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2025
Signs on stage: Translating theatre into a sign language
Sign languages, the visual-gestural languages of Deaf communities, lack a written form.
Social and Economic Justice
The South African Constitution contains extensive social and economic rights.
South African Literature: Global Challenges, New Humanities
This project positions South African Literature within the emergence of the New Humanities (Medical, Environmental, Digital), and orients both toward Medical, Scientific and Social Sciences’ emphases on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking Through Houses: Property and Personhood in Zimbabwe’s Urban Margins
In contexts of displacement and marginality, people’s aspirations and active material and political struggles for secure housing – alongside their multi-layered efforts at home-making – might be construed as acts of either insurgent optimism or necessary anticipatory investment.
String Theory and Quantum Gravity – New Developments and Links to Low-energy Physics
The project explored the relationship between classical gravity and quantum field theories, as well as possible applications of the mathematical structures of string theory to low energy systems such as Quantum Hall Fluids.
Susceptibility to amyloid-related neurodegenerative diseases evoked by functional amyloid proteins of the gut microbiome – a comparative study of European and African populations
Amyloids are proteins able to form very regular insoluble fibrils.
Sustainability, international trade and digitalisation: Core elements of sustainable soil management governance in the Global South
Based on the results of a previously terminated project Mapping out options for a model legislation on sustainable soil management in Africa, a model legislation for sustainable soil management is currently under development, for adoption by the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) and subsequent transmission as a proposal to all national parliaments of the African Union.
Targeting alternative splicing for cancer therapy using South African medicinal plants and phytocompounds
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide including South Africa.
The Agrarian Question in the 21st Century
Since the start of my career the focus of my scholarly research has been what has been defined as the agrarian question.
The evolutionary history of the human face, a multi-disciplinary detective story
Like all complex animals, humans have faces.
The Future of Human Mobility and Migration
The future of human society – and indeed, the very meaning of what it is to be human – is inextricably related to mobility.
The Global Crisis and the Future of Democracy
The project is concerned with the sustainability of democracy around the globe in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial and economic crisis.
The HIV-Exposed but Uninfected (HEU) Infant: How Can the Excess Morbidity and Mortality be Explained?
This project has expanded beyond the initial STIAS realm and is the outgrowth of an initiative developed between STIAS and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (PWIAS), associated with the University of British Columbia.
The New Internationalist - The Life and Times of Radhabinod Pal
Judge Radhabinod Pal is a forgotten man in international law.
The Role of Knowledge Experts
The advent of the knowledge society has placed the spotlight on the role of experts as gatekeepers and as brokers of knowledge.
The syntax of Xhosa nominals
Generative linguistic theory holds that language is shaped by principles hardwired in the human brain.
The work of culture in an age of informational capital
The major project is to outline and pursue further research on the forthcoming book, titled ‘Intellectual Property and its Publics: The Work of Culture in an Era of Informational Capital’ which explores new pressures and tendencies to treat culture as a resource and the growing propensity to claim rights on cultural grounds under neoliberal capitalism.
Towards re-conceptualization of socio-cultural climate change maladaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Reconceptualization of socio-cultural climate change maladaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) demands a nuanced understanding of regions diverse social, cultural and environmental contexts.
Ukuhamba kukubona (to travel is to see): a feminist exploration of the intellectual legacies of black women's mobilities
This project investigates the mobilities of black women in Southern Africa.
Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease: Basic mechanisms and clinical developments
The abnormal processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), aggregation of Aβ, Tau hyper phosphorylation and propagation of these abnormally folded proteins have been collectively recognized as hallmarks of the initial, biochemical phase of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) [De Strooper 2016].
Understanding Emergence
Emergent behaviour seems to be characteristic of the `complex systems that currently feature in Mathematics, Computer Science, the Physical Sciences and Philosophy.
Understanding the effects of malaria parasites and vector biomolecular dynamics on malaria transmission through multiscale modelling and agent-based models
Malaria remains a significant public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Upcycling of textile waste
The textile and clothing sector generates a large amount of waste that are either incinerated or disposed in landfills.
Wetland gentrification in African cities: Implications for urban governance, planning, and theory
While studies in the global North have focused on ‘green gentrification’ driven by park developments and eco-friendly initiatives, a different phenomenon is unfolding in rapidly urbanizing African cities.
What is a Rational Response to Catastrophic Risk?
When it comes to low probability-high impact (even catastrophic) risk, the judgment of ordinary people, it seems, is not to be trusted.
You, me and I
Identity is a term much used yet hard to define.
