The Centre for Africa Studies (CAS) is charged with institutional responsibility beyond the offering of academic programmes and the execution of research. Part of its institutional function is to concretely realise knowledge exchange and cooperation with academic institutions with the same focus in Africa and elsewhere.

Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s office – Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies collaborating with CAS:

• 21 November 2013 Dr Kedibone Letlaka-Rennert, International Monetary Fund, Why Women Leadership?
• 17 October 2013 Inaugural Annual Intercontinental Leah Tutu Symposium - Nomboniso Gasa, Bodies as Battlefields: Sexual and gender-based violence in South Africa.
• 25 July 2013 Dr Sabine Hirschauer, Post-doctoral Fellow affiliated with Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at UFS, Rape and the State: Sexual violence and its political narrative and othering in 21st century South Africa.

Department of English speakers’ series with CAS:

• 10 February 2014 Dr Vanessa Farr, Entrenching male privilege: Post-conflict ‘development strategies’ and the reifying of patriarchal paradigms.

Africa Day celebration, 20-22 May 2015 (See programme): Contemporary modes of othering interdisciplinary project in collaboration with:

• Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies
• Odeion School of Music
• Department of Fine Arts
• Department of Drama and Theatre Arts
• Department of Afrikaans, Dutch, German and French
• Department of English
• Department of Political and Conflict Studies (NMMU)
• University of Johannesburg Art Gallery
• Johannes Stemann Art Gallery (UFS)
• Oliewenhuis Art Museum
• William Humphreys Art Gallery

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies is affiliated with or has collaborated with the following international institutes/organisations:

• Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon
• Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies AEGIS
• The African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific AFSAAP
• JEFCAS (John and Elnora Ferguson Centre for African Studies), University of Bradford
• Peace Studies Division, School of Social and International Studies, University of Bradford
• African Studies Centre Leiden, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
• International Development Department, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), Bayreuth, Germany

The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies is intent on fostering continental networks and collaboration. Network and research trips have been undertaken to the following countries:

Botswana

• In July 2015, Dr Stephanie Cawood spent two weeks in the Okavango Panhandle with colleagues from the Department of Zoology and Entomology specialising in Aquatic Ecology and Parasitology from the UFS to supervise a doctoral student.

Ghana

• In June 2013, Prof. Hudson travelled to the Institute for African Studies and the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Centre, Legon.
• In Oct 2013, Prof Heidi Hudson, Dr Stephanie Cawood and Ms Kamo Dipico attended the African Studies Conference hosted by the Institute for African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon Campus (Accra, Ghana) themed ‘Revisiting the First International Congress of Africanists in a Globalised World’ (It is the 50th Anniversary of the First International Congress of Africanists in a globalised world).
• Prof. Hudson was invited as lecturer and mentor a the African Peacebuilding Network Grantees methods workshop from 20-22 June 2017 in Accra.

Kenya

• In preparation of the establishment of the Centre for Africa Studies, Prof Philip Nel and Stephanie Cawood travelled to Kenya and Uganda to make further contact with other African institutions in October 2006. They visited Prof Isaac Nyamongo at the Institute of African Studies at Nairobi University, where they also met the Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Isaac Mbeche.
• Prof. Heidi Hudson visited Nairobi in May 2012 to present a seminar at the International Workshop on the Establishment of a Pan-African Think Tank on Gender, Peace and Security, hosted by the Institute for Security Studies, African Leadership Centre and Fahamu, Nairobi.

Lesotho

• In August 2010, the SANPAD project research team under the leadership of Prof. Philip Nel and Professors Wouter van Beek and Paul Post from the Netherlands visited sacred caves in the Eastern Free State and Lesotho.

Mozambique

• From 2018, Dr Nadine Lake, is visiting Mozambique on a regular basis as part of a five-year project on developing competencies in higher education related to gender mainstreaming between Dr Lake and research partners at the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), Mozambique. Her research partners include Uppsala University (UU) with project funding by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

Senegal

• Prof. Heidi Hudson was part of a delegation from the University of the Free State that visited institutions in Senegal, i.e. CODESRIA and the Leopold Sédar Senghor University in Dakar in April 2014. The delegation also made a pilgrimage to Gorèe Island.

Uganda

• In 2006, Prof. Philip Nel and Stephanie Cawood visited the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences at Makerere University in Kampala, and were hosted by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr Hannington Sengendo. Dr Stephanie Cawood.
• From 2018, Dr Stephanie Cawood made multiple visits to Uganda with her research partner, Dr Jonathan Fisher (University of Birmingham), including the capital, Kampala, and major towns further afield, such as Mbarara in the south, as part of the Newton Advanced Fellowship (British Academy).