The WISER Podcast

Part 2 of our mini-series on Unsettlement explores the predicament of those who are stranded in states of indefinite displacement, deferred arrival and recurrent departure around the world today. It has emerged from a collaboration between The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, Africana Studies at Barnard College in New York and WISER. In this episode, we hear four further interve...

Today we launch our 2021 Season of The WISER Podcast. This year, from March to September, we will run concept-based podcasts, each in two parts over two weeks. Our first edition of The WISER Podcast features the theme of Unsettlement, and we approach our topic from 8 different angles.   The topic is born of a collaboration between The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, Africana St...

Charne Lavery discusses how theory from the south can be taken further south, towards the currents and creatures of the Southern Ocean. Charne Lavery is a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Pretoria and a Research Fellow in the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project ( www.oceanichumanities.com ) based at WISER. Her work explores literary and cultural representation...

Keith Breckenridge discusses Biometric Capitalism and African economics in the 21st Century. The WISER Podcast is also available on  Apple Podcasts  or  Spotify . Keith Breckenridge is a Professor of History, and Deputy Director of WISER. For more WISER research, visit: https://wiser.wits.ac.za/publications    

Using Covid-19 as a point of departure, Sarah Nuttall explores the “redistributed university”. She considers new and older challenges that have contributed to redefining institutions of higher learning. As the university constantly reconfigures itself in response to multiple pressures and struggles, including economic pressures, struggles for social justice and rapid technological change, she asks...

In Episode 4 of Season 2 of The WISER Podcast, Shireen Hassim and Sisonke Msimang discuss the life, politics and legacy of Winnie Mandela. Shireen Hassim is Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics and Visiting Professor at WiSER. She has published three articles on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: “A Life of Refusal: Winnie Madikizela Mandela and violence in South Africa (Storia della D...

Sisonke Msimang discusses the life, politics and legacy of Winnie Mandela. Sisonke Msimang is the author of  Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home (2017) and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela (2018) and is a Writing Fellow at WISER.

Sakiru Adebayo examines the multiple melancholies associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Sakiru Adebayo is a sessional lecturer in the Department of African Literature and Postdoctoral Fellow at WiSER, the University of the Witwatersrand.   

Terry Kurgan discusses two photographs, each found in her father’s possession, and both taken on the edge of graves, one in Ein al-Beida, Palestine and the other in a forest just outside the town of Panevėžys in Lithuania. She considers the two photographs as entry points to a new book she has just begun that will traverse perhaps the darkest period of mid-twentieth century European and Middle Eas...

Johannes Machinya discusses the everyday experience of living with potential or imminent arrest and deportation for undocumented migrants in South Africa. Johannes Machinya is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow co-hosted by WISER and the African Studies Center (ASC) at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on migration, labour and politics, migration control and the temporalities associated w...

Melanie Boehi discusses botanical gardens and public parks in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic with Luciano Concheiro San Vicente and Phakamani m’Afrika Xaba. Melanie Boehi is a Visiting Researcher at WISER and a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Postdoctoral Fellow. She is currently finalising a book about the history of the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town and doing re...

In the latest episode of The WISER Podcast, Makhosazana Xaba discusses the life and work of Noni Jabavu, memoirist, reader, radio broadcaster and columnist.   Makhosazana Xaba has published three poetry collections, compiled and edited five anthologies and is the 2014 co-winner of the SALA Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award for her collection, Running and other stories. She has twice been a Writer...

In the latest episode of The WISER Podcast, Ruth Sacks discusses post-independence sites in Kinshasa, focusing especially on L’Échangeur [the Exchange] in Limete as a means of understanding processes of disrepair and reconstruction in the city today. Ruth Sacks is a South African visual artist and academic based in Johannesburg who completed her PhD at WiSER and currently holds a Postdoc at the SA...

Confidence Joseph, Ryan Poinasamy, Meghan Judge and Mapule Mohulatsi go below the water line as they describe new avenues for research in the environmental humanities and critical ocean studies. Confidence Joseph is an African Literature doctoral candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mapule Mohulatsi is a reader and writer from Johannesburg. She is completing a PhD in African Literatur...

Pamila Gupta and Drew Thompson discuss the visual archive of Ricardo Rangel, whose photography documents the last days of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique. Pamila Gupta is a Professor of historical anthropology at WiSER. Her latest book is Portuguese Decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: History and Ethnography (2019). Drew Thompson is Assistant Professor of Historical and Africana Studi...

Hlonipha Mokoena examines links between masculinity, dress and "war work" in colonial South Africa. Hlonipha Mokoena received her Ph. D. from the University of Cape Town in 2005. She is currently an associate professor at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is the author of Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectua...

Nolwazi Mkhwanazi explores her work on Childbirth, Natality and 'Young Families'. Nolwazi Mkhwanazi an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology at WISER. She leads the Institute’s programme in Medical Humanities. She is the co-editor of “Young Families: Gender: sexuality and care”, and of “Connected Lives: Families, Households, health and care in contemporary South Africa”.

Tinashe Mushakavanhu speaks about a forgotten archive of letters written after Dambudzo Marechera's death, and his attempt to run a writing surgery for young war returnees from Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.  Dr. Tinashe Mushakavanhu is currently a postdoctoral fellow at WiSER. He holds a PhD in English from the University of Kent. His forthcoming book is, Reincarnating Marechera: Notes on a Spec...

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Achille Mbembe and Dilip Menon discuss the newly published book Capitalisms a Global History, co-edited by Menon and Dr Kaveh Yazdani and published by Oxford University Press. Professor Achille Mbembe is a world-renowned theorist, public intellectual and Professor of History and Politics at WISER. Professor Dilip Menon is Mellon Chair in Indian Studies and...

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, Achille Mbembe and Dilip Menon discuss the newly published book Capitalisms a Global History, co-edited by Menon and Dr Kaveh Yazdani and published by Oxford University Press. In this section, Mbembe and Menon explore technology, COVID-19, and capitalisms in Africa. Professor Achille Mbembe is a world-renowned theorist, public intellectual and Professor of...

Professor Richard Rottenburg discusses the cohabitation of people and pathogens in an increasingly digitised world. Richard Rottenburg is an Anthropologist of Science and Technology and Professor at WISER. His many-acclaimed works include Far Fetched Facts and The World of Indicators. Visit  https://wiser.wits.ac.za  

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh examines the politics of nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, a region of the world not usually associated with the geopolitics of nuclear disarmament. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a Postdoctoral Fellow at WISER. He recently completed a DPhil in International Relations at Oxford. His first book, Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics (2017), won the City-Press Tafelbe...

In this episode two WISER Fellows, Dr Mpho Matsipa and Bronwyn Kotzen, explore similarities in their work relating to space, race, and the politics of cement. Mpho Matsipa joined WiSER in April 2019. She completed her PhD in Environmental Design in Developing Countries at the University of California, Berkeley. Mpho is currently the curator of the African Mobilities Project. Mpho divides her time...

Professor Sarah Nuttall, Director of WISER, introduces The WISER Podcast.

Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor of African Literature at Wits and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. Her latest book, forthcoming from Duke University Press, is Hydrocolonialism: Coast, Custom House and Dock-side reading. In this episode, she discusses the work with Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, a post-doctoral fellow at WISER.