and the internet.
Report. Global Information Society Watch (ed. Finlay, A). Association for Progressive Communications,
Montevideo, 2016.
Wits Journalism has developed an approach to masters research which is based on long-form
narrative journalism, coupled with a framing essay. In 2016, three master’s projects were completed
in this form.
Linguistics
The Linguistics department has a dynamic research focus on Linguistics. There are four main focus
areas: Phonology of Southern Bantu and Optimality Theory; Morphology and Syntax; Language
Gender and Sexuality and Language development of South African Bantu Languages.
LINK Centre
The scholarly focus of LINK is on ICT policy and regulation and its relationship to socio-economic
development through the digital transformation of social and economic sectors. These issues are of
interest across a broad audience ranging from policy-makers and regulators to user communities in
major industry sectors, including the broad electronic communications sector (telecoms, broadcast
and Internet sub-sectors), and the user sectors (banking and finance, travel and tourism, small
enterprise, government services, scientific research agencies and universities, the community sector,
other).
The research direction for LINK in 2016-2020 is to conduct and publish research with respect to the
realm of ICT-enabled and ICT-mediated social and economic change (digital transformation). Research
themes include ICT policy, regulation and governance; information society, knowledge economy,
digital transformation and e-development; ICT evolution in the public and commercial sectors, with
research and publishing projects operating in each of these thematic areas. These themes for research
and interrogation are relevant to building the public discourse on the information society and
development issues. They are further relevant to public policy advocacy, as well as to postgraduate
teaching and research programmes across the spheres of public policy, innovation studies, media
studies, and the economics, business and engineering sciences. LINK works with other scientific (CSIR
Meraka), academic institutions (CCRED, UJ) and sector regulators (ICASA, SSCOM, CRAN) to enhance
the diffusion and sharing of knowledge and to mutually build the research capacity of all partner
institutions.
Media Studies The department of Media Studies aims to be the premier location for the critical study of media and culture in the global south. Our individual research strands feed into this overarching agenda.
Glenda Daniels’ research examines the media and democracy relationship in South Africa, keeping track of international trends, and with a focus on the news media, journalism, freedom of expression, censorship, the state of the newsroom, transformation race and gender in the latter as well as social media and fake news.
Ufuoma Akpojivi researches Citizenship, Media Policy, Democratization, Social Movement and Digital Activism, Media Practices in Emerging Democracies.
Cobus van Staden write on Asia-Africa relations, diplomacy, mediation of the state, popular cinema and TV
Iginio Gagliardone works on Africa’s media system; Communication and nation building; hate speech online; information societies in the Global South; China-Africa relations.
Dina Ligaga’s work examines representations of femininity across media through the lens of popular culture. Through the methodology of transmediation, I look at representations on radio drama, tabloid press and online cultures.
Mehita Iqani’s work continues to explore questions of aspiration, equality and identity in relation to consumer cultures in the global south. I examine how these themes manifest in media discourses across various genres.
Nicky Falkof writes on Race, particularly whiteness; gender, particularly masculinity; risk, anxiety, moral panic and cultures of fear; spatial politics in the global south city
Modern Languages
French
Francophone Afropeanism and South African Afropolitanism
Defining cosmopolitan identities through the notion of Afropolitanism [African + Polis (meaning City
in Ancient Greek)] and Francophone Afropeanism [African + European] and considers these identities
through of material lived existence of subjects in the cities of Paris and Johannesburg.
Foreign language pedagogy and teaching and learning cultures
Multilingualism, foreign language pedagogy and trans-inter cultural dynamics in the foreign language
classroom. The evolution of teaching and learning cultures, the changing role of literature and cultural
canons in relation to emerging identities.
The poetics of sensation in JMG Le Clézio’s fiction
Le Clézio’s fictional writing as a sensory journey through existence, in order to bear witness to human
experience as a whole.
Thomas Mofolo
The impact of Mofolo’s writing on Negritudinist writers; South-South dialogue; Francophonie
German
We engage in intercultural and multicultural studies, besides looking at German canonical texts from
a South African perspective and interpreting South African literature through a comparative literature
lens. We also participate in and convene European Literature courses at Honours and Masters levels,
as well as cross-teaching in the English Department. Besides, we co-supervise or supervise research
projects from Honours to Doctoral level in other disciplines, such as English, translation, as well as
Migration and Anthropology. We are interested in postcolonial approaches to German literature,
including narratology, as well as cultural studies methodologies, in analysing advertising strategies for
example. We work on transculturalism as a way of overcoming old paradigms in cultural studies, such
as universalism and particularism. We also reflect on teaching methodologies for German as a foreign
language by engaging with other universities in order to keep abreast of developments both nationally
and internationally. We have strong links with other African scholars in order to create a network and
to reflect our position as German Studies and German Foreign Language Teaching in Africa. We are
interested in and encourage research in multilingualism.
Spanish
Areas of research focus on: gender, migration, diaspora studies, Somalia, human geography, narrative
and ethnographic methods.
