Seminar 2013
Dear Colleagues and Members of the Public
You are cordially invited to attend the UJ Sociology, Anthropology & Development Studies Wednesday Seminar. The weekly seminar has been hosted by the UJ Department of Sociology since 2000 and enjoys support from the UJ Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Anthropology & Development Studies. The seminar meets in UJ’s Anthropology and Development Studies Seminar Room at D Ring 506, at 15h30 on every Wednesday afternoon during term time, unless otherwise indicated. When possible, please arrive by 15:25. A written paper is usually distributed on this website, to allow participants to read this in advance of the seminar. Please find the programme below.
Those coming from outside the UJ are advised to enter the campus through Gate 2 on the corner of Ditton and Ripley Streets and to park in Car Park B. It may be helpful to show an invitation to the guard on duty. Confirmed presenters are asked to email their papers to Liela Groenewald by 10 days prior to the presentation.
Should you be interested in presenting a paper, please contact the convenors, Liela Groenewald and Letitia Smuts.
First term 2013:
Carnage Considered – The Marikana massacre and its aftermath
6 Feb: Prof Rosalind Morris (Department of Anthropology, University of Columbia): ‘‘A Striking Resemblance?’: Labour, mines, and the historical politics of strikes in South Africa, 1973/2012′. Discussant: Prof Sakhela Buhlungu (Department of Sociology, University of Pretoria). (1/2013)
13 Feb: Paul Stewart (Wits Department of Sociology): ‘The 2012 Strike Wave, Marikana, and the History of Rock Drillers in South African Mines’. Discussant: Prof Edward Webster (Wits Department of Sociology & Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP)). (2/2013)
20 Feb: Prof Peter Alexander (UJ / NRF SA Research Chair in Social Change): ‘Marikana – Six months on’. Discussant: Asanda Benya (Wits Department of Sociology & Society, Work & Development Institute (SWOP)). Discussion based on the 2012 Jacana book by Alexander et al, Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer. (3/2013)
27 Feb: Dr Sizwe Phakathi (Chamber of Mines): ‘Worker Agency in a Post-Apartheid Mining Workplace: A review and reflection on the Marikana Tragedy’. Discussant: Prof Dunbar Moodie (Professor of Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges). (4/2013)
6 March: Prof Jane Duncan (Rhodes School of Journalism):’Marikana and the Paradox of Press Transformation’ (written paper removed as it will form part of a forthcoming book). Discussant: Ferial Haffajee (Editor, City Press). (5/2013)
13 March: Term-end screening – Greg Marinovich (Photographer / Journalist) shows and discusses his pictures taken at Marikana. Venue: Faculty of Humanities Common Room (C-Ring 3). (6/2013)
Second term 2013:
Class, gender and race in southern African perspective – “The bad news”*
10 April: Prof Dunbar Moodie (Department of Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges):‘Profitability, respectability and challenge: (re)gaining control and restructuring the labour process while maintaining racial order on the South African gold mines, 1913 – 1922.Discussant: Prof Keith Breckenridge (Wiser – Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research). (7/2013)
17 April: Dr Tijo Salverda (Human Economy Programme, University of Pretoria):
‘ “White bashing”: power and victimisation among the Mauritian white elite’. Discussant: Dr Liela Groenewald (UJ Department of Sociology). (8/2013)
24 April: Netsai Matshaka (Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Pretoria): ‘Mobile women: Negotiating gendered norms and stereotypes’. Discussant:
Zaheera Jinnah (African Centre for Migration and Society, Wits). (9/2013)
