Scholarships and Fellowships
POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS
PhD
The NRF awards scholarships that are under the ambit of the South African Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture. Recipients will study at the University of Johannesburg under the supervision of Prof Brenda Schmahmann.
The NRF rules state that, to be eligible for a scholarship, an applicant may not be no more than 32 years at the time of applying for funding for a PhD and must have achieved at least 65% for their previous degree. While the NRF allows partial funding to be awarded to others, a candidate who receives full funding must be a South African citizen who has either achieved a minimum of 75% for the previous degree (or will do so for a degree he/she is completing in 2023) or must be able to reveal that the net family income of his/her family is no more than R350 000 per annum or must be living with a disability.
Full funding for PhD studies: R182 318 per annum for three years (+R20 000 study device)
Partial funding for PhD studies: R 107 318 per annum for three years
The study is expected to be completed in three years.
In addition to receiving funding, the successful candidate will also be provided with space in which to work. Scholarships are normally taken up at the beginning of the academic year in February.
The topic of the PhD, which is most often by thesis but may also be a practice-led PhD, must be relevant to the chair’s focus on South African art and visual culture. Topics related to gender, public art and community art projects are particularly welcome.
Please note that awards are given primarily to black (i.e. African, Coloured or Indian) South Africans.
Those keen to receive funding and who are eligible should first apply to Prof Schmahmann. You can fill in an application form by clicking on this link which you should e-mail to Prof Schmahmann brendas@uj.ac.za along with an official academic record of courses completed at universities and the results you obtained from them.
DEADLINES FOR APPLICATIONS TO PROF SCHMAHMANN WILL BE ADVERTISED BUT WILL NORMALLY BE IN LATE MAY.
MA
The NRF awards scholarships that are under the ambit of the South African Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture. Recipients will study at the University of Johannesburg under the supervision of Prof Brenda Schmahmann.
The NRF regulates that those who receive funding may be no more than 30 years old at the time of MA application and must have achieved at least 65% for their previous degree. While the NRF allows partial funding to be awarded to others, a candidate who receives full funding must be a South African citizen who has either achieved a minimum of 75% for his or her honour’s degree (or will do so for a degree he/she is completing in 2023) or must be able to reveal that the net family income of his/her family is no more than R350 000 per annum or must be living with a disability.
Full funding for Master of Arts studies: R 175 795 per annum for two years (+R20 000 study device)
Partial funding for Master of Arts studies: R118 795 per annum for two years.
Please note that awards are given primarily to black (i.e. African, Coloured or Indian) South Africans.
Those keen to receive funding and who are eligible should first apply to Prof Schmahmann. You can fill in an application form by clicking on this link which you should e-mail to Prof Schmahmann brendas@uj.ac.za along with an official academic record of courses completed at universities and the results you obtained from them.
DEADLINES FOR APPLICATIONS TO PROF SCHMAHMANN WILL BE ADVERTISED BUT WILL NORMALLY BE IN LATE MAY.
BA Honours
The NRF awards scholarships that are under the ambit of the South African Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture. Recipients will study at the University of Johannesburg under the supervision of Prof Brenda Schmahmann. Full funding is made only to an individual who
a. is able to prove that his or her total family income is less than R 350 000 per annum and that he/she achieved an average of at least 65% for the final year of his/her degree OR
b. who achieved an average of at least 75% for the final year of his/her degree.
The study is expected to be completed in a year.
Scholarships are normally taken up at the beginning of the academic year in February.
The topic of the long essay/mini-dissertation of the honour’s degree must be relevant to the chair’s focus on South African art and visual culture. Topics related to gender, public art and community art projects are particularly welcome.
Please note that awards are given primarily to black (i.e. African, Coloured or Indian) South Africans.
Those keen to receive funding and who are eligible should first apply to Prof Schmahmann. You can fill in an application form by clicking on this link which you should e-mail to Prof Schmahmann brendas@uj.ac.za along with an official academic record of courses completed at universities and the results you obtained from them.
DEADLINES FOR APPLICATIONS TO PROF SCHMAHMANN WILL BE ADVERTISED.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
From time to time, postdoctoral research fellowships with the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture are made available. These are worth R 220 000 per annum and are potentially renewable for up to three years.
The focus in these scholarships is on the development of a research project that will yield publications, mainly journal articles. Postdoctoral research fellows are also expected to provide advice and assistance to PhD, MA and/or M.Tech candidates as well as to participate in research events hosted by the SARChI Chair.
Applicants must have obtained their doctoral degrees within the last five years. Their work must be relevant to the chair’s focus on South African art and visual culture. Applications from individuals whose research is on an aspect of gender, public art or community art projects will be especially welcome.
An eligible applicant is encouraged to e-mail Prof Brenda Schmahmann brendas@uj.ac.za, the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, to ascertain the availability of a position. Should a position be available, Prof Schmahmann will provide an application form
Melissa Gerber Venter
PhD Candidates and their research projects
Firdoze Bulbulia, “#memoryisaweapon: The Personal is Political” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: moments@icon.co.za
Hazel Cuthbertson, ” “Ideas of Africanness in Alexis Preller’s Discovery of the Sea Route around Africa mural” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: hazel.cuthbertson@gmail.com
S’nothile Gumede, [Project to be determined]
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: snothile456@gmail.com
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun, “Place branding in advertising campaigns by the Lagos state government” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann; Co-superviser: Prof Deirdre Pretorius).
