The Centre for Social Sciences Research (CSSR) and the  Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa  (IDCPPA) at the University of Cape Town invite you to join us for a lunchtime seminar on 26 August 2025 at 12:45pm. The seminar will be presented by Dr Shanaaz Hoosain.

About the Seminar:

Reparative Justice and histories of enslavement: The haunting of higher education

Often times there is the assumption that colonial heritages appear not to be there, in that they are supposedly over and done with. This presentation offers testimony to how apartheid and colonial legacies are in fact seething presences, bleeding into the present and future, whose violences such as slavery continue to affect present-day circumstances. The colonial legacy of enslavement and displacement has left its mark on families in South Africa, as repressed or unresolved social violence, making its impact felt sometimes directly and other times more obliquely. This legacy has also left its mark on higher education and universities.

African governments are calling on former slave holding countries who benefitted from enslavement for reparations for racial healing and economic equality to ensure a socially just future for countries devasted by enslavement. The discussion will explore how black feminist hauntology can be used to understand the ways universities are grappling with histories of enslavement including UCT who have ties to enslavement.

A case study of Cape Town and proposed transdisciplinary research, involving universities from four regions including South Africa (UCT), Chana, Uganda and the Uk, will be explored. Each region has a unique history of enslavement which will allow for regional comparisons. The project will explore universities engagement with reparative justice and descendant communities.

Speakers

Dr Shanaaz Hoosain is a senior lecturer and social worker in the Department of Social Work and Social Development. She holds a PhD (Social Work). Dr Hoosain is a Bristol and University of Cape Town research fellow for 2023 to 2026, focusing on co-creating knowledge with communities who have a hidden heritage of slavery. Her area of teaching and research is interdisciplinary in the field of social work, intergenerational trauma, family violence, and decoloniality.

 26 August 2025
 12:45 - 14:00 SAST
  CSSR Seminar Room, 4.29 Robert Leslie Social Science Building, UCT

Hosted by the Centre for Social Science Research and the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa