FACULTY FOCUS A MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

BEING HUMAN What the humanities teach us about the human condition PAGE 4&5

RECLAIMING LIFE LESSONS TSOTSITAAL DRAWING THE LINE THE PAST Can study in the Unique South African Carrol Clarkson on How do we live humanities help you live words and phrases the role of art in with history? a more meaningful life? the creation of a just society PAGE 11 PAGE 4&5 PAGE 7 PAGE 9 2 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT HUMANITIES 3

A word from the Dean halls of History Curated by Lwando Nteya & Thaheer Mullins Professor Sakhela Buhlungu Dean of the Faculty of Humanities A brief tour of the humanities of bygone times, told It gives me great pleasure to Our academics equip students with Study on the State of the Humanities through UCT buildings. introduce you to the Faculty of skills that are crucial for engaging in South Africa: Status, prospects and Humanities at UCT. Ours is the with the material and non-material strategies. One of the findings of Upper Campus largest of the six faculties, with aspects of being human. I am proud the study was that “the evidence approximately 6 000 students, 25% to say that we produce graduates on humanities graduates shows The Arts Block is one of the Gender Institute and is named after of whom are postgraduates. The equipped with fundamentally clearly that virtually all humanities original UCT structures, designed the diamond magnate, previous demographic profile of the students important skills – analytical and graduates are employed, that the by architect JM Solomon, who sadly chancellor of the university has been changing rapidly in recent communication skills, research and vast majority (more than 80%) work committed suicide before he was able (presiding from 1967 to 1999), and years, such that in 2014, the majority writing skills, argumentation and for an employer while the rest are to see his work completed. Arts 100 one of the world’s richest men. of our undergraduate students are decision-making. UCT humanities self-employed, and that there is a is one of the few lecture theatres on The Leslie complex (Leslie Social black, coloured and Indian (53%), graduates are highly sought after fair spread of graduate employment campus featuring its original design. Science and Leslie Commerce), while the remainder are white (32%) in the labour market, locally and across the public and private sectors” The Beattie Building houses originally a series of huts, was and other groups (15%, made up of globally. Although our graduates are (ASSAf, 2011, p127). the humanities faculty’s offices, named after the first professor of international, ‘race undeclared’ and able to secure jobs on the strength Space does not allow me to take and was named (in 1964) after Sir economics at UCT, Robert Leslie, Chinese students). Our faculty is also of their first humanities degrees, you through the vast array of John Caruthers (Jock) Beattie, the and was completed in 1979. the most complex; not only because we have also noted a trend by many exciting courses, degrees, diplomas principal and first vice-chancellor UCT’s Department of Psychology of the large number of disciplines students to advance to postgraduate and certificate programmes on of UCT (1918-1937). He’s also the (based in the humanities) is located that constitute it, but also because study, which further enhances their offer in our faculty. Suffice it to say only person to be buried on upper with the sciences in PD Hahn, of the variety of study programmes skills and employment prospects in that students who love exploring campus, with his grave situated just named after the Jamieson Professor and research activities. high-level positions. ideas about how to make the world above UCT’s tennis clubhouse. of Experimental Physics and The disciplines and study areas fall A humanities qualification prepares a better, more humane and just The Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Practical Chemistry, Paul Daniel into five broad clusters – education, students for a multitude of career place will find our faculty extremely Centre for Jewish Studies and Hahn (at whose request women languages, the performing and paths in the public sector, the private exciting and attractive. After all, the Arts Block PD Hahn Research is based at Rachel Bloch were admitted to study chemistry). A creative arts, the social sciences, and sector, the media, the NGO sector, study of the humanities has been House. Established in 1980, under the great deal of the art you’ll see in the professionally oriented programmes. consultancy services, and careers in at the centre of the evolution of terms of a gift to the University of building is by Associate Professor The one thing they have in common research and academia. Analytical the university and the pursuit of Cape Town by the Kaplan Kushlick Fritha Langerman, director of the and problem-solving skills as well as is a focus on the human condition scholarship, from the time of the Foundation and named after the Michaelis School of Fine Art. the ability to think laterally are valued in all its dimensions. Our scholars great philosophers in Athens and parents of Mendel and Robert The Humanities Building has and developed across all fields in engage with the meanings of being other parts of the world, all the way Kaplan, the Kaplan Centre seeks to lived many lives – first as the home human and how those meanings the modern world. These abilities to the present. Study of the humanities has been stimulate and promote the field of of the Faculty of Education, then as change over time because of material provide an essential foundation It is my hope that this Monday Jewish studies and research. It also the Wilfred and Jules Kramer Law and non-material circumstances. for engaged citizenship and for at the centre of the evolution of the Monthly supplement will give you a houses the Jewish Studies library, a Building (until the law department Some scholars within the humanities entry into the world of work for taste of what we are about. university and the pursuit of scholarship, built its own structure on middle approach these questions from an graduates. The growing awareness collection that includes twentieth- from the time of the great philosophers Beattie Building Harry Oppenheimer Leslie Social Science century Yiddish literature as well as campus), then as the Humanities applied perspective by seeking to of the value of skills gained in Graduate Building. It’s currently humanities courses has seen an in Athens and other parts of the world, all texts looted by the Nazis during World help improve the conditions of undergoing a renaming process, but increasing number of students from War II and rescued by the Jewish human beings, while others engage the way to the present. in the meantime, it’s home to the other faculties registering for our Cultural Reconstruction Committee. in more philosophical explorations Institute for Humanities in Africa, courses. Sakhela Buhlungu of these issues. But all of them Further information about the faculty, The Harry Oppenheimer the Department of Philosophy and contribute to extending the frontiers In 2011 the Academy of Science its departments, research units and Institute houses the Centre for the School of Education. and horizons of what we know of South Africa produced a centres can be obtained from the Africa Studies as well as the African about the human condition. research report titled Consensus website, www.humanities.uct.ac.za. Middle & Lower Campus The Baxter Theatre came self-contained, functionally designed Kaplan Centre Humanities Building School of Dance under UCT’s jurisdiction so that music library in Africa, and opened state control didn’t hamper the in August 1943. It now comprises theatre’s ability to stage multiracial 10 000+ books, 33 000+ pieces of productions. The theatre turns 37 music, 5 000+ gramophone records humanities this year. and 2 500 CDs. The South African College of Initially established in 1934 as the Music was founded in 1910 by UCT Ballet School, the School of Mine Niay-Darroll and a group of Dance has been the training ground by numbers musicians, and opened in Strand of many generations of South Street. It had six students. In 1925 the African ballet dancers, some of school moved to its current location, whom went on to achieve significant Baxter Theatre Strubenholm – the private residence success, both in local ballet of Henry Struben. The college companies and abroad. Over the countries represented in the boasts several string, wind, jazz and decades the school has broadened 6000students 43 student body 75% undergraduates 25% postgraduates percussion ensembles, as well as its base to incorporate other dance choirs, a symphony orchestra, a jazz forms. Since 1998, both African big band and an opera school. The dance and contemporary dance have schools academic departments: research centres and institutes: WH Bell Music Library, just next to been offered as full streams. 2014 6 10 15 the college, was the first completely marks its 80th anniversary. • School of • School for African • Drama • Psychology • African Gender Institute • Centre for Creative • Centre for Curating the Languages & & Gender Studies, • English Language • Religious Studies • Centre for African Studies Writing Archive (formerly known Literatures Anthropology & as the Lucy Lloyd Archive & Literature • Social • Children’s Institute • Institute for Humanities in Hiddingh Campus • Michaelis School Linguistics (AXL) Africa (HUMA) & Resource Exhibition • Historical Studies Development South African College of Music Hiddingh Campus Many of the buildings on Hiddingh The Orange Street location of the of Fine Art • School of Dance • Research Institute for Centre) • Philosophy • Sociology Christianity & Society in • Institute for Intercultural & Campus were designed in the office Egyptian Building on Hiddingh • School of • South African Diversity Studies • Centre for Rhetoric • Political Studies • Centre for Film & Africa Studies of Herbert Baker (the original plans Campus was a zoo in the late 18th Education College of Music • Isaac & Jessie Kaplan can be found in the Baker Collection, century, complete with lion’s dens Media Studies • Institute for Comparative • Centre for Social Science Religion in Southern Africa Centre for Jewish Studies in Manuscripts & Archives) and and a small lake that supposedly & Research Research • Centre for Contemporary named after a kindly benefactor: WM housed a hippo. The structure itself South African Research • Library and Information was UCT’s first (it predates the Islam Science Centre Hiddingh, who bequeathed £15 514 72 NRF-rated researchers 4Chairs (SARCHi) to the South African College. English Groote Schuur campus) and was the • 5 As • Prof Carolyn Hamilton composer and conductor first built for the express purpose of higher education in South Africa. • 26 Bs • Prof Rajend Mesthrie Professor William Henry Bell, the Built in the Egyptian revival style, • 34 Cs • Prof Abdulkader Tayob first Professor of Music (1923-1935), AW Mellon Research chairs winners of the prestigious which includes motifs and imagery • 6 Ys • Prof Lungisile Ntsebeza 2 27 single-handedly created the Little of Ancient Egypt, it was completed • Dr Matthias Brenzinger Distinguished Teacher Award since the • 1 L award’s inception in 1981 have come Theatre out of an old chemistry and opened in 1841. It is now part • Prof Fiona Ross laboratory in 1931. from humanities The Little Theatre Egyptian Building of the Michaelis School of Fine Art. 4 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT HUMANITIES 5