The Project Metropolitan Nomads seeks to visually document the daily life of Somali migrants in
Johannesburg. The project is supported by ACMS; the aim is to expand this visual research to other
cities in Southern Africa.
Publishing Studies Publishing Studies is a multi-disciplinary research area, and research projects reflect the variety of
issues of concern to students and publishers of all types of materials. Research projects include: what
makes a bestseller in South Africa, diversity in young adult novels, sustainability of small publishers,
copyediting skills, application and assessment, various book history topics, relationship between
publishers and departments of education, African language reading materials available for Foundation
phase education, consumer behaviour, exhibition catalogue publishing in SA art institutions, South
African books translated into German and their reception in Germany, teaching and curriculum
development of an academic programme with a professional focus.
Other departments that have been involved with supervision of publishing students include English, African Literature, Creative Writing, German, Translation, Education and the business school. Because Publishing Studies is such a broad academic area, there is huge scope for inter-departmental work. SA Sign Language We are passionate about writing the first book on SASL linguistics in the near future. We are also running small projects on SASL literature (poetry and storytelling). Translation Studies
The department has a wide range of research interests covering the disciplines of translation and
interpreting as well as interdisciplinary fields such as literary translation and postcolonial studies. On
a more practical and empirical level, members of staff are currently engaged in research on translator
and interpreter training and recent developments in the study of process models in relation to
interpreting. In the interdisciplinary field of literature and translation studies members of staff are
involved in research on the application of literary theory to African literature, postcolonial translation
studies, stylistics, cognitive approaches to translation and the translation of comic books and graphic
novels. Another strand of research pursued in the department is the study of children’s and youth
literature as well as the translation of that literature into other languages, including African and
European languages.
Steps taken to grow next generation of scholars The School continues to develop the potential among its younger staff and young emerging scholars
at postgraduate and senior undergraduate level. The School is cognisant of the importance of ensuring
succession planning within and across disciplines and therefore has over a period of years given
preference to the appointment of younger, emerging scholars and provided them with the
opportunity for academic growth and development. Academic staff members are kept informed of all
the grant and funding opportunities available and encouraged to apply for these as well as for teaching
buy-outs to afford them time to finish their postgraduate degrees and/or develop their publication
profile. Three of the School’s committees (the Research and Postgraduate Committee, the Teaching
and Learning Committee and the Transformation Committee) continue to investigate ways in which
the School can promote the development of younger scholars. All departments actively identify and
encourage promising students to continue to postgraduate studies.
The School has a School Promotions Committee, whose remit is, in the first instance, to consider the
senior promotions (at Associate Professor and Professor levels). The committee plays a developmental
role and mentoring in assessing the quality and timing of applications. It has decided to extend the
developmental and mentoring role to academic staff at all levels. This will assist the HoS in the
development of the next generation of scholars.
An important aspect of the School’s focus on developing young scholars has been the roll-out of its
Teaching Assistant Programme which was launched in 2013 for PhD students keen to enter a career
in academia. This is the third year of the programme and has made a successful contribution in this
area. The School had 8 Doctoral Teaching Assistants in 2016, 3 in English, 3 in Media and 2 in
Linguistics. The doctoral Teaching Assistants have been assisted in the development of teaching,
assessment and mentoring skills. The TA experience has been an informative one that has enhanced
pedagogical practice within the School. The School is hopeful it will be able to extend this programme
for a further six years.
School Writing Retreats have been significant in supporting the trajectories of staff and have also been
used to encourage the doctoral assistants in the writing of their PhDs and to provide a forum for
research discussions.
Particular focus areas in departments are as follows:
Creative Writing
Enlisted one honours student to poetry research project, which resulted in MA scholarship.
Awarded Honours scholarship to one Honours student.
Encouragement of students to publish in Wits University online creative journal Itch.
Support and encouragement of lecturer Phillippa Yaa de Villiers in application for PhD degree at University of Lancaster.
Attendance of Phillippa Yaa de Villiers at CLTD teaching and supervision workshops. Linguistics Kunene Nicolas R sent Ms Nonhlanhla Ntuli to France (University of Grenoble Alpes) and (GLADD) Lab
at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) of the National Council for Research
(CNR) of Italy under the IRSES Grant for training April – November 2016
Media Studies Students are given mentoring and assistance at every level of teaching, from Honours tutoring support to hiring advanced postgrads for Wits Plus and sessional lecturing to close work with Teaching Assistants. Strong postgraduates at all levels are offered the opportunity to publish with their supervisors or to do so alone with supervisory support if they feel capable. New structures and curricula introduced at Honours level to support increased research quality. Media Studies developed the school-wide MA proposal workshop and provides a strong impetus alongside colleagues from elsewhere in SLLM for creating a more formal support structure for postgraduates. Skilled third years and postgrads are actively recruited for further study. Staff support students financially where possible, offering paid employment appropriate to developing scholars (teaching/research/admin assistance) and/or grants from RINC or other funds when necessary.