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Stellenbosch University in South Africa and Michigan State University in the United States call for proposals for emerging scholars to participate in an exchange seminar programme funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

We invite emerging scholars and heritage professionals from Stellenbosch University, Michigan State University and partner institutions to submit proposals outlining the contribution that they hope to make to the Ubuntu Dialogues.

The Ubuntu Dialogues project seeks to support, deepen and develop replicable frameworks for university museums in Africa and elsewhere and, through local and international dialogues, to collaborate in producing dynamic sites for the co-creation and dissemination of knowledge and practice. This three-year project is funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Key aims and objectives of the Ubuntu Dialogues are as follows:

• To build bridges between young people in South Africa and the United States
• To transform institutions through collaborative scholarship of engagement
• To transform the lives of young people through engaged learning
• To bridge the divide between the North and South through digital communication

Background

Central to the Ubuntu Dialogues project is the imperative to reimagine the nature and practices of dialogue itself, drawing on multiple philosophical traditions that go beyond Western perspectives or histories. It aims to do so through explorations of ubuntu, grounded in what Ramose (2002) identifies as a key aspect of the concept: the creation of 'undogmatic' knowledge.

Williams (1976) argues that certain words are 'significant, binding words in certain activities and their interpretation; they are significant, indicative words in certain forms of thought. Certain uses bound together certain ways of seeing culture and society'. The term 'ubuntu' within the South African context is such a word. This Nguni word is found in most African languages across sub-Saharan Africa and carries with it similar meanings of collective humanity and interdependence (Gade, 2012; Edozie, 2017). At different points in history, and with changes in the social and political spheres, however, the concept of ubuntu has been put to different uses and has come to take on various meanings.

During apartheid in South Africa, Gade argues, the term evoked a counter-narrative to the regime, advocating for 'inclusive ideas' against 'exclusive ideas'. Thus, the term became suffused with radical antagonism towards the oppressive state. With the birth of democracy, the concept was wedded to the project of nation-building as a means of dealing with the violent past and creating a united future. The term was cited as part of the founding ethos of the Interim Constitution, which advocated that liberation cannot occur through vengeance or retribution (Cornell & Berkowitz, 2014). When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 1996, ubuntu was invoked to emphasise the Commission's focus on forgiveness and reconciliation.

Today, however, South African democracy is experiencing sharpening contradictions. Many have declared the Rainbow Nation project to have run its course. The legacies of apartheid have yet to be addressed, and new forms of oppression have surfaced. Society has become more polarised. Can the concept of ubuntu still be employed meaningfully at the present juncture? Are we at the '[e]nd of Ubuntu', as Matolino and Kwindingwi (2013) have argued? Or, as Metz claims, is the ethical project of ubuntu more important than ever before?

Themes that will be explored further are as follows:

• What is freedom in the current era?
• What are the histories of ubuntu?
• Which institutions and spaces have implemented ubuntu, especially in relation to museums?
• What are the consequences of the different ideas about the nature of ubuntu in post-apartheid South Africa?
• What is Pan-Africanism within a framework of ubuntu?
• What are the alternatives to ubuntu?
• How do Africans become the main authors of their intellectual thoughts?
• How do we make African thoughts universal without becoming parochial?

The Ubuntu Dialogues project seeks to revisit, rethink and understand how ubuntu has shaped practices and institutions 25 years into democracy. The project aims to explore how the concept of ubuntu connects, both explicitly and implicitly, to the meanings that people give their experiences within individual and collective spaces.

The Ubuntu Seminars

These are exchange seminars involving emerging academics, heritage professionals and doctoral students from Stellenbosch University, Michigan State University and partner institutions. Applicants from South Africa and the United States are given the chance to present their work in the other country. A total of eight seminars will be hosted per annum.

Applications

• Applicants may be emerging academics, heritage professionals and/or doctoral students from Stellenbosch University, Michigan State University or partner institutions. We strongly encourage applicants from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to apply.
• Applicants should submit an abstract of 250 to 350 words. It should highlight how the applicants' research informs, adds to or complicates the concept of ubuntu.
• Applicants should also submit a detailed CV.
• Successful applicants will be required to submit a book chapter or article that will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed book manuscript or special academic journal.

Submission

All applications should be submitted to: Mrs Natasha Coltman, e-mail address: ncoltman@sun.ac.za, by 14 August 2019.