What makes us human? Story by Judith Browne Photos by Michael Hammond

What can the human and social sciences and the arts teach us about what it means to be human? Can close self-study help us live better lives? In earth’s ecosystem, human beings developed a fairly elaborate (if not fixed, stereotypical ways to events. human … The one thing we have, of life stories is the conscious and “We live in a society where we have a long way – together with economic human condition, but there is a great us human. Sciences can point to the The work of are one species among many millions always healthy) relationship with This inhibitory function creates which makes us so different from unconscious ways in which they inherited this notion of humans as change, of course – towards restoring deal of variety that rests in that.” problems in disturbed earth systems, – a species on which the humanities what we subsist on, whether plant the possibility of thinking, which chimpanzees or other living creatures, are framed through memory-work ‘waste’,” says Jay Pather, director of the to our species the notion of the She spoke of current work in the but working out how to alter the the humanities in focus almost exclusively. How can the or animal. is the second major function of the is this sophisticated spoken language and cultures. The stories not told Gordon Institute for the Performing human.” sciences – specifically new biologies current course requires every field of the years ahead close study of how humans think, Still others suggest it’s language frontal lobes. – a language with which we can tell or expressed unintentionally are as and Creative Arts. “At the height of and genetics – and how these seem to the humanities.” is enormous: if communicate and express themselves; that sets us apart: that our ability to “Thinking in this sense boils down children about things that aren’t here. meaningful as those consciously colonialism and slavery, a deeply Defining the dividing line be returning to “the idea of a human For Green, the dimensions of organise themselves into groups and think, to think about that thinking to an experimental or virtual type of We can talk about the distant past, told, in different ways and times, to entrenched sense of who we were as condition, to … what we all share as problems we face – such as our inability we are to survive For Professor Deborah Posel, structures, with governing systems; and to convey that thought to another action carried out in the safety of plan for the distant future, discuss various audiences.” possessions for the masters, or for the humans”. What she sees there is not a to act decisively and collectively on we need to be ideas with each other, so that the founding director of the Institute for and engage with the surrounding human, allows us to imagine the our own minds before committing apartheid government, was engrained. frightening vision of human biology, climate change, an issue that threatens ideas can grow from the accumulated Humanities in Africa (HUMA) – one reimagining what environment and other species who future, to evaluate and learn from the ourselves in the real world. Action Witnessing humanity So were notions of masterhood in but the assurance of ‘soft wiring’ in our very survival – are distinctly human. wisdom of the group.” of the signature umbrella research makes us human. inhabit it help us advance and evolve past, and to try get to grips with our derived from thought is vastly those who were privileged over others our genetic script, “malleable, plastic More hopefully, though, potential Oral historian Sean Field, former Language and the stories we tell ourselves themes of which is the study of our understanding of the world (and place in the world. superior to instinctual action, in that don’t just shape identity. Questions relationships between what we’re solutions are too. Sciences can point director of the Centre for Popular in these systems.” ‘being human’ – a key feature of our our place in it)? it creates flexibility and adaptability of who or what is human (and how born with and how the environment “The world’s problems are never Memory, would argue that storytelling It’s the arts – and other forms of humanity is plasticity. Speaking at a to the problems The seat of the soul based on learning from experience. language enforces the divide) have also shapes us”. tidily confined to the laboratory – as a way of recognising patterns, public expression, like protest – that recent HUMA symposium, Queer in disturbed earth What sets us apart as a We should, however, never forget significantly shaped history: systems of It is this very plasticity that suggests or spreadsheet,” argued Deborah Where before, our life force was drawing connections between them, can help bring us back to our senses, in Africa, Posel commented, “[What species? that these higher cognitive functions slavery, colonialism, apartheid, patriarchy the answer to ‘what makes us human’ Fitzgerald, dean of humanities, arts and systems, but believed to be based in the soul (of and making meaning of the world and to our sense of self, Pather makes us human] is a question that I of the human brain are still ultimately and other forms of discrimination is not only undefined, but also open social sciences at the Massachussetts To help unpack what the humanities which psychology was originally the around us – is central to being argues. Art can help us ‘see’ our think probably every single discipline working out how driven from below; thinking does not are predicated on how ‘human’, to radical redefinition. Institute for Technology (MIT) recently can teach us, it’s worth questioning study), much of what defines us as human: “Telling or performing own humanity – and that of others. within the human and social sciences to alter the current replace instinctual drives – rather, it how ‘civilised’, people are believed in The Boston Globe. “From climate change what sets us apart as a species. human is now believed to reside in stories across the private and public “Eruptions in our society in the has to grapple with. It’s also an issue only elaborates and refines them.” worlds we experience is central to the to be. Systems of violence depend The humanities project to poverty to disease, the challenges of course requires Some have suggested it’s our larger the brain. mining