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iCAN Vol 2 strengthens CTL’s bid to decolonise

28 November 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Dr Peet van Aardt

iCAN read more — The book was launched during the Student Arts and Life Dialogues Festival on the Bloemfontein Campus in October.

In its continued bid to decolonise the academic curriculum at the University of the Free State (UFS) the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) published the second volume of Creative African Narratives (iCAN) short stories written by UFS students.

iCAN Volume 2 comes after extensive creative writing workshops were presented on all three campuses during the year. The project is coordinated by Dr Peet van Aardt from CTL and is funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Through the iCAN project, CTL plans to incorporate the students’ written texts as part of the extensive reading component of the first-year academic literacy courses across all faculties. “We are teaching and motivating our students to read, but we cannot keep relying on a curriculum that is foreign to them,” said Dr Van Aardt.

The volume comprises 55 short stories with topics ranging from the Struggle, to campus life, mental illness, family affairs and love, with the students’ lived experiences also a main theme throughout the anthology. The stories are written in Sepedi, isiZulu, Setswana, English, Afrikaans and Sesotho. Some were also performed at the recent Multilingual Mokete, held on the Bloemfontein campus in September.

“We are really proud of this year’s publication, and the project as a whole,” says Dr Van Aardt. “This year we were able to include more student contributions than last year.”

News Archive

Champion of human rights – Prof Martha Minow – to present the Third Annual Reconciliation Lecture

2014-02-14

Prof Martha Minow
"Forgiveness, Law and Justice"
Photo: Supplied

Prof Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard University’s Law School, will be delivering the highly-anticipated Third Annual Reconciliation Lecture on Monday 24 February 2014. Her lecture entitled “Forgiveness, Law and Justice” promises to evoke healthy debate and honest introspection.

In an interview, Pres Barack Obama has been quoted to say that, as a teacher at Harvard Law School, Martha Minow changed his life. He cited her as being instrumental in his decision to pursue community service instead of commercial law.

Prof Minow – a sheer force of nature – has established herself globally as an advocate of human rights and protector of minorities. The effects of her work are rippling across continents. Her passion for the law has resulted in legislative initiatives that opened access to curricular materials for individuals with disabilities in the United States. She serves as Vice-Chair for an organisation providing assistance to low-income Americans. In addition, Prof Minow has also helped launch a programme called Imagine Co-existence for the UNHigh Commissioner for Refugees. The aim of the programme is to promote peaceful development in post-conflict societies.

The Annual Reconciliation Lecture is organised from the office of Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. This yearly event was established by Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS. The main objective is to bring scholars to our university whose leadership and vision for social change and conflict transformation is reflected in their interaction within the academe and their teaching. This initiative supports the university’s drive to achieving excellence not only in the field of academics, but in human reconciliation as well.

The details of the event:
Date: Monday 24 February 2014
Time: 17:30 (please be seated by 17:15)
Venue: Centenary Complex, Reitz Hall, BloemfonteinCampus

The public is welcome to attend.
If you would like to attend the lecture, please confirm with Jo-Anne Naidoo at NaidooJA@ufs.ac.za

The lecture will be streamed live on:http://www.ufs.ac.za/ufslivestreaming/

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