September 2021 | Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative

Screenshot of presentation by Stefania Merlo on georeferencing tools. Image courtesy of the APC.

GIS and georeferencing at FHYA

A core component of what we do at the FHYA is being on the lookout for new challenges. This also means learning how to use new tools and testing them both in practice and in theory...

Members of the Group analyse and discuss a letter in Sesotho, by Nehemiah Sekhonyana Moshoeshoe, held at the Western Cape Provincial Archives, Cape Town. Image courtesy of Ettore Morelli.

Team work on Lesotho’s history and historians at APC

At the beginning of 2021, the APC launched a Research Group focused on the history of Lesotho and neighbouring areas. Convened by Ettore Morelli, it includes Patrick Whang, Sibusiso Nkomo, Carolyn Hamilton...

Two images that ran in The Star newspaper on 24 December 1931 under the headline “Disastrous Fire in Central Block of Rand University”. A copy is held at Wits Department of Historical Papers, 1479, Box 7, 29/1400.

Reflections on the death of an archive

As news broke in April 2021 that a fire at the University of Cape Town had engulfed the Jagger Library and that its unparalleled collection of rare books, manuscripts, recordings, and more was imperilled...

Dr. Lindsay O’Neill presenting at the APC research Lab. Screenshot courtesy of the APC.

Research Lab: The Princes of Mpfumo

On Thursday August 19th, APC welcomed Dr Lindsay O’Neill, Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Southern California, who presented a lab titled...

Slide from FHYA presentation at Afridig Workshop. Image courtesy of the FHYA.

Afridig Workshop: 26-29 July

In late July, members of the FHYA participated in the latest of a series of Workshops organised by WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) as part of its Programme of African Digital Humanities (Afridig)...

Introducing the Bibliomatrix

The Bibliomatrix is an experimental research tool, early components of which are featured in a presentation on FHYA’s EMANDULO platform, which is currently in a testing phase...

Book cover image courtesy of Wits University Press.

Two new chapters on public intellectual engagements

APC Chair Carolyn Hamilton and APC Associate researcher Lesley Cowling contributed to a recently published book, Public Intellectuals in South Africa: Critical Voices from the Past...

Witchcraft display in the ethnographic gallery of the Livingstone Museum. Image courtesy of Alirio Karina.

Theorising the materiality of witchcraft

APC Postdoctoral Fellow Alírio Karina’s article “The Politics of Witchcraft and the Politics of Blood: Reading Sovereignty and Sociality in the Livingstone Museum” was published in Postmodern Culture...

Review of Mamdani’s Neither Settler Nor Native

APC MA student Sandile Ngidi recently published a book review of Mahmood Mamdani‘s latest book, Neither Settler nor Native in the Mail & Guardian’s arts section, “Friday.”

Tribute to Professor Bhekizizwe Peterson 1961-2021

The Archive and Public Culture (APC) research initiative and its fellows, across South Africa and internationally, mourned the untimely passing of our deeply admired colleague, Bhekizizwe Peterson who died on 16 June 2021.