In a remarkable achievement, Professor Siphokazi Magadla from the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University, has been awarded the inaugural Helen Milner Award. This accolade was presented by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) on 31 January 2024 at its Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (NextGen) and African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Writing and Dissemination Workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and marks a significant recognition of Professor Magadla's dedication and contribution to the field of peace, security, and development in Africa.

While most students are looking forward to winding down the academic year, Dagan Naeser is preparing to begin a new journey with the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary.

The Annual Rhodes University Postgraduate Conference enthusiastically kicked off on 8 September 2023. This two-day event, themed "Shaking the Table," brought together diverse students and academics from across all faculties at Rhodes University and beyond to exchange knowledge, engage in meaningful discourse, and present their cutting-edge research projects.

The Rhodes University Political and International Studies Department successfully hosted its annual Teach-In lecture series, a significant event on the academic calendar since 2002. This year's series, "Energy is the Life-blood of Development: Perspectives on the South African Energy Crisis", took place over lunch and spanned an hour, inviting students and the wider Rhodes community to participate actively.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela was celebrated through knowledge-sharing at the Barrat lecture theatre at Rhodes University on 18 July 2023.

Wine was first produced in South Africa as far back as the mid-1600s by Dutch colonisers who sold it to passing ships. The industry developed further during the colonial and apartheid eras and wine became an important part of the South African economy.

Supervised by Associate Professor Eduard Jordaan, Gemma-Mae Hartley recently graduated with a Master of Arts degree at the October graduation ceremonies. Her tertiary journey began with uncertainty and after changing her degree multiple times, Hartley eventually found her calling in Political and International Studies.

On 15 September, the Rhodes University Political & International Studies Department, in conjunction with Nelson Mandela University's Centre for Women & Gender Studies, the Political Sciences Department of the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town's Historical and Political Studies Department, hosted a forum titled "Women & 20 Years of the African Union".

One of the sources of social discontent in post-apartheid South Africa is the legacy of white racism. This toxic legacy is evident in racialised poverty and inequality.

Last week, Rhodes University hosted a two-day colloquium on Language Policy Framework for Public Institutions of Higher Education. Various academics from different departments and external speakers converged at the Amazwi South African museum of Literature. According

A vibrant and diverse group of professors, linguistic experts, students, and other members of the Rhodes University community converged on Friday at the Amazwi South African Museum of Literature.

Rhodes University’s Department of Political and International Studies hosted its Teach-in seminars at the Barratt Lecture theatre this week.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has dominated the news and is having global ramifications. This week’s Politics Teach-In, hosted by the Department of Politics and International Relations at Rhodes University, focuses on the ins and outs of this war. The seminar series began with insights from Associate Professor Martha Bradley from the Department of Public Law at the University of Pretoria. She looked at how Vladimir Putin has justified the invasion and how this holds up against international law.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict has not only devasted many parts of Ukraine but is also having ripple effects throughout the world. The challenges it presents to Africa are particular to its vulnerabilities. At an event hosted by the Internationalisation Office, the Law Faculty, and the Africa Centre, academics from Rhodes University discussed how the war would affect the African continent.

This year’s graduation was bursting with accolades and festivities as Rhodes University held sit-down ceremonies on campus for the first time in two years. Among the honours was the conferral of the Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award to Political and International Studies Lecturer, Dr Bongani Nyoka.

The Rhodes University community is saddened by the passing of Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza, who died yesterday afternoon at the age of 83. A few months ago, the University Senate and Council voted to confer the degree of Doctor of Literature (D Litt) (honoris causa) on Ambassador Mabuza at the April 2022 graduation ceremonies.

Claire McCann, a Rhodes University Community Engagement student leader and joint Honours in Economics and Politics student, has been granted a Southern African Rhodes Scholarship to complete her Masters degree at the University of Oxford in England.

Botlhale Phurulla Modisaotsile has been elected as the Rhodes University Student Representative Council (SRC) President for 2022.

Rhodes University’s student body has entrusted 22-year-old Botlhale Phurulla Modisaotsile as the Student Representative Council (SRC) President for 2022.

