Publication
The Amateur
Majumdar, Saikat. 2024. The Amateur (1st ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/amateur-9781501399879/
Publication
Politics, Jokes and Power in Africa: The View From Stand-Up Comedy
Nwankwọ, Izuu. 2024. Politics, Jokes and Power in Africa: The View From Stand-Up Comedy. African Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/0002...
Project
The interface between South African publishing, authors, the academy, and anglophone publishing elsewhere in Africa: a personal retrospective
Surprisingly little is known about how the South African publishing industry has operated over the past 35 politically tumultuous years.
Publication
Reframing the Black Atlantic
Phiri, Aretha. 2023. Reframing the Black Atlantic. Cultural Studies, 37(2), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2022.2104898
Publication
Migrating narratives: re-inscribing black diaspora cultures
Phiri, Aretha. 2023. Migrating narratives: re-inscribing black diaspora cultures. Cultural Studies, 37(2), 316–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/...
Publication
Engaging Violence: Civility and the Reach of Literature
Simpson, David. 2022. Engaging Violence: Civility and the Reach of Literature. Stanford University Press. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?i...
Project
Reading black middle-classness
For this project I am reading the burgeoning publication of essays that tackle black middle-classness and related aspects such as masculinities, femininities and race - indeed, intersections of these.
Project
Rethinking South African Literature(s)
This is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project, located in the Faculty of Arts at UWC, which seeks to rethink the ways in which we conceptualise and understand the field of South African literatures, almost three decades after the legislated ending of apartheid, and just over two decades after Michael Chapman’s landmark study, Southern African Literatures (1996), arguably the first (and last) study to engage thoroughly with literatures in all languages in the region.
Project
The Zulus of New York/The Madonna of Excelsior Script
In 1880 William Leonard Hunt, known as The Great Farini after his trapeze act with a troupe called The Flying Farinis, a well-known Canadian funambulist and impresario, imported a group of Zulus to England and later to the United States to perform as part of the human curiosities or freak shows in his popular circus.
Project
Dog-human correlations in post-Soviet and post-apartheid literature and film
My research project falls into the interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies and deals with the discursive formation of human-dog correlation in socio-political discourse.
Project
The Theory and Practice of Social Transformation through the Arts (Being Human Today theme)
The world over and across time, the arts remain vitally important in fostering resilience and creating channels for reconciliation after conflict.
Project
Cape Town’s Creole Songs, Nederlandsliedjies and moppies
Following up on the publication of Sounding the Cape, Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa ( African Minds, Somerset West, 2013) researched and published with support by STIAS, this project will focus on two song repertoires emblematic of Cape Town’s music: the Moppies (or comic songs) and the Nederlandslierdjies.
