​Prof Gabeba Baderoon to deliver the 5th Stellenbosch University Annual Africa Day Lecture, hosted by the Vice-Chancellor

Stellenbosch University is set to host the 5th Annual Africa Day Lecture series, a tradition that has been running since 2018. Coordinated by the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and the Reparative Quest (AVReQ) and the Centre for Collaboration in Africa, the lecture series aims to provide a platform for distinguished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, public intellectuals, and practitioners from various disciplines around the world to engage in public conversations. This year's lecture will be delivered by Professor Gabeba Baderoon, a renowned writer and scholar.

Titled "The University and Its Hinterland: A Relief Map," Professor Baderoon's lecture will draw on memoir, history and critique to reflect on the academy and its meanings in the post-apartheid era. Through a poetic meditation, she will explore the historical distances and fraught intimacies of the South African university, what she terms its relation to its many hinterlands. In her new writing on colonial archives and imaginings of landscape, absence and belonging, begun during Professor Baderoon's decade-long Extraordinary Professorship of English at Stellenbosch University, she will share the insights and new possibilities that emerge for the university and its communities through an accounting with its histories, distances and nearnesses.

Gabeba Baderoon is a highly regarded poet and scholar. She has authored three poetry collections, including The Dream in the Next Body, A hundred silences, and The History of Intimacy. In addition to being a member of the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund, Professor Baderoon co-directs the African Feminist Initiative at Penn State University, where she is an Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, African Studies, and Comparative Literature.

Apart from her poetic contributions, Professor Baderoon is also a prolific academic writer. She authored Regarding Muslims: From Slavery to Post-Apartheid and co-edited the essay collection, Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa with Desiree Lewis. Her critical and creative works have earned her numerous accolades, including being named the 2023 Sarah Baartman Senior Fellow at the University of Cape Town. As the keynote speaker for the Annual Africa Day Lecture series, Professor Baderoon's insights on the university and its relation to its hinterland promise to be informative and thought-provoking, drawing on her extensive experience as a writer and scholar.

The Africa Day lecture is expected to contribute to knowledge production within the academy while also having an impact on public debate and influencing audiences at the broader level of civil society. The Annual Africa Day Lecture series has become a vital forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, and Professor Baderoon's lecture promises to be a provocative and insightful contribution to this ongoing conversation.

The event will be hosted by the Vice-Chancellor and will take place on May 22nd, 2023. The lecture is open to the public, and all are invited to attend.

To register click HERE

Date: 22 May 2022

Time: 17:00

Venue: Stellenbosch University Museum

Format: In-person only

For more information contact Ceasar [ceasar@sun.ac.za, 0218084032]

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