Sylvia E. Vollenhoven

Research Associate
Name: Sylvia E. Vollenhoven
CaM Senior Research Fellows  Staff Members

Contact Details:

Email: sylvia.vollenhoven@gmail.com

About Sylvia E. Vollenhoven

Writer, award-winning journalist, playwright and filmmaker. Commissioned by the SKA Observatory to Curate the Cosmic Echoes: Shared Sky Indigenous Art Exhibition for the UN International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly in 2024. Commissioned by the Volksoperahuis of Amsterdam to write Krotoa Eva van de Kaap, a play that premiered in the Netherlands to standing ovations before sold-out runs in South Africa. UJ Professor of Practice 2019 – 2023. Stellenbosch University Project Manager for the 2023 Krotoa Building renaming process. UCT Facilitator for the Sara Baartman Hall renaming process. Iziko Museums Facilitator for the process of reburial of the Indigenous human remains in their collections. A Knight as well as STIAS Fellow. Awarded Sweden’s main journalism prize by the Publicistklubben, the prestigious Nordic academy of writers and publishers. Commissioned by the District Six Museum and Artscape to write Dance of the La Gumas: Revolution, Rumba & Romance, a play about the renowned writer Alex La Guma. The Keeper of the Kumm, her historic non-fiction novel cum memoire about KhoeSan identity, won the Mbokodo Literature Award. Her dance drama adaptation of the same name opened on the main programme at the National Arts Festival (NAF). A play she co-authored, My Word, Redesigning Buckingham Palace, was chosen for a run on London’s West End. The NAF main programme also selected another of her plays, Cold Case – Revisiting Dulcie September. The latter won both the inaugural Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts as well as a Standard Bank Audience Award.

Her short film |XAU on the profound nature of intellectual erasure and linguistic loss was selected for the Hollywood African Cinema Connection Film Festival in 2023. Nomination: Cinema for Peace Award 2021 for Jozi Gold (Co Director & SA Producer).  SA Producer for the BBC TV mini-series Mandela the Living Legend.

Chair of the 2018 & 2019 Alan Paton Literary Award Jury. Member of the International Emmy Awards 2018 Jury.