industries and evident in the that is at the heart of most politics human condition. But the paradox on dehumanisation. our age are unwaveringly human in every field of the brains (relative to our body size) – “From the neuropsychological service delivery strikes may on one – certainly most politics in the 21st Associate Professor Lesley Green, The storytelling animal nature and scale, and engineering and crudely, that a larger ‘computer’ makes point of view, what makes us human level be about material things such century. And there are swathes of who is behind efforts to launch humanities. science issues are always embedded in for better computing. Others point is the relative size of the part of the For primatologist Jane Goodall, the as money or facilities. Underneath literature on it. At the risk of doing a cross-disciplinary degree in the Eruptions in our society in the mining broader human realities, from deeply Lesley Green out that we’re one of a few species brain that distinguishes us from other first of the Vice-Chancellor’s Open this, though, is a much deeper call to violence to all of the complexity environmental humanities in 2015, industries and evident in the service felt cultural traditions to building codes not just to have a mutually beneficial primates – and indeed from other Lecture speakers in 2014, what sets us witness the human, to be made visible in that literature, it seems to me if believes that radical redefinition is key to political tensions … Our students relationship with other species, but mammals – namely, the prefrontal apart from primates like chimpanzees delivery strikes may on one level be about in a tide of negation, degradation you were to survey it and extract to the humanities project: “I think also need an in-depth understanding to befriend them: taking animals into lobes,” explains neuropsychologist is our complex linguistic ability: and invisibility. Art comes a long way one essential, one kernel of wisdom the central challenge of our times is material things such as money or facilities. of human complexities – the political, our homes and treating them as one (and head of the Department of “There isn’t a sharp line dividing towards enabling visibility in a range from it at the moment, it would be to rethink what makes us human – to Underneath this, though, is a much deeper cultural, and economic realities that of our family. Agriculture and animal Psychology) Professor Mark Solms. humans from the rest of the animal of facets. Unfortunately some of this that the key feature of being human rethink it is to be part of a planet that shape our existence – as well as fluency husbandry have played a significant “The prefrontal lobes have two major kingdom,” Goodall argues in a 2002 call to witness the human, to be made has been entrapped by elite structures is what one can call plasticity – a has been brought into crisis by our in the powerful forms of thinking and role in our advancement. Using tools functions. Firstly, they inhibit outputs TED talk. “It’s a very wuzzy line. It’s visible in a tide of negation, degradation and mechanisms in art industries, certain kind of fluidity. There is assumptions about humanity. The work creativity cultivated by the humanities, we’ve fashioned with our own hands, from the instinctual-emotional getting wuzzier all the time as we find some of which have simply not taken nothing absolutely and completely of the humanities in the years ahead and invisibility. arts, and social sciences.” we till the land and tame wild animals; parts of the brain, which would animals doing things that we, in our on the enormous, ethical project of fixed. There is no solid essential is enormous: if we are to survive, we we also prepare our food, and have otherwise compel us to respond in arrogance, used to think were just Jay Pather redress. Let loose of these, art can go human nature. We can speak about a need to be reimagining what makes

Andrei Damane Politics, political science and Life lessons international relations (2nd year) I chose to do political science Photos by Michael Hammond after two gap years. And it was in that time that I worked in a restaurant and I had to What can a degree in the humanities experience a lot of different kinds Zoe Fraser of cultures. That really piqued my teach you about life? Can it help you Sociology, social anthropology, interest in politics and diplomacy philosophy and critical thinking (1st year) – you don’t understand the become a better person? necessity or the need to speak to Sociology and people properly until you’re in a situation where you need to be social anthropology kind to people all the time. are very personal … You delve into a lot of other people’s lives – and not necessarily people that you’ve been exposed to. It opens you up … and in that way, you understand Gloria Chikaoanda French, law and international people more. Reagan Kutlo Tsimakoko relations (3rd year) Politics, Mandarin, African and Chinese history Alexxa Leon The thing History (3rd year) Mandarin opened up a whole new world. It’s allowed me to learn about humanities I’m more aware of this global from people and a culture that has is … it makes system of inequality that I’m a part you question of and I’ve become aware of the been around for thousands of years. experiences of other people, not just Just learning this language, you’re everything that you my own. Just knowing more helps. think you know. It informs my decisions of the day, able to communicate with 1.2 billion what I perpetuate and what I actively It opens up your Claire James people that you haven’t been able to English, Afrikaans, history and social anthropology try not to. It matters what stories are mind to different told. Because it comes down to who communicate with. It’s taught me that It’s taught me that so many things are socially constructed. has power to tell those stories. That there’s more than one history. There’s possibilities. It Being [in the humanities] has taught me to be a lot more open; has a huge effect on how people are makes you more it still taught me to be critical, to evaluate things from the space represented, how we see people, and more than one story. that they come from – but it’s made me a lot more respectful. how we treat people. tolerant. 6 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT HUMANITIES 7

