The Arts of Africa and Global Souths research team organises various workshops and symposia on select research topics, research methodologies and research design.

Recent workshops and symposia include:

          * Arts of Africa and Global Souths Writing Workshop and Retreat (May 2017)

          * Research Management Workshop with Dr. Clifford-Holmes (December 2016)

          * SARChI Postgraduate Research Workshop (June 2016)

          * Blind Spots and Ways of Not Seeing Symposium (October 2014)

          * Blind Spot Workshop (February 2014) 

Arts of Africa and Global Souths Writing Workshop and Retreat (May 2017)

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From 7 to 12 May, 2017 the Arts of Africa and Global Souths research team attended a Writing Workshop and Writing Retreat at Assegaai Trails in the Eastern Cape. On the first day, Professor Sioux McKenna, Director of Postgraduate Studies and CHERTL Higher Education Studies PhD Coordinator at Rhodes University, led a workshop on writing practices and publishing. For the rest of the writing breakaway, postgraduates worked on their theses. Visiting artist, Thania Petersen, made progress on a presentation for an upcoming conference in Ghana on the role of working in her artistic practice, and others worked on forthcoming publications. Postdoctoral Fellows, Eyitayo Ijisakin and Rachel Baasch, wrote about printmaking practices in Nigeria and contemporary art in the Occupied Palestinian Territories respectively. Lecturer Mbali Khoza developed ideas about language, translation and appropriation in relation to her own Fine Art practice, and Ruth Simbao wrote about failure, faux pas and disobedience in site-situational performances in Grahamstown. 

Photo: Thando mama, Jean-Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi, Songezile Madikida, Stary Mwaba, Eyitayo Ijisakin, Andrew Mulenga, Shirley Kabwato (back left to right) Mbali Khoza, Nomvuyo Horwitz, Thania Petersen, Ruth Simbao, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Amy von Witt, Courtney Scott, Gladys Kalichini, Rachel Baasch (middle left to right) Nontobeko Ntombela, Sioux McKenna, Natasha Bezuidenhout, Nqaba Siphunzi, Tebogo Matshana (front left to right). Photo by Khuthala Nandipha. 

Research Management Workshop with Dr. Clifford-Holmes (December 2016)

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Photo: Jai Clifford Holmes, Ruth Simbao, Eben Lochner, Rachel Baasch, Masimba Hwati, Nomvuyo Horwitz, Gladys Kalichini, Philiswa Lila, Thando Mama (back left to right) Chemu Ng’ok, Songezile Madikida, Andrew Mulenga, Courtney Scott, Natasha Bezuidenhout (front left to right).

Dr. Jai Kumar Clifford-Holmes, Research Associate at Rhodes University, ran a postgraduate workshop on “Project Managing, Writing and Publishing Processes” at the Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery and Guesthouse in Grahamstown from 1 to 4 December 2016.

SARChI Postgraduate Research Workshop (June 2016)

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Photo: Jean-Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi, Andrew Mulenga, Paul Cooper, Eben Lochner, Nancy Dantas, Tinika Nuen, Charmaine Mostert (back left to right)  Philiswa Lila, Gladys Kalichini, Natasha Bezuidenhout, Ivy Brandie Chemutai Ng’ok, Nkule Mabaso, Ruth Simbao, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Rachel Baasch, Buhle Siwendu, Courtney Scott, Thando Mama, Churchill Madikida (front left to right). Photo by Sarah Wilken. 

The SARChI programme in Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa held its first research workshop at the Continuing Education Centre at Rhodes University from 16to 19June, 2016. The workshop was opened by the Deputy Dean of Humanities, Prof Enocent Msindo, on Youth Day, and the following day the DVC of Research and Development, Dr Peter Clayton, discussed issues of publishing and the value of knowledge production. Postgraduates presented various aspects of their work including research proposals, thesis outlines, thesis chapters, fieldwork reports, methodologies and studio practice. 

Blind Spots and Ways of Not Seeing Symposium (October 2014)

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Photo (Left): Mbali Khoza, Photo (right): Igshaan Adams and Jennifer Ball 

In 2014 Professor Simbao organised the symposium Blind Spots and Ways of Not Seeing, which was linked to the Residencies for Artists and Writers—Eastern Cape (RAW—EC) programme. Blind Spots and Ways of Not Seeing was a two-day symposium that linked artists to writers, and writers to writing mentors who supported the process of preparing for publication. Simbao opened the symposium with the paper “Blanks, Failure and Ways of Not Seeing” and other presenters included Prof Dominic Thorburn, Dr. Alex Dodd, Ivy Kulundu-Gotz, Tanya Pool, Prof Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, Kemang wa Lehulere, Mbali Khoza, Rachel Baasch, Chemu Ng’ok, Prof Raimi Gbadamosi, Dr Phindi Mnyaka, Prof Michael Godby, David Glover, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, Joseph Coetzee, Chiro Nott, Churchill Madikida, Mpho Matheolane, Rat Western, Zamansele Nsele and Nontobeko Ntombela.

Photo: Ruth Simbao, Mbali Khoza and Ivy Kulundu-Gotz

The symposium was also linked to the two-person exhibition, SLIP: Igshaan Adams and Mbali Khoza, which opened at the Albany History Museum. The exhibition dealt with various forms of slippages that occur in relation to ways that we ‘know’ through our senses. For this exhibition Khoza produced two series of monotype blind drawings titled, The tongue and the other other tongues and Creating in a tongue. Underlying her work is the impossibility of translation - the excess, the unspeakable and the slip of the tongue.  The fabric works that Adams exhibited in SLIP drew from forced correlations between what we see and who we supposedly are in the process of interpreting the Rorschach inkblot tests.

The symposium resulted in a collection of papers that was edited by Ruth Simbao and was published in Image & Text. 

It included articles by two postgraduate students from Rhodes University, Rachel Baasch and Jennifer Ball.

For the Blind spots and ways of not seeing booklet click here. 

Blind Spot workshop (February 2014)

The workshop, Blind Spot, was held in Grahamstown from 4 to 6 February 2014. The two artists who were in residence in 2014, Mbali Khoza and Igshaan Adams, were present, as well as six other participants, Mohau Modisakeng, Gabrielle Goliath, Ivy Kulundu-Gotz, Simone Heymans, Joseph Coetzee and Chiro Nott. Participants presented their work, visited the South African Library for the Blind, and went on site visits to find suitable venues in Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival performance art programme, Blind Spot, curated by Ruth Simbao. The 2014 National Arts Festival performances that formed the Blind Spot programme were Barongwa, Everse, Bismillah, and What difference does it make who is speaking?. 

Last Modified: Fri, 09 Mar 2018 11:28:12 SAST