Staff Members
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Associate Professor, Post graduate coordinator: Graphic Design-led programmes
Name: Prof Deirdre Pretorius
Location: Room 114, 1st Floor FADA Building Bunting Road Campus
FADA Graphic Design Staff Staff Members
Contact Details:
Tel: +27 (0)11 559 1032
Email: dpretorius@uj.ac.za
About Prof Deirdre Pretorius
Brief Bio/ overview of your career
Professor Deirdre Pretorius is an Associate Professor in the Graphic Design Department at the University of Johannesburg. In 2023, she received a C2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rating in the research area of design studies with specialisations in graphic design history, visual and cultural studies.
She has published several accredited journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and non-accredited articles and reviews. Her research primarily focuses on the history and analysis of graphic design and visual culture in South Africa. Prof Pretorius is an active contributor to the academic community through external examinations, moderation, and reviews. She has presented and chaired panels at numerous conferences and has exhibited her creative output in the form of artists’ books, physical and digital objects in gallery spaces and online.
She has supervised or co-supervised MA and PhD students, working on diverse topics ranging from visual analysis of magazines, posters, and social media campaigns to practice-based studies in illustration and inclusive design. Prospective students with an interest in pursuing postgraduate studies in graphic design are welcome to email her.
- Recent Publications
Khan, I & Pretorius, D. 2023. The (re)design of the University of Johannesburg’s student residence and day house logos. Visual Redress in Africa, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Pretorius, D. 2020. Liberation, Nation and Salvation: South African Political Party Logos of the 2019 General Election. Lessons to Learn? Past Design Experiences and Contemporary Design Practices, ICDHS 12th International Conference on Design History and Design Studies, Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde, Zagreb.
Pretorius, D. 2021. Broadening the ‘Black Consciousness Aesthetic’: Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi’s illustrations for Staffrider, 1979-1981. ASAI. Available online: https://asai.co.za/muziwakhe-nhlabatsi-staffrider/
Pretorius, D. 2021. Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony. UNTOLD STORIES: recognising, understanding, and reimagining the untold and hidden narratives through visual art. SAVAH 2021. North-West University.
Pretorius, D. 2021. President, Preacher and Populist: ANC, DA and EFF Leader Posters of the 2019 South African Elections. Critical Arts. 35(2):16-38.
Pretorius, D. 2021. Teaching Gender and Design in Collaboration with WAM. In Seen, Heard and Valued. WAM Celebrates 40 Years of the Standard Bank Art Collection. Edited by Julia Charlton et al. Johannesburg: Wits Art Museum. 331-335.
Pretorius, D. 2021. The Staffrider illustrations of Mzwakhe (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) 1979-1987. Disturbing Views: Visual Culture and Nationalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries. South African Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg.
Pretorius, D. 2022. Ernest Ullmann’s designs for the 1936/7 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa. Exhibitions, new nations and the human factor, 1873 – 1939; Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris.
Pretorius, D. 2022. New book challenges whiteness: a review through the cover image. The Conversation. Available online: https://theconversation.com/new-book-challenges-whiteness-a-review-through-the-cover-image-185457
Pretorius, D. 2023. “For the People”: Mzwakhe’s (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) contribution to the comic Down Second Avenue. ‘Comics and/as Resistance’, University of Oxford.
Pretorius, D. 2023. “Speak to a community audience”: The Staffrider illustrations of Mzwakhe (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) 1979-1987. Image & Text 37:1-37.
Pretorius, D. 2023. Cabinets of Curiosities for the Postcolony II: Tokens: Collections I-V. Cumulus, Connectivity and Creativity in Times of Conflict, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Pretorius, D. 2023. Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony. De Arte 57(2):33-60.
- Book Chapters
Pretorius, D. 2021. Teaching Gender and Design in Collaboration with WAM. In Seen, Heard and Valued. WAM Celebrates 40 Years of the Standard Bank Art Collection. Edited by Julia Charlton et al. Johannesburg: Wits Art Museum. 331-335.
Pretorius, D. 2016. Does Southern African Design History Exist? In Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Edited by Kjetil Fallan and Grace Lees-Maffei. Oxford: Berghahn. 42-59.
- Journal Articles
Pretorius, D & Sauthoff, M. 2004. Challenging Apartheid; Posters from the United Democratic Front and End Conscription Campaign. Image and Text 11: 23-32.
Pretorius, D, Verhoef, G & Sauthoff, M. 2012. The printed propaganda of the Communist Party of South Africa during World War II. Image and Text 20(1): 30-49.
Pretorius, D. 2007. Amapasi Asiwafuni! / To hell with pass laws! Class, race and gender identities in the anti-pass laws cartoons published in Umsebenzi / South African Worker 1933-1936. Image and Text 13:4-19.
Pretorius, D. 2008. Countering stereotypes: the representation of Africans in Communist Party of South Africa cartoons 1930-1936. Image and Text 14: 54-68.
Pretorius, D. 2013. The visual representation of masculinities in Huisgenoot Tempo magazine. Communicatio: South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research. 39(2):210-232.
