For the past two days (22 July-23 July) History Access hosted its 2nd Annual Graduate Students Workshop entitled “Words in Motion”. The workshop was hosted on Zoom, and included presentations by the History Access 2020 Cohort (Honours, Masters, PHD and Postdoctoral fellows). Participants included staff from the UCT Historical Studies department and Archive and Public Culture (APC) Research Initiative as well as academic guests from other institutions and departments at UCT.
The workshop focused on HA’s aim to create a multilingual lexicon that challenges entrenched epistemologies in the study of history. Presenters explored how decolonial approaches to history includes “thinking multilingually”, and confronting coloniality through works and concepts found in 19th and 20th African intellectuals like SEK Mqhayi, WW Gqoba, Nontsizi Mqgwetho, Magema Fuze amongst others.
Day 2 highlighted diverse themes such as imperial statues in context of “postcolonial states” and #BlackLivesMatter, the inaccessibility of archives and the scholarship of new media forms in light of COVID-19. We had 25 participants who were in digital attendance over the two days!
We would like to thank our academic guests including Professor Mbulungeni Madiba, Associate Professor Dion Nkomo, Dr Jacques De Wet and Dr Cynthia Kros for their invaluable contributions at our graduate student workshop! We further appreciate the valued support and contributions of the staff and members of the UCT Historical Studies Department and the APC!