2024
A critical assessment of the quality of Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) adjudications (judgments) in sectional title schemes and recommendations as to how the quality of the adjudications can be improved
On 17 October the South African government introduced a Community Schemes Ombud Service for the swift and inexpensive resolution of disputes in community schemes of which sectional title schemes are the most important.
A Forest of Memories: Trauma and the Biafran Identity in Post-colonial Nigeria
The Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-1970 occasioned the Igbo pogrom and the lingering memory of starvation as a weapon of war. The collective trauma of the period has remained buried in the group’s consciousness. Existing literature on the war paid little attention to how the children of the survivors have appropriated the memories of their parents’ violent past.
A new evolutionary perspective on the nature of the individual
A book entitled Evolutionary Perspectives on Pregnancy(with Columbia University Press) will be completed and published.
A new evolutionary perspective on the nature of the individual
The evolution of individuality was first systematically addressed in a very influential book by Leo Buss in 1987.
A New Path to Welfare: Rights and Constitutionalism in the Global South
The rise of neoliberalism caused a ‘lost decade’ of development in large parts of the global South.
Against Isolation: Transnationalism and Literary Dialogue in Dutch-Afrikaans Formations
Critics on both sides of the so-called ‘Afrikaans question’ tend to characterise the language as a hyper-local, and hence insulated, socio-cultural phenomenon.
Aid flows to Africa in the context of continued global destabilising shocks, uncertainty, renewed challenges and aid dependence
Africa has been dependent on official development assistance or aid for decades.
Application of wastewater-based epidemiology to determine human exposure to pesticides within selected counties in western Kenya
The use of wastewater epidemiology approach has been on the rise recently due to its cost effectiveness and ability to identify emerging chemicals such as pesticides from wastewater.
Archives of the Ethical: Market Exchange, Ethical Relations, and Sensory Politics in the Urban South
Archives of the Ethical: Market Exchange, Ethical Relations, and Sensory Politics in the Urban South brings together in comparative perspective, historically situated ethnographic insights of urban market practices in Cape Town, Accra, and Mumbai.
Assessment of the current cold chain potential of the Ugandan food system
The annual increase in the global population worldwide puts pressure on the food systems to avail enough food for all global citizens. Within the foods mostly consumed are those with a short life span, termed perishable produce that need special handling after harvest or slaughter. They include fish, meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fruit, and vegetables.
Black Freedom from Selma to Soweto: Gender, Consciousness, and Power
Two distinct, mutually influential, and globally inspirational black freedom struggles in the last half of the twentieth century – against segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa – are largely understood through charismatic leadership.
Bringing Physics and Chemistry to Life: from random walks to robust organization
Hans V. Westerhoff will put together the theoretical foundations of today’s biology in a comprehensive new theory, by researching and establishing connections between the various theoretical approaches in use.
Can South Africa use Land-based Financing for Biodiversity Conservation?
Globally there are calls for incentives for biodiversity conservation, including the mobilization of financial resources to implement biodiversity targets effectively.
Capricious Connections: the politics of knowledge infrastructure in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean Islands
This project enables the completion of ongoing research that explores knowledge systems in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean islands.
Christianity and Social Thought in Contemporary African Literature
Against the background of ongoing debates about decolonisation and religion in Africa, this project examines the representation of, and engagement with Christianity in contemporary African literature.
Combining Supercomputer Simulations and MeerKAT Observations to Understand Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
For millennia humans have gazed into the sky and wondered where it all came from.
Contemporary urbanism on three continents - a study of the city regions of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Gauteng (South Africa), São Paulo (Brasil) and Paris (France)
In ‘urban studies’, a varied area of research that crosses over many disciplines, two contemporary areas of focus that attract much attention are ‘southern urbanism’; and comparison of cities.
Contemporary urbanism on three continents - a study of the city regions of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Gauteng (South Africa), São Paulo (Brasil) and Paris (France)
Bioarchaeology is the study of human remains found in archaeological contexts, also taking these contexts into account to help understand humans on the landscape.
Controlling stem cell fates to advance skin regeneration
Skin stem cells give birth to daughter cells that eventually become specialized cells to form our protective, watertight skin and to produce hair.
Crossing Boundaries in South Africa’s Divided Cities: how conviviality, creativity and co-operation helped undermine apartheid
Within global urban historiography there has been no detailed exploration of the nature and consequences of mingling across ethnic, racial or national boundaries in cities strongly socially and spatially divided along such as Belfast, Beirut, Jerusalem or Johannesburg.