1 May: No seminar due to Workers’ Day public holiday.
8 May: Dr Marc Fletcher (UJ Department of Sociology): ‘Reinforcing divisions and blurring boundaries: race, identity and the contradictions of Johannesburg soccer fandom’. Discussant: Shafinaaz Hassim (Sociologist & author). (10/2013)
15 May: Prof Zimitri Erasmus (Wits Department of Sociology): ‘A poetics of new genetics: genetic ancestry tracing and the future of belonging’. (Password only available to actual adience.) Discussant: Prof Eric Worby (Wits School of Social Science). (11/2013)
22 May: Term-end screening: Meantime in Mamelodi (a 75-min documentary produced by Benjamin Kahlmeyer). Discussant: Dr Dale McKinley (Independent social writer and activist). Venue: Faculty of Humanities Common Room (C-Ring 3). (12/2013)
*The verbatim comments of a 2013 lobby group for a new, local introductory sociology text included that young people are alienated from the discipline when universities impose on students “the bad news” that ordinary lives are structured by race, gender, ethnicity and status, rather than sexy topics like social media and culture, and that classical sociological theory is “boring”. The Wednesday Seminar committee believes otherwise:
we anticipate our audience – of all ages – will embrace the tools of social science in order to penetrate theoretical debates shaped in the global North with their own research, interpretations and lived experiences here, in the South.
Third term 2013:
Interrogating Sex and Sexualities
17 July: Prof Leo Wilton (Binghamton University, New York / UJ Department of Sociology): ‘Race, sexuality, Aids, and activism in black same-gendered men’s communities in post-apartheid South Africa’. Discussant: Tessa Dooms (UJ Department of Sociology). (13/2013)
24 July: Zaheera Jinnah (African Centre for Migration Studies, Wits) ‘Femalecircumcision and reproductive health: Practices, perceptions, and implicationsfor access to health care amongst Somali women in Johannesburg’. Discussant: Prof Sharon Fonn (School of Public Health, Wits). (14/2013)
31 July: Theo Sonnekus (Department of Visual Arts, Stellenbosch University): ‘“We’re not faggots!”: Masculinity, homosexuality and the representation of Afrikaner men who have sex with men in the film Skoonheid (Beauty)’. Discussant: Rory du Plessis (Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria). (15/2013)
7 August: Nomancotsho Pakade (Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA)): ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersexual (LGBTI) youth activism in southern Africa’. Discussant: Letitia Smuts (UJ Department of Sociology). (16/2013)
14 August: Dr Nadia Sanger (Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)) ‘Sexual politics, place and agency: Discourses of gender non-conforming young people on the urban peripheries of Cape Town’. Discussant: Dr Leo Wilton (Binghamton University). (17/2013)
21 August: Dr Catherine Burns (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER)): ‘Body knowledge: Breastfeeding and sexuality in South Africa’. Discussant:Prof Kammila Naidoo (UJ Department of Sociology). (18/2013)
28 August: Term-end screening of Intersexions, season 1, episode 26. Discussant: Lusanda Mahlasela (Johns Hopkins Health and Education SA). *Venue: Faculty of Humanities Common Room (C-Ring 3). (19/2013)
Fourth term 2013:Nature and Society
11 September: Natalie Rebelo Da Silva (UJ Centre for Anthropological Research): ‘The Changing Climate of Climate Change Research’. Discussant: TBC. (20/2013)
18 September: Dr Gijsbert Hoogendoorn (School of Geography, Archeology and Environmental Sciences, Wits): ‘The Environmental Implications of Second Home Tourism’. Discussant: Prof Christian Myles Rogerson (UJ Dept of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies). (21/2013)
25 September: Dr Carina van Rooyen (UJ Dept of Anthropology and Development Studies): ‘Mapping social anthropological research on changing climate in South Africa’. Discussant: Marcel Korth (UJ Centre for Anthropological Research). (22/2013)
2 October: Dr Richard Meissner (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)): ‘The Governability of Water Resources: Introducing the PULSE3 Assessment Framework’. Discussant: TBC. (23/2013)
9 October: Munyaradzi Gwizai (Faculty of Law, University of Zimbabwe): Zimbabwe Update. Discussant: Dr Tapiwa Chagonda (UJ Department of Sociology). (24/2013)
16 October: Dr Victor Munnik (Nature and Society Research Associate, Wits Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP)): ‘Socially constructed AND painfully real: The potential of critical realism to underlabour for environmental justice’. Venue: Faculty of Humanities Common Room. (25/2013)
23 October: Term-end film screening: Weather Gods (a 75-min documentary produced by Benjamin Kahlmeyer). Discussant: Richard Worthington (Independent expert on climate and energy issues). *Venue: Faculty of Humanities Common Room (C-Ring 3). (26/2013)