MORE THAN words Language helps us give expression to a multitude of thoughts, experiences and emotions. Yet as versatile as any one language is, all have their limits. Reviving an For those times when we literally cannot find the words, art offers us an alternative means of expression. Abigail Calata asked a number of leading ancient tongue UCT minds for their take on how the arts help us express what words cannot. Story by Abigail Calata Essentially the language of art is the Photos by Yazeed Kamaldien metaphor. The way of the actor/artist has been, and always will be, a path of insight The sounds of Khoekhoegowab, not heard for Zootsuit-inspired fashion in Gauteng in the 1950s (the word tsotsi is said to have to personal knowledge; and through this come from the zootsuit craze). Photograph by Ronald Ngilima, sourced from The centuries in Cape Town, are reverberating in the Other Camera project, University of Cape Town Libraries. insightful personal knowledge, to reflect and Mother City again. interpret for the world an understanding. We need more than ever the presence of the The language known as Khoekhoegowab “The revitalisation endeavour takes actor/artist to help us touch that which is too (but also Nama or Nama-Damara) is different forms and varies from person There’s a larney spoken mainly in Namibia, some parts of to person, but a large part of it involves often beyond our rational comprehension. South Africa and Botswana. It is related celebrating, promoting and also learning Geoffrey Hyland to the Khoe (or Khoi) language that the Khoekhoegowab language. To this Head of Drama on my stoep! was spoken for many centuries by the end, Khoekhoegowab language workshops inhabitants of the area known today as the and/or lessons have been taking place Curated by Abigail Calata South-Western Cape – and lost as a result sporadically in Cape Town since 2008,” of many of its speakers being killed in clarifies Brown, who attends these classes English might be only one of 11 official national warfare with European settlers or through for research purposes. diseases such as smallpox. The remaining “Progress has been hampered by many languages, but the diversity of the country’s history Cape Khoe speakers were, by and large, factors such as lack of funding, lack of gradually assimilated into colonial society, teaching materials, and the difficulty of and people is coded into its words and expressions. becoming part of a much larger and securing suitable venues; but nevertheless, Professor Rajend Mesthrie studies English in its diverse group that in time came to be the lessons are continuing, and there called coloured. is growing interest and participation,” multicultural and multilingual South African context, Linguistically, these Khoe speakers and says Brown. their descendants shifted to speak mainly He observes: “There is a strong celebratory and has co-authored a book with journalist Jeanne a version of Dutch that would eventually dimension to these activities and a great deal Hromnik: Eish, but is it English? become Afrikaans. revolves around affirming and celebrating Justin Brown, a doctoral fellow at the the beauty of the Khoekhoegowab language, its sounds, its rhythms, the Bunny chow Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) Dance is a communicative tool from and a PhD candidate in linguistics, is feel and texture of the language and its I continue to be inspired by the power of musical nature.” From the Chinese word for spicy, ‘chow’ has come to mean food in South Africa. ‘Bunny’ probably following a group of coloured people and of the body; and as such, emanates photographs to be suggestive, interpretive comes from ‘banya’, the Gujarati word for a merchant or trader. in Cape Town who are embracing from a wellspring of our collective and to travel way beyond the material plane Khoekheogowab as their language. (hi)stories … Dance helps us as humans sometimes, as if they were magical. For one Busy make more sense of our world and “They view it as the closest thing to the The lessons and who works in the archive I am struck by the As in ‘busy sleeping, dying, relaxing’. The use of this word in South African English is possibly original Khoe language of their ancestors, each other. It elevates the notion of related to the Afrikaans infinitive ‘besig om te’ (‘busy to’). However, there are parallels in international and are striving to retrieve and reclaim other instances of what shared humanity could look like in extraordinary role photography plays in relation English, especially in ironic or poetic usage. something which they believe is part of Khoekhoegowab usage the social space, allowing the dialogue to memory work as we face our traumatic past, them and deeply significant,” he explains. are highly performative between private/interior worlds and deal with the challenges of the present, and Dagha Brown is interacting with members of public/exterior worlds to begin. imagine a place we call South Africa. the Khoi and San Action Awareness and take the form of Mud or mortar used in building. It comes from the isiZulu and isiXhosa word ‘udaka’, which has Group (KSAAG), a non-profit utterances meant to be Gerard Samuel Paul Weinberg the same meaning. organisation that, among other things, runs shared in a group. Director of the School of Dance Photographer and Senior Curator of the Visual Archive weekly Khoekhoegowab classes at the Gogga Cape Town Castle. Justin Brown Slang for any flying insect. It derives from one or more of the Khoisan languages and is widely Through music we used in the Cape. It is also the nickname of a well-known former cricketer, Paul Adams, for his can enter and explore a unorthodox spin action. realm that lies beyond our mundane existence, “He threw me with a stone” a realm where everything Commonly used in Cape Town, more generally by bilingual people for whom Afrikaans is their that makes us human dominant language. The sentence construction comes directly from the Afrikaans expression, “Hy – heart and mind and gooi my met ‘n klip”. body and soul – can be Larney expressed without the Meaning ‘posh’, ‘classy’ or ‘dressed up’, this word is short for ‘Hollander’, which in the early constraints of the three twentieth century signified an upper-class person dressed in fashionable European styles and dimensions that imprison distinct from the local ‘yokel’ or Afrikaner. The words seem to be connected via the intermediate us in this world. It is the form ‘landie’, which is still used in parts of Cape Town and Mozambique. purest embodiment of the unique enrichment Peri peri Verbal language can be seen as the broad strokes of one’s that art can bring to the The East African word for pepper, signifying food that is hot and spicy. consciousness, and art helps us to get between those broad life of each one of us. strokes into the subtleties of highly subjective experience. This Quagga Hendrik Hofmeyr can be overwhelmingly energising when one’s inexplicable Head of Composition and Theory This originally onomatopoeic word most probably comes from a Khoi word, based on the braying mysteries find themselves expressed in an art work. Art opens up of the now-extinct subspecies of the plains zebra. a vitality that one never imagined possible, and gives one a sense of the depths and heights of which one is capable. Robot The use of this word for a traffic light has long been discontinued in England, but survives in Jay Pather Director of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts South African English, from whence it has spread through much of Southern Africa. Drama graduates Luc-Given Mkhondo (right) and Yanga Jikela appear in a scene from the play Woza Albert! Their performance formed part of last year’s final-year Tsotsi auditions at the Little Theatre on Hiddingh campus. • Dr Ivan Toms, a former SHAWCO director, in a clinic in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, shortly before being sent to (From left) Khoisan Chief Hennie van Wyk says it’s vital to revive Khoe. prison for refusing to report for military service in 1987. Photograph by Graeme Williams, courtesy of the Then and Now project, UCT Libraries Special Collections. • A seSotho word believed to have come from zoot suit, an outfit with narrow stove-pipe trousers Activist Jill Williams works to promote both the Khoe language and culture. Senior students of African dance perform in Maxwell Rani’s Amajuba. This choreographic work was loosely based on Xhosa mythology, and performed at the Baxter worn by American gangsters in the forties and fifties. A tsotsi is a gangster or a wannabe gangster. Bradley van Sitters runs Khoe language classes at the Castle to a range of Concert Hall in 2012. • A performance from artist Athi-Patra Ruga’s The Future White Women of Azania: The manifesto at the 2012 Live Art Festival, presented by the ages, including teens like Grayton Bernadus, Tammy-Lee Chambers, Monolita Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts. The artist describes his work as “bursting with eclectic multicultural references, carnal sensuality and a dislocated van Ster and Caleb Piekaan. undercurrent of humour”. • A trumpeter performing in the 2014 Africa Day Alumni Concert. 8 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT HUMANITIES 9 a guide to The good life? Story by Yusuf Omar

