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Alumna Antjie Krog keynote speaker at UFS conference

22 November 2022 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen

Antjie Krog at UFS — The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker at the International Hybrid Conference from 24 to 26 November 2022. This conference is a joint venture of the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Gender and Africa Studies and the War Museum.

The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker later this week at an International Hybrid Conference titled, The Unsung Heroines and Youth of South Africa: Violent Histories and Experiences of South African Women and Children during Wars, Conflicts and Pandemics. This conference – a joint project of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the War Museum – starts on Thursday 24 November and will be hosted at the War Museum in Bloemfontein and broadcast online. The three-day conference overlaps with the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and aims to assemble historians, academics, and other scholars researching the violent histories of not only women and children in the South African War but in other wars, conflicts, and pandemics as well.

Prof Krog, an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape, poet, and author of Country of my Skull (among other books), is an alumna of the UFS, where she completed a BA degree with Afrikaans, Philosophy, and English. She will deliver her keynote address, Survival, Complicity, and Race: (Im)possibilities of Narrating and Interpreting Rape in Havenga Affidavits, on the first day of the conference.

Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, will deliver her keynote address on Friday (25 November 2022). Prof Hudson is considered a specialist in feminist security studies. Her keynote address is titled Disciplinary and other stories: From women’s peace movements to the Women, Peace and Security ecosystem.

Several historians, academics, and scholars will either present their research or attend the conference. The conference aims to gather various stakeholders who are researching the violent histories of not only the women and children in the South African War, but other wars, conflicts, and pandemics in South African history dating from precolonial times to the World Wars, Apartheid, to the present. Each of the eight sessions over the first two days will conclude with time set aside for discussion.

The conference programme includes a visit to the art exhibition Unsung Heroes at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Friday after the last session. On Saturday, conference attendees can look forward to a tour of Bloemfontein. Click here for more information or send an email to vicky@anglo-boer.co.za.

News Archive

Meet our Council Members: Derek Foster, ethical and responsible leadership role model

2016-05-18

Mr Derek Foster
Photo: Stephen Collett

Derek Foster was elected to the Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) in October 2012. He was the first Chartered Accountant (South Africa) to be appointed to Council because of the role he could play through his training, background, and experience. In particular, it was his knowledge of corporate governance, ethics, and reporting that led to his serving currently on the Audit and Risk Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Investment Committee of Council.

This Kovsie alumnus qualified as chartered accountant at the UFS in 1978. During his student years, he played rugby for Oud-Studente, and served in the Evening Student Representative Council.

Until December 2010, Derek was a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, which he joined in 1972 as a rookie when the company was still known as Meyer, Nel and Co. Nowadays, he is a business consultant and company director, serving on the boards of NWK Limited, Cancer Association of South Africa (national), and Samba Cooperative Limited.

His background and knowledge of auditing shine through strongly when it comes to the manner in which he sees his role as Council member. “The contribution which I can make to the Council of the university is to ensure that management executes strategy and policy appropriately, as formulated and approved by Council, in the best interest of the university community. Of course, this should be done in an ethical, sustainable manner, taking into account the risk environment we find ourselves in. We need to provide ethical leadership, and ensure that the UFS is a responsible corporate institution,” he says.

Work obligations are keeping him very busy, but his four grandsons are equally high on his priority list. He met his wife, Sally, at Kovsies, another reason why the university is close to his heart. “Everything I do, I want to do with enthusiasm and passion, and I want to make a difference wherever I go. I would also like to be a good grandfather, and set a memorable example to my grandchildren,” he says.

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