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10 September 2020 | Story Eugene Seegers | Photo Sonia du Toit (Kaleidoscope Studio)
Dr Marinkie Madiope in official UFS gown
Dr Maria Madiope

Everywhere you look, our colleagues at the UFS are stepping up and stepping into the new digital space. With the move to virtual events, staff members at the university are able to participate in discussions and webinars across the continent at various other institutions of higher learning. 

One such virtual event recently took place for Women’s Month. The Tshwane University of Technology hosted the Annual Adelaide Tambo Memorial Lecture on 27 August. The theme was Is the face of the boardroom in global organisations changing women representation in influential positions?

Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, focused in her presentation on themes regarding girls’ education and women’s health, both of which have been threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the respondent, Dr Maria Madiope, Principal of the UFS South Campus, dealt with the patriarchal domination and violence that modern women and girls endure, as well as the way “their sexuality and aptitude is disrespected and how they are subjugated and side-lined in the political, corporate, social, and cultural arena.” She said that it is incumbent on the modern generation of women to reignite the flame that fuelled the struggle for feminine recognition and equality. “We are beholden not only to the legacy of those that came before us, but also to the eager eyes that look up to us,” she concluded. 

Dr Madiope also announced her support for Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka’s Generation Equality campaign against gender-based violence, and she echoed the sentiments of the rallying hashtag #JustChair, which breaks down discrimination based on the use of gendered terms such as ‘chairman’ for the leader of a meeting or corporation.

Dr Adelaide Tambo’s life was characterised by a love of knowledge, as she believed that people need as much power to be able to handle challenges facing the country, the continent, and the planet. She strove for the emancipation of women in general, focusing on the importance of education and how it can improve a woman’s life, and encouraged a strong culture of learning.

The event was livestreamed on Facebook and Zoom; go to https://www.facebook.com/805899996152814/videos/1036964343420927 to watch the full presentation.

News Archive

Emmy Award nominee to disrupt the silence in second Vice-Chancellor’s lecture
2015-04-24

Philip Miller

The second instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series is about to take place on the Bloemfontein Campus. The lecture series – launched in March 2015 by Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs – forms part of a five-year research project led by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and funded by the Mellon Foundation.

Disrupting the Silence: The Past and Transnational Memory

Internationally-acclaimed composer and sound artist, Philip Miller, will deliver the next lecture in this series on Wednesday 29 April 2015. Miller is currently an honorary fellow at APC (Archive and Public Culture) at the University of Cape Town. His discussion will centre on the topic of ‘Disrupting the Silence: The Past and Transnational Memory’. This will expand on the research project’s overarching theme of Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past.

The details of the event are:
Date: 29 April 2015
Time: 12:30
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus
RSVP: Jo-Anne Naidoo at NaidooJA@ufs.ac.za

Compositions and productions

In one of his compositions, ‘REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony’ Miller incorporates actual testimonies recorded during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. Through combining the audio of these testimonies with vocal soloists, chorus, a string octet and powerful projected images, the boundaries between victims, perpetrators and listeners blur.

Miller has been nominated for an Emmy Award in 2013 for his soundtrack to HBO’s film ‘The Girl’. Miller’s other works include the soundtrack for the film ‘Black Butterflies’, which won him best film score at the South African Film and Television Awards in 2012. He also composed the film score for the ‘Bang Bang Club’, which was nominated for a Genie Award in Canada, as well as for Rehad Desai’s Marikana investigation, ‘Miners Shot Down’.

He also has a long-standing collaboration with internationally-renown visual artist William Kentridge. Their most recent collaboration is the five-screen multimedia installation with a moving sculpture and immersive soundscape ‘The Refusal of Time’. His latest work, ‘Extracts from the Underground’, explores the subterranean sound world of miners in South Africa.

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