A life without happiness is not much of a life at all, and the best political systems ensure that their citizens can live a happy life. So argued the Greek philosopher Aristotle, greater cognitive awareness of its processes, and social justice for both industry and civil to undergraduate students in the faculty. The in his Nicomachean Ethics. Much of the book through direct experience with the fruits of society. course work deconstructs these concepts in mulls over what ‘happiness’ actually means political performance and through national To this end, Professors Nicoli Nattrass and ways that question students’ fundamental – is it pleasure, honour, health, justice? What experiences with political competition, people Jeremy Seekings, both of CSSR, have put much understanding and opens new possibilities for combination of these is the ideal state for learn both about the content of democracy as effort into unpacking the causes and effects thinking about and ‘performing’ identity. citizens of the state? well as its consequences,” he wrote in 2007. of poverty and inequality (see the main body This performance – as academics such as The very notion of ‘citizen’ at the time of the South Africa’s own post-apartheid dispensation of Monday Monthly for a recent debate on former UCT sociologist Melissa Steyn argued early Greek philosophers was far more exclusive might be democratic by definition, but many that issue). As they argued in 2010, many of in her book, Whiteness Just Isn’t What It Used To Drawing than South Africa’s Constitution holds: all were citizens still live in poverty, and inequality is as the institutional and structural features that Be – is often subconscious, but is informed required to actively participate in one of the great as it is nearly anywhere else in the world. shaped South Africa’s apartheid-era growth by a range of external factors, and permeates earliest forms of popular democracy known to path continue to do so in post-apartheid South every facet of life in the post-colonial and post- humanity, but only a few were deemed capable apartheid state. the line Tackling socio-economic Africa. These and other factors perpetuate of participating. injustices poverty and inequality, they contend, despite While this is an appetiser to the work of the Story by Yusuf Omar Scholars such as UCT’s Professor Robert Universities’ role in developing society was the transition to democracy. Faculty of Humanities, the common themes of Mattes, of the Department of Political Studies the common good and social justice resonate explicated by Emeritus Professor David The arts have a vital role in the and the Centre for Social Science Research Cooper, in his 2011 book The University in Performing identity throughout. (CSSR), study modern democratic systems Development . The former head of sociology at Social science students are exposed to a range construction of a just society, by and political culture as part of the continuing UCT argues that, in addition to the neo-liberal of arguments about livelihoods, and the factors quest to develop a political system that serves imperative to produce graduates ready-made creating the space for new ways informing which people have what – and why. By representing himself and using the Rivonia Trial as a “showcase for the ANC’s moral opposition everyone’s needs. for the industrialised labour market, universities to racism” Nelson Mandela used an apartheid court of law as a channel for a political protest, Knowledge of how these systems work is are obliged to develop new visions, concepts The salient issues of racial, gender and class of thinking, speaking and therefore fundamentally changing the relationship between law and politics in South Africa, says Carrol crucial to making them work and to protecting and policies of research so that they can inequalities in South Africa are grappled with Clarkson. This image of Mandela is from the days of the Treason Trial in 1956. ©Photograph by understanding the world. Professor people’s rights, argues Mattes: “By developing unleash their capacity for social development in the ‘Race, Class and Gender’ course available Jürgen Schadeberg. Sourced from the University of Cape Town Libraries Special Collections Carrol Clarkson explains how.