Email: kekereekunayobola@gmail.com
Khanya Mthethwa, “Decoloniality: An investigation of how coloniality of knowledge has impacted on BaVenda and AmaZulu waist belts”
(Supervisor: Prof Anitra Nettleton; Co-supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: khanyam@uj.ac.za
Laylaa Randera, “Fallism and Black Lives Matter: Visual interventions and Protest Art” (Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: 200706102@student.uj.ac.za
Sinethemba Twalo, “Affect, Objecthood and Blackness in Dineo Seshee Bopape’s Works” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: sinethembatwalo@gmail.com
Dineke van der Walt, “Curating Difficult Knowledge: Engagements with Sexual Violence in Exhibitions from the Early 21st Century” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann).
Email: dineke@vanderwalt.za.net
PhD Graduates
Irene Bronner, “Representations of Domestic Workers in Post-Apartheid South African Art Practice”; Currently Senior Lecturer, SARChI Chair, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, ireneb@uj.ac.za
Jayne Crawshay-Hall, “Reconceptualising curatorial strategies and roles: Autonomous curating in Johannesburg between 2007 and 2016”; Currently Academic Head at Open Window Institute, jaynecrawshay@gmail.com
Roxy do Rego, “Parodies of Classical Mythologies by Women Artists in Post-Apartheid South Africa”; Currently Art History and Art Practical Lecturer, Humanities Education department, University of Pretoria, roxydorego@gmail.com
Philippa Hobbs, “Ideology, imagery and female agency in tapestry at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke’s Drift, during the Swedish period 1961-1976”; Currently Postdoctoral Research Fellow, SARChI Chair, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, phobbs123@gmail.com
Deléne Human, “Censorship and proscription of visual art in apartheid South Africa”(Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann). Currently History of Art, Practical Art and Art Methodologies Lecturer in the Department of Humanities Education at the University of Pretoria, delene.human@up.ac.za
Thabang Monoa, “The exploration of Blackness in Afrofuturist aesthetics” (Supervisor: Prof. Brenda Schmahmann). Currently Lecturer in Art History in the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, Thabang.monoa@uct.ac.za
MA and M.Tech Candidates
Angelique Bougaard
(Supervisor: Dr Irene Bronner; Co-supervisor: Prof David Paton)
Kailashnee Naidoo
(Supervisor: Dr Marlize Groenewald)
Khulile Sibanda
(Supervisor: Mr. Amukelani Muthambi and Prof Deirdre Pretorius)
MA and M.Tech Graduates
Kate’Lyn Chetty
(Supervisor: Landi Raubenheimer; Co-supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann)
Muziwandile Gigaba
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Prof Kim Berman)
Ra’eesah Hoosen [under examination]
(Supervisor: Prof Deirdre Pretorius)
Allen Laing
(Supervisor: Dr David Paton; Co-supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann)
Lisa Linossi
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Vedant Nanackchand)
Alexa Pienaar
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Prof David Paton)
Nthabiseng Mbale
(Supervisor: Dr Anthony Ambala; Co-supervisor: Landi Raubenheimer)
Kiveshan Thumbiran
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Minnette Vari)
Jaylin Richardson
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Bronwyn Findley)
Xolisa Sibeko
(Supervisor: Dr Marelize Groenewald)
Vanessa Tembane
(Supervisor: Prof Brenda Schmahmann; Co-supervisor: Vedant Nanackchand)
Current B.Tech/Honours Candidates
No candidates in 2022.
Conferences:
Disturbing Views: Visual Culture and Nationalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries 15 – 18 November 2021
www.southafricanartandvisualculture.com
Speaking to Troubling Images: Visual Culture and the Politics of Afrikaner Nationalism (Wits University Press, 2020), a book of essays edited by Federico Freschi, Brenda Schmahmann and Lize van Robbroeck, this conference, like the new volume, was intended to raise debates that are especially timeous and urgent in a current context. The selected presenters spoke to one of two themes. How has art and visual culture been deployed to foster the interests of those who, in seeking to elicit support and power for only their own (perceived) nation or group, develop rhetoric and ideas underpinned by prejudice against groups conceptualized as outsiders? Alternatively, how has the visual domain served as a space for the critique and activist refusal of right-wing and exclusionary nationalist interests and discourse? The conference was postponed from April 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and took place in a virtual format in November 2021. Click here to see the programme.
Making and Interpreting Art in 2021: A Conference and Exhibition for Honours and Masters’ Students in the Visual Arts 31 May – 1 June 2021
https://www.southafricanartandvisualculture.com/makingandinterpretingart
Making and Interpreting Art in 2021 brought together current work by young scholars and artists in Southern Africa as they explored and contended with many of the urgent issues of our times.
This virtual conference and exhibition, focused exclusively on Honours and Masters’ students in the Visual Arts and Art History, was hosted by postgraduates and postdoctoral research fellows with the NRF Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The conference was designed to allow young scholars to experience and participate in an academic conference while receiving guidance, feedback and support in navigating these spaces. The exhibition offered young artists an opportunity to develop professional skills for proposing and exhibiting their artwork, especially in an online context. The virtual exhibition opening was held on Monday 31 May from 17.00-18.00 and was live online for a month.
Click here for the conference programme.
Click here for the exhibition opening invitation.