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31 July 2020 | Story Lacea Loader
Moderator and Panellists

As a public higher-education institution in South Africa with a responsibility to contribute to public discourse, the University of the Free State (UFS) will be presenting the 3rd UFS Thought-Leader Series in collaboration with Vrye Weekblad as part of the Vrystaat Literature Festival’s online initiative, VrySpraak-digitaal.

This year, higher-education institutions globally are placed in the challenging context of COVID-19. Aware and grounded in the reality that the world will not return to the normality of pre-COVID-19, our responsibility as scholars still remains to contribute to public discourse and to offer innovative solutions that will impact the lives of people nationally and globally in order to help them understand and adapt to a new world order.

Against this background and context, this year’s debates focus on ‘Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis’, with Health and Modelling, Politics, Economy, and Predictions for 2021 as the sub-themes. Placed in a COVID-19 context, and in lieu of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, the series will be presented virtually in the form of one webinar per month during the period August 2020 to November 2020.

Date: 13 August 2020
Topic: Health and Modelling
Time: 11:30-13:00
RSVP: Alicia Pienaar, pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za

Facilitator:

Max du Preez
Editor: Vrye Weekblad
Biography

Introduction and welcome:

Prof Francis Petersen
Rector and Vice-Chancellor, UFS

Panellists:

Prof Salim Abdool Karim
Director: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
Chair: South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19
Biography

Prof Glenda Gray
President and CEO: South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC)
Biography

Prof Felicity Burt
NRF-DST South African Research Chair in vector-borne and zoonotic pathogens research
Biography

 

 

News Archive

Panel to discuss: 'Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative' on Monday 27 July 2015
2015-07-24

The massacre of 34 mine workers at Marikana on 16 August 2012 had South Africans in uproar. But what remained, after the razor wire was rolled up and the camera crews left, were 34 widows engulfed in silent despair. That was until the Khulumani Support Group introduced them to the transformative power of art and storytelling. In the last installment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for this year, a panel of speakers will discuss these widows’ journey with the theme of ‘Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative’.

Panel

The panel will consist of members from the Khulumani Support Group that include Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director), Nomarussia Bonase (National Organiser), and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist). Nomfundo Walaza, who is the former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, will be the respondent.

Details of the event:
Date: Monday 27 July 2015
Time: 12:00
Venue: Chancellor's Room, Centenary Complex, Bloemfontein Campus
RSVP: Nomusa Mthethwa at Nomusam@ufs.ac.za (Members of the public are welcome to attend.)

Body maps
An art exhibition consisting of body maps created by the widows will also be on display. These paintings quietly portray the turmoil of their inner landscapes, their perceptions of the massacre, and the impact these events had on their lives.



Collaboration
The lecture series is hosted by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), as part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This installment of the lecture series is presented in collaboration with the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice.


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