The 10th of August marked the second day of the virtual Women and the Armed Struggle Colloquium presented by the Political and International Studies Department at Rhodes University, in partnership with the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University and the Historical Studies Department at the University of Cape Town.

On the morning of 10 August, the multifaceted storyteller, poet, nurse, and uMkhonto we Sizwe veteran, Makhosazana Xaba, orated a moving keynote address.

Women's Day in South Africa marks the anniversary of the great women's march of 1956, where strong, confident, resilient and powerful women gathered at the Union buildings to protest against the carrying of passbooks.

In a two-day virtual colloquium, the Rhodes University Political and International Studies Department collaborated with Nelson Mandela University Centre for Women and Gender Studies and the University of Cape Town's Historical Studies Department to bring together the voices and stories of women who participated in the armed struggle in South Africa.

When Dr Desire Chiwandire first joined Rhodes University in 2009, he had a dream of one day completing his PhD at the university and in 2021 his dream was realised.

With a global pandemic in our midst, universities all over the world have been forced to find new and creative ways to celebrate the students’ graduation day, robbing them of the normal ways of celebration. However, this is not the worst that the pandemic has done to students, as some are forced to celebrate graduation without parents, who were lost due to COVID-19.

The story of democratic South Africa and its approach to human rights in the rest of the world is a tale of woe. For two-and-a-half decades, its foreign policy mostly failed to defend internationally – and quite often contradicted – the human rights principles contained in its constitution.

In an unprecedented follow-up, Rhodes University Student Representative Council (SRC) was this year dominated by women yet again. In the 110th SRC Council election ceremony, which took place on Friday, October 09, 2020, 14 out of 16 SRC Councillors are women.

In order to confront the crisis, the language used has rightly been one of war against an enemy for which the resources of the whole country must be mobilised.

On Thursday, 20 February, students and academics of Rhodes University attended the Vice-Chancellor’s 2018 Teaching Award Lecture by Dr Siphokazi Magadla, titled “Tragicomic hope, nokuzinza as black matriarchal inheritance”.

Rhodes University alumnus, Wamkele Mene, was last week installed as the secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a first for the continent.

Our 2019 Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor was Professor Adam Ashforth, who is Professor of Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan in the USA. He spent a month with our students teaching the course ‘Rhodes Curse: the Formation of the South African State’. While he was here, he also presented a public lecture entitled ‘In Defence of Witch Trials: The Quest for Justice and Security in a World with Witches’.

The Political and International Studies department invites you to our annual Teach-In that will run from 15 –18 July 2019, at 1pm each day in the Barratt 2 Lecture Theatre. Our theme this year is "The Opposition in Crisis?" The recent national elections have shown uneven growth in opposition parties, with the main opposition party declining in support while other smaller opposition parties have grown. The various speakers will help us understand what accounts for these different growth patterns and what this means for the momentum of the political party in power. Our aim is to provide a historical and contemporary understanding of opposition politics in democratic South Africa.

Professor ‘Alex’ Amtaika was a prodigious scholar and thinker on democracy and liberty who lived his life in the pursuit of academic excellence and a commitment to social equity and civic responsibility.

Barry Gilder’s latest book got the Rhodes University community and guests riled up during the first public dialogue for 2019 for the Department of Political & International Studies and Office of Equity & Institutional Culture series.

Gcotyelwa Jimlongo received the 'Best Honours Essay' and Ricky Koen received the'Best Undergraduate Essay' award at the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) conference.

Rhodes University Political and International Studies Senior Lecturer, Dr Siphokazi Magadla, has recently been elected by President Cyril Ramaphosa to form part of a high-level review panel into the work of the State Security Agency (SSA).

Dr Siphokazi Magadla, Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at Rhodes University, knows what it means to be a strong African woman, as her recent appointment by President Cyril Ramaphosa to serve on the Presidential Independent High-Level Review Panel on Intelligence illustrates.

The 2018 DCS Oosthuizen Memorial Lecture took place at Rhodes University’s Eden Grove Blue Lecture Theatre on Friday, the 28th of September 2018.

Gcotyelwa Jimlongo received the 'Best Honours Essay' and Ricky Koen received the'Best Undergraduate Essay' award at the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) conference.