Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Apartheid's Legacy – ghosts, psyche, and trauma

29 September 2023 | Story Samkelo Fetile

The University of the Free State (UFS) is set to host a compelling book launch event, exploring the lasting legacy of apartheid. This thought-provoking gathering is organised by the Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Research and Internationalisation; Institutional Change, Strategic Partnerships and Societal Impact), the Directorate for Institutional Advancement, and the Faculties of Law (Centre for Human Rights) and The Humanities, with a cocktail reception to follow.

The overarching question guiding the event is a thought-provoking one: Even though apartheid has formally ended, to what extent does its legacy persist? This enquiry sets the stage for an exploration of diverse facets of this legacy by three distinguished authors – Premesh Lalu, Wahbie Long, and Saleem Badat. Their recently published works, namely Undoing Apartheid (Polity Press, 2022), Nation on the Couch: Inside South Africa’s Mind (MF Books, 2021), and Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice: The First Non-Racial International Tennis Tour, 1971 (UKZN Press, 2023), respectively offer textured insights into the enduring shadows cast by apartheid on contemporary realities.

These authors will engage in a conversation with Sarah Nuttall, Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at Wits and the former Director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), who served in that capacity from 2012 to 2022.

Date: 12 October 2023

Time: 16:30-18:30

Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

For those interested in attending, RSVP by 6 October