Pretorius, D. 2015. Graphic Design in South Africa: A Post-Colonial Perspective. Journal of Design History. 28(3):293-315.
Pretorius, D. 2016. Propaganda tricks – Good and Bad: The Posters of the Mobile Visual Instruction & Propaganda Section of the South African Union Defence Force from January to July 1945. South African Historical Journal. 68(4):573-622.
Pretorius, D. 2019. SLUIT NOU AAN! South African Union Defence Force recruitment posters from the Second World War. South African Historical Journal. 71(1):41-69.
Pretorius, D. 2021. President, Preacher and Populist: ANC, DA and EFF Leader Posters of the 2019 South African Elections. Critical Arts. 35(2):16-38.
Pretorius, D. 2023. “Speak to a community audience”: The Staffrider illustrations of Mzwakhe (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) 1979-1987. Image & Text 37:1-37.
Pretorius, D. 2023. Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony. De Arte 57(2):33-60.
- Articles and reviews
Pretorius, D. 2022. New book challenges whiteness: a review through the cover image. The Conversation. Available online: https://theconversation.com/new-book-challenges-whiteness-a-review-through-the-cover-image-185457
Pretorius, D. 2021. Broadening the ‘Black Consciousness Aesthetic’: Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi’s illustrations for Staffrider, 1979-1981. ASAI. Available online: https://asai.co.za/muziwakhe-nhlabatsi-staffrider/
Pretorius, D. 2015. Engraved Landscape. Visual Anthropology 28(5):465-467.
Pretorius, D. 2015. Two beadwork exhibitions in Johannesburg, South Africa. Communication Design. 3(2):203-206.
Pretorius, D & Gray, B. 2009. Thami Mnyele and the Medu Art Ensemble. Art South Africa 7(3): 82-84.
Pretorius, D. 2006. Design Indaba Magazine. Image and Text 12: 50-51.
- Conference Papers
Chan, J, Pretorius, D, Luttich, E & Gage, C. 2019. Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia in the shaping of selected Bookworks from the Decolonial Book Arts Project. SAVAH Annual Conference, Speaking with ghosts: Hauntology, memory, nostalgia and other ways of engaging with past/present/future.
Khan, I & Pretorius, D. 2023. The (re)design of the University of Johannesburg’s student residence and day house logos. Visual Redress in Africa, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Pretorius, D. 2008. Visual representation and race in the printed propaganda of the Communist Party of South Africa: Cartoons from Umsebenzi 1930-1936. South African Visual Arts Historians Annual Conference, Stellenbosch University.
Pretorius, D. 2009. Visually constructing socialist identity in twentieth-century South Africa. Imaging Ourselves: Visual Identities in Representation Conference, University of Johannesburg.
Pretorius, D. 2011. The Printed Propaganda of the CPSA 1921-1950. Design History Society Annual Conference, Barcelona University.
Pretorius, D. 2012. Representing Afrikaans singers’ masculinities in Huisgenoot and Huisgenoot Tempo Magazine. Work/Force: South African masculinities in the media, Stellenbosch University.
Pretorius, D. 2013. Visual communication design in South Africa: a postcolonial perspective. Design History Society Annual Conference, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Pretorius, D. 2014. South African poster propaganda during the Second World War. Design History Society Annual Conference, University of Oxford.
Pretorius, D. 2015. Icon and iconography: A Critical Comparison of the Iconography in the Documentary Painting of Nelson Mandela by Li Bin With South African Graphics from the Twentieth Century. A public conversation hosted by the UJ Confucius Institute and the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture.
Pretorius, D. 2015. Join up now! Recruitment posters for the South African Union Defence Force during the Second World War. South African Visual Art Historians Annual Conference, UKZN.
Pretorius, D. 2020. Liberation, Nation and Salvation: South African Political Party Logos of the 2019 General Election. Lessons to Learn? Past Design Experiences and Contemporary Design Practices, ICDHS 12th International Conference on Design History and Design Studies, Institute for the Research of the Avant-Garde, Zagreb.
Pretorius, D. 2021. Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony. UNTOLD STORIES: recognising, understanding, and reimagining the untold and hidden narratives through visual art. SAVAH 2021. North-West University.
Pretorius, D. 2021. The Staffrider illustrations of Mzwakhe (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) 1979-1987. Disturbing Views: Visual Culture and Nationalism in the 20th and 21st Centuries. South African Research Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg.
Pretorius, D. 2022. Ernest Ullmann’s designs for the 1936/7 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa. Exhibitions, new nations and the human factor, 1873 – 1939; Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris.
Pretorius, D. 2023. “For the People”: Mzwakhe’s (Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi) contribution to the comic Down Second Avenue. ‘Comics and/as Resistance’, University of Oxford.
Pretorius, D. 2023. Cabinets of Curiosities for the Postcolony II: Tokens: Collections I-V. Cumulus, Connectivity and Creativity in Times of Conflict, University of Antwerp, Belgium.