Department
Management (Top Management)
Department Top Management
Jared McDonald is originally from Johannesburg and he is an alumnus of the Rand Afrikaans University (BA Journalism), University of Johannesburg (BA Honours History), University of Cape Town (MA History) and SOAS, University of London (PhD History). McDonald is a senior lecturer in the Department of History, and the Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State`s Qwaqwa Campus. He is currently on secondment as Chief of Staff in the office of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal.
He has a growing publication record on key themes related to his primary research interests. These include Khoesan loyalism, indigenous responses to British colonialism in southern Africa, and the work of the London Missionary Society in the region. His other, current research interests include Khoesan ‘childhood’, comparative histories of children as victims of genocide, nineteenth century explorers and exploration, and pedagogical approaches to the discipline of History. He has published research on these themes in the Journal of Genocide Research, the South African Historical Journal, New Contree, Historia, Yesterday & Today, and others. His first monograph, Khoesan and Imperial Citizenship in Nineteenth Century South Africa, was published by Routledge in 2023.
McDonald previously served as Editor-in-Chief for Historia, the journal of the Historical Association of South Africa in 2017 and 2018, having formerly been the Review Editor from 2014 to 2017. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa.
McDonald is also a project scholar for Livingstone Online. The long-term goal of Livingstone Online is to digitise David Livingstone’s surviving letters and journals and make them freely available online. From 2013 to 2018, as part of this larger, global initiative, McDonald was co-leader on a venture called “Livingstone’s Manuscripts in South Africa”. Through this project, Livingstone Online gained its first opportunity to publish Livingstone original materials from Africa. He is also currently a project scholar and the lead contact for southern Africa research for the digital humanities project, One More Voice, based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the USA. One More Voice aims to uncover hidden voices in the British imperial archive, as well as to bring to light the written legacies of those African attendants and guides who were crucial to European exploration in Africa in the nineteenth century.
Apart from his administrative duties, research and lecturing, McDonald enjoys hiking and running, and he is a wildlife enthusiast.
"Andries Hatha: Dreams and Disillusions of an Imperial Citizen in the Nineteenth Century Cape Colony", Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, Vol. 77 (1), 2023, pp. 11-26.
"Debating San Provenance and Disappearance: Frontier Violence and the Assimilationist Impulse of Humanitarian Imperialism", Historia, Vol. 67 (1), 2022, pp. 2-27.
"Jane`s Journey: Mrs Philip in the Cape Interior", Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa, Vol. 75 (2), 2021, pp. 169-184.
“The Bible makes all nations one`: Biblical Literacy and Khoesan National Renewal in the Cape Colony”, in Atkins, G., Das, S. & Murray, B. (eds.) Chosen Peoples: The Bible, Race and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2020);
"We do not know who painted our pictures`: Child Transfers and Cultural Genocide in the Destruction of Cape San Societies along the Cape Colony`s North-eastern Frontier, c.1770-1830", Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 18 (4), 2016, pp. 519-538;
"Inclusive Histories for Inclusive Futures: Interactions and Entanglements Then and Now", Yesterday & Today, Vol. 15, July 2016, pp. 66-83;
"Loyalism in the Cape Colony: Exploring the Khoesan Subject-Citizen Space, c.1828-1834", New Contree, Vol. 73, November 2015, pp. 106-132;
"Like a Wild Beast, He Can be Got for the Catching`: Child Forced Labour and the `Taming` of the San along the Cape`s North-eastern Frontier, c.1806-1830", in Adhikari, M. (ed.) Genocide on Settler Frontiers: When Hunter-Gatherers and Commercial Stock Farmers Clash (Cape Town, UCT Press, 2014);
"Southern Africa at the Time of Livingstone", in Rayner, S. (ed.) The Life and Afterlife of David Livingstone: Exploring Missionary Archives (SOAS, London, 2014);
"Making History Familiar: The Past in Service of Self-Awareness and Critical Citizenship", with Jenni Underhill, Yesterday & Today, Vol. 11, July 2014, pp. 54-71;
"Collaborative Tutor Development: Enabling a Transformative Paradigm in a South African University", with Jenni Underhill, Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Vol. 18 (2), 2010, pp. 91-106;
"James Read: Towards a New Reassessment", South African Historical Journal, Vol. 62 (3), 2010, pp. 514-533;
"Encounters at Bushman Station: Reflections on the Fate of the San of the Transgariep Frontier, 1828-1833", South African Historical Journal, Vol. 61 (2), 2009, pp. 372-388.
Publications (Short List)
- Evangelical mission in southern Africa
- Settler colonialism and genocide
- Nineteenth century explorers and exploration
- Pedagogical innovations in the discipline of History
HIST1514 - Introduction to the Twentieth Century History of South Africa and Africa
HIST1624 - Twentieth Century World History
HIST2614 - The Rise of Nationalism in South Africa and Africa
HIST2624 - Twentieth Century Global Conflicts
HIST3718 - En route to the New South Africa
HIST3728 - Oral History