Aesthetics has to do with knowledge The drawn line reconfigures of sensory perception influences implications of different modes “This is why I think aesthetic acquired through the senses, and space; “it divides, yet juxtaposes how we think. of representation. considerations are valuable in the careful attention to what is available two entities; it connects two distant “In her seminal paper on ubuntu, “It’s at the level of the materialisation thinking through of questions of within a field of sensory perception points; it includes some and excludes former Constitutional Judge Yvonne of values and ideals – in writing, social justice. Practical gives us an indication of how a others; it marks a boundary between Mokgoro foregrounds the integral speech, and other forms of cultural “So it’s not just a question of what society perceives itself. So: what can standing for, and standing against.” role of perception in political production – that we are able to do I profess, but how do I profess? be seen and heard? Who has a voice? “What I want to suggest is that legal thought: ubuntu is a ‘world view’, ‘a recalibrate the settings which have This also inaugurates lines of force What makes headline news? What is and political discourses on their own determining factor in the formation traction on the way we think. between you and me; what I like to philosophy censored? may not be enough to make sense of of perceptions which influence think of as an ethics of address.” “A shift in our modes of Answers to questions like these these lines,” said Clarkson. “That is social conduct’, Mokgoro tells us. representation within given contexts Clarkson’s combination of Professor David Benatar, head of UCT’s Department of help us to better understand how a to say, I’ll be making a case for the “What interests me is the context has the potential to affect social detailed referencing and more light- Philosophy, considers what philosophy might contribute to how society delineates itself. Changing value of an aesthetic discourse – in which certain works, acts, or perceptions of what can be seen hearted representations of the the field of perception may be one not least when it comes to thinking encounters, by creating a new field and heard, of what counts and of same arguments on the chalkboard people can live a ‘good’ life. way of encouraging a different through questions of social justice.” of perception, have the potential what matters.” left her audience with a succinct appreciation of what counts and to bring about shifts in the way a These perceptions delineate the demonstration of one way to Philosophy is a discipline with wide- involves analysing – getting clear The sort of methodology described That view is obviously contested, always nice, and what is nice is not of what matters – and hence, Art’s place in the ‘ideal community delineates itself in terms ambit of personal, political and reimagine the ‘how’. ranging subject matter, and only on what we mean by key terms here is also used by those working always true. of opening up the possibility of but it cannot be rejected merely state’ of what it perceives to be significant, cultural commitments, and our some fields of philosophical inquiry and claims; drawing on empirical on questions in other areas of imagining a more just society. because it is unpalatable. This is Even when it is not nice, however, or even noticeable at all.” margins of exposure of one to – most obviously moral philosophy, evidence; testing evaluative claims philosophy, including metaphysics, Speaking at her inaugural lecture In Plato’s imaginings of an ‘ideal’ because one unfortunate fact about the truth is at least sometimes worth Clarkson used Nelson Mandela’s another, said Clarkson. but also related areas such as social in various ways, including for epistemology, and the philosophy on 21 May, titled Drawing the state, the Republic, the artists and the the world is that what is true is not having. statement from the dock at the and political philosophy – are consistency; and constructing of language. At least some people Line, literature and theory expert poets were not welcome, Clarkson Rivonia Trial in 1964 as her directly concerned with questions logical arguments. believe that honing the relevant skills Professor Carrol Clarkson argued explained. “It has yet to be proved Art, like morality, consists of drawing that the arts have a place in a well- primary example. about the good life. Philosophers The evidence and arguments and gaining understanding can be that aesthetic discourses are just the line somewhere. The act of drawing One unfortunate fact about the world run society”, was one justification. By representing himself and using hold a wide range of views, and should – although unfortunately, one component of a good life. as important as legal and ‘rational’ is that what is true is not always nice, and Law and rational principles were the trial as a “showcase for the this line is an art as much as it is a thus philosophy does not offer a they often do not – precede the It should be said that not all discourses – especially when it deemed the only lenses through ANC’s moral opposition to racism”, single answer. conclusion. In other words, one philosophical views about the good what is nice is not always true. Even when comes to matters of social justice. question of morality.” which to see the world. the late freedom fighter was using an Instead, philosophy, or at least should see where the evidence and life are uplifting. Some philosophers She also subtly demonstrated her it is not nice, however, the truth is at least apartheid court of law as a channel Carrol Clarkson analytic philosophy, offers a arguments lead, rather than pick and think that while some lives can be argument that the way we speak and But it is the arts that provide a lens sometimes worth having. for a political protest, said Clarkson. methodology for grappling with choose evidence and arguments to better than others, no life can be think about ourselves has profound through which to interpret society “As a result, the relation between law questions about the good life. This fit some preconceived conclusion. really good. David Benatar implications for how we behave, and and its habitus and thus provide a for the decisions we make. way to question norms and break a and politics in South Africa became Weaving together strands from path to new and seemingly strange irrevocably troubled: a political ancient Greek philosophy and ideas, argued Clarkson. It is in the appeal to humanity’s conscience contemporary political theory, as recognition of the “new in the suddenly had a spectacular and In an article published in the New South African Outlook in January 1999, well as referencing post-apartheid utterance of ‘the other’ that the legitimate place within the overall former student of religious studies at UCT and current Chair of Council South Africa’s struggle with identity, process of transitional justice can social configuration of apartheid South Africa. Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane writes of a government’s responsibility Clarkson literally drew the line. begin ... [And] if this is so, then the constitution of a new legal order has to its citizens, and the responsibility that comes with freedom and the ‘good Using the chalkboard behind the “Mandela’s words radically altered lectern, she created a ‘timeline’ primarily to do with speaking a newly the social system determining life’: “Government exists for the co-ordination of human life so that the general of her defence of critical theory’s readable language” – a new form what could legitimately be seen well-being of humanity may be promoted and a full human life made possible, role in addressing questions of of expression. and heard, and hence brought out through guaranteeing to everyone peace, security, freedom, justice and all that transitional justice – sketching visual starkly the oppressive delimitations enables the ‘good life’. Equally, the freedom to enjoy ‘the good life’ carries hooks of both theories and people, Perception and the that had prevented people from obligations.” Quoting the InterAction Council’s Universal Declaration of Human which guided the audience through aesthetic act perceiving what they actually shared the motivation for her argument. in common.” Responsibilities, he argues that freedom and responsibility are interdependent. Clarkson takes an “aesthetic act” (to borrow Jacques Rancière’s phrase) to “In any society, freedom can never be exercised without limits. The more Of art and morality Social justice freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear – towards others as be “any event, or an encounter with “Art, like morality, consists of drawing a work, a text, a painting, that brings well as ourselves. The more talents we possess, the bigger the responsibility we An aesthetic understanding brings the line somewhere,” began Clarkson, about a different perception of us back to our senses, said Clarkson; have to develop them to their fullest capacity. We must move away from the quoting writer and philosopher GK one’s standing in relation to others.” it allows us to think, question and freedom of indifference towards the freedom of involvement.” Chesterton. “The act of drawing this Ideologies, values and ideals are recalibrate our perceptions of what is line is an art as much as it is a question bound up in what can be seen and “salient, legitimate and meaningful” Photo by Henk Kruger by Photo of morality.” heard, said Clarkson, and this field by drawing attention to the political Michael Hammond by Photo 10 MONDAY MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT HUMANITIES 11

The travelling poet Story by Helen Swingler

Afrikaans poetry is thriving at UCT, with new poets and titles emerging from the Master’s in Creative Writing course offered by the School of Languages. But Slam poetry is alive and well on UCT campus, where it has an appreciative audience. UCT to reach broader audiences at a time when student Siyabonga Njica recites one of his works at UCT’s 2013 march against violence. Below is an excerpt from another of his poems – this time about education – which he delivered at a poetry sales are dwindling worldwide, the 2012 Humanities event. Afrikaans poet must travel in translation, says Professor Joan Hambidge. My head is constantly looking down Timid to even make a sound The names of a new crop of young “Poems travel in translation, But I know maths is not the end Afrikaans poets mentored by Joan particularly via the internet,” Yes, figures and I are distant friends Hambidge roll off the tongue: Hambidge confirms. “We can’t survive Carina Stander, Fourie Botha, Aniel without translations. Anthologies are It’s not hate but rather shame Botha, Martina Klopper; and Hennie something else; we also know that How numbers conclude the expressions on my face Nortjé, winner of the Ingrid Jonker poetry travels through anthologies.” Prize 2013 and the Eugène Marais In her journal while on sabbatical Time stands still during her gruelling lessons Prize 2013 for his debut anthology, in 2012, Hambidge quotes Ruth In Die Skadu Van Soveel Bome. The blackboard’s moving, bullying my innermost conceptions Padel: “Poets travel the dark roads.” Reclaiming the past “He writes smashing poems,” In Padel’s The Poem and the Journey: 60 Annoyed, I would table my confession: Hambidge says of Nortjé. poems for the journey of life, based on Mathematics is for the white man But audiences, even for prize- columns she wrote for The Guardian, Story by Helen Swingler winning poets, are dwindling; selling she analyses poetry for the ordinary Photos by Michael Hammond 800 copies of a poetry volume puts reader – maintaining that it should If not, then why do I not understand? it in the ‘bestseller’ category. How travel to people, and open their At school we are judged by how well we can solve for x What do we stand to learn from history? For UCT curator-cum- much more difficult, then, for the minds. As if x reflects the individuals we are to become next Afrikaans poet? Hambidge agrees. “Good poetry I am perplexed by the system archivist Renate Meyer, the Sankofa bird, a West African symbol, Part of a global tradition, translation is an international language; it illustrates what she means when she talks about historical archive is making poetic works in vernacular is less about theme than about Which sets demands and does not listen languages increasingly accessible to good language and the ability to To our yearning voices just because we are children collections “talking back”. A moonstone bracelet international audiences. And more and write something that will change Children of wisdom, challenging the system thought to have belonged to more Afrikaans poets are spreading something inside you, or open your The Sankofa bird flies forwards Here are stories yearning to be The Kipling Collection commemorates author Olive Schreiner. the word in this way. vision of the world.” while looking backwards. The egg told. If the bracelet was Schreiner’s, the life and work of Rudyard Kipling in its mouth symbolises the future. who gave it to her? Is there a hint (1865-1936), and is one of the most “The idea is that you can’t look of romance? And hairbrushes as important, if not the finest, of the forward unless you look back to see memorabilia of the no-nonsense libraries’ non-Africana special collections. – and in a sense, reclaim – the past,” Alexander? Alexander’s papers, at “The collection includes not only says Renate Meyer, manager of the least, provide an answer, and an works Kipling wrote, but those that UCT Libraries’ Special Collections unexpectedly tender picture emerges. influenced him and how he worked and archives, which houses one of Her husband, Jack Simon, loved to … it gives a sense of how his breath the largest ensembles of Africana on brush her long hair. and hands moved in the world.” Trade unionist the continent. The leitmotifs of colonialism and and activist Ray Meyer is integrating all this Alexander’s hairbrushes. A nation reimagined The past tells us who we are apartheid linger. In the substantial material so that researchers will be today, and the extensive collections historical maps section, history is able to search these repositories for As a poet, Professor Kelwyn Sole has a “double vision”: part teacher of monographs, periodicals, shown imprinted on the land. connected digital, audio and visual and part writer, with a keen eye on post-liberation South Africa, with its ephemera, pamphlets, film, sound “Many show the social and racial material. recordings, maps, conference papers, divisions created through the roads newspapers and collectables housed “We want to get this material into new social and cultural energy and possibilities: fresh lenses for poets system. NY1, for example, was the public space where it can start to in Special Collections “talk back to Native Yard 1, and it’s still etched on make a difference in people’s lives.” to ‘re-imagine’ the country. He recently spoke with Helen Swingler our past and present”. the city’s maps today,” said Meyer. A sliver of wood from about the new generation of up-and-coming South African poets. “They tell us a whole lot about “You can call it Steve Biko Drive, but the tree under which what was happening in our social how do we live with the past in ways David Livingstone proposed to Mary measuring what was happening against what history,” adds Meyer. that are constructive?” On poetic re-imagining On poetic innovation On society and empathy Moffatt in 1824. they hoped would happen, and this has given Although Special Collections On the day we meet there’s an Many [maps] “Post-1990, poetry is gaining momentum. rise to a lot of critical perspectives. There’s a “There’s a new spirit afoot; many of the new “I’m increasingly convinced that being human house some rare Africana (there’s exhibition of art by Charles Davidson show the social People are trying to imagine the future and lot of criticism of politicians, a lot of punning; poets are playing with language, particularly implies being aware of other beings as well. a Dutch Bible from Antwerp dated Bell (1813-1882), surveyor-general in the past through poetry … On a general level, second-language speakers who start punning And it’s not only human; in the past 10 years and racial divisions they’re called ‘politishams’, who are involved in 1535), they’re also home to some the Cape, artist and heraldist. created through what you see post-1990 has been a discussion ‘politricks’. This is what interests me; there’s an and playing … Mbongeni Khumalo’s remark I’ve become a birdwatcher. You are also human quirky articles. The works are beautifully and acting out of the various roles that poetry to his audience that ‘Your minds are full of by being more aware of your environment, the roads system. oddly sharp edge to a lot of liberation poetry.” There’s the chip of wood from the rendered, but reflect the colonialist’s can play. There’s a strong belief among some fool-stops’ is a typical example. These poets more sensitive to what’s going on around you, perspective: “The document is NY1, for example, poets, like Mazisi Kunene and Wally Serote, that are also more formally experimental than in the on micro and macro levels. In my work I’ve tree under which David Livingstone On identity proposed to Mary Moffatt in historical, but racist in its view,” was Native Yard 1, poetry can be used as a tool of nation-building. apartheid years. Increasingly, in post-liberation got a strong sense of trying to make readers says Meyer. Therein lies a dilemma. “Quite strong among the younger poets is South Africa, it’s useful to see individual poets’ more critical, more aware, more self-aware. I 1824; a moonstone bracelet that and it’s still etched “After 1990, however, there have also been was said to belong to author Olive “How do we show these objects many poets critical of the new dispensation, an urge towards identity; they are looking for consciousness as a kind of matrix where various suppose that’s my utopian goal. I want readers without perpetuating ways of on the city’s maps influences are absorbed. There are poets who to have to work. I like strong reactions, even Schreiner; a collection of activist often the black poets of a younger generation. ways to find self-expression and their identity looking? How do we re-imagine in The microscope that have knowledge of local culture and poetic if they’re negative ones. The point is, poetry and trade unionist Ray Alexander’s today. You can call In an interview, Serote says that in South Africa through poetry. I’m noticing this particularly constructive ways? belonged to FG traditions, but who at the same time are looking is a place to start imagining; you don’t have to hairbrushes; a microscope which it Steve Biko Drive, after liberation there will be a gap between among slam poets and spoken-word poets. Pearcey, and which at the influences of other countries and other write a whole novel to do this. You can start at a belonged to FG Pearcey and which “We create frames every day, the ideal and the real world for a long time. There are others who talk of poetry as having but how do we he used when he forms; and these come together in new ways in smaller [scale]. Writing poetry is, I think, about he used when he accompanied and these are layered on historical So there’s this noticeable utopian – almost a healing function. Poet and publisher Rob accompanied Charles their poetry. ” struggling to become more human; more fully Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle; perspectives,” Meyer notes. live with the past apocalyptic – tendency in some poetry after Berold once remarked that poetry can act as Darwin on the voyage human, more tolerant, more interested in being and a black fountain pen with a gold Housed in the refurbished JW in ways that are liberation. Poets like Seitlhamo Motsapi, Lesego a means to bring the fragmented portions of of the Beagle. ourselves, and the fragmented portions of alive; that’s what I hope it can do.” top used by Queen Elizabeth (the Jagger Building, the collections constructive? Rampolokeng and Vonani Bila, and white poets late Queen Mum) to sign the visitors’ like Karen Press, came into the 1990s and started South Africa, together.” are made available to users in a book in Jagger Library in 1947. magnificent reading room. Renate Meyer 12 MONDAYHUMANITI MONTHLYES SUPPLEMENT

The art of honest conversation Story by Helen Swingler Photos courtesy of Fabian Saptouw

A group of third-year Michaelis School of Fine Art students have been experimenting with everyday objects, using them in public art interventions to open up spaces for what can sometimes be difficult conversations: around gender, sexual identity, and the choices we make.

When sculpture student Liesl Brenzel dressed the says Saptouw. “Our students are not standing UCT first rugby team in practice jerseys made of back from tackling social issues and messages. lace and felt, she was making a statement about And this is where art and education intersect.” perceptions of masculinity. After the practice Many of the artworks use everyday objects session, the team signed a jersey and Brenzel to convey their messages and create space for had it box framed, to replicate the traditional discussion. aesthetic of rugby memorabilia. “In that process of doing, and in discussion, This ‘public intervention’, titled Die Manne, is where the shift happens in the students’ was for a third-year new media elective, ‘Public understanding of these social issues and the Practice and Socially Responsive Art: Exploring artwork,” says Saptouw. masculinities and HIV/AIDS.’ According to the elective outline, there’s a dearth of knowledge Thinking and process are vital to the ways focused on the relationship between HIV, we look at the world; and as much as the art retroviral treatment and masculinity. Through is about meaning, it’s also about the process of this work, Brenzel wanted to investigate how making, acting and creating art, he explains. these men would be perceived if there was any “The process gets the students thinking The UCT first rugby team donned lace and felt practice jerseys for Liesl Brenzel’s change to the status quo. critically about how we understand the role project which challenged perceptions of masculinity. Her work was part of a of art. On a small scale these projects are third-year elective for new media students – a result of a partnership between To try to address this knowledge gap and encourage critical discussion and reflection, shifting people’s relationship to art as well. the Michaelis School of Fine Art and HAICU. • By placing rainbow cushions Creating an artwork in response to these social against more impervious structures in and around the campus and city, third-year Michaelis School of Fine Art elective lecturer Fabian Saptouw and his students have been issues gives students agency, and they become Michaelis student Julia Kabat invites passers-by to consider the vulnerability and active participants in the discussion instead of fragility of those who experience prejudice. • Made from hollow-cast wax, Julian working in partnership with UCT’s HIV/ passively absorbing information. They feel they Gasson and Raees Saaiet’s third-year installation One Hundred Hollow Men AIDS, Inclusivity and Change Unit (HAICU) are doing something.” refers to both the literal hollowness of the figures, and rigid masculine qualities since 2012, exploring the connection between sometimes favoured in society rather than inner strength. • HIV stigma was the contemporary constructions of masculinity and As the students’ public artworks open up focus of this first-year Michaelis student’s installation in the Molly Blackburn Hall. HIV through art production and intervention. issues around HIV/AIDS, students begin to With the aim of making people confront their own prejudices around HIV/AIDS- “Art is being used in public spaces in an talk to other students. related issues, students lounge against pillows made from condoms, taking the informal and interactive way, making it widely “And in speaking to their peers, the students ‘private’ – in this case a bedroom – into a public space. accessible, to engage people about HIV/AIDS,” become HAICU ambassadors,” notes Saptouw.

Expanding the humanities Study in the humanities doesn’t just expand understanding of society and culture – it can also bring new insight to other fields of study. Two good examples of this are the medical and environmental humanities.

As part of a new master’s level course and a heart recipient in conversation at UCT’s Environmental humanities course convenor public in the Southern African region. offered by the School of African and Gender heart transplant museum at Groote Schuur Lesley Green explains why such a degree is “Students will be able to bring issues of Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics (AXL), Hospital, the site of the historic first heart important: “At a time when crucial debates collective life and wellbeing into dialogue titled ‘Medicine and the Arts’, students in transplant in 1967.” about the management of the biosphere with contending versions of ‘nature’ and humanities and the health sciences can UCT will play host to a conference on and ecological resources are often trapped ‘environment’. It’s particularly exciting to explore the intersections of their disciplines. the medical humanities in August 2014, in a polemic between ‘development’ and see a new graduate course taking shape titled Medical anthropologist Dr Susan Levine – ‘the environment’, an initiative in the ‘Environmental Conflicts’, which Lance van with discussions of an MPhil in the medical who, alongside Health Sciences Professor environmental humanities at the University Sittert is convening, and which will have humanities currently under way. Steve Reid, is driving the medical humanities of Cape Town will offer a space in which to a different theme every year, starting with movement – explains: “Each seminar is Subject to Senate approval, UCT is also set to reimagine and reconfigure the terms of the fisheries in 2015. The aim will be to bring presented by an artist, a social scientist and a launch an MPhil specialising in the environmental conversation.” As part of this degree, studies current debates onto campus at a depth medical practitioner, in discussion with one humanities in 2015 – a collaboration that encompassing comparative literatures and that enables us to hear from many different another in what have been called ‘radical trios’. currently includes academics in science, creative arts, decolonial thought, debates on sectors and disciplines,” says Green. For example, the session titled ‘The Heart of engineering and the built environment, law, and development and land, and studies of science the Matter: A Matter of the Heart’, had Johan the humanities (with ‘budding conversations’ in and democracy will be drawn on in a larger Brink (heart surgeon), Peter Anderson (poet) commerce and health sciences as well.) dialogue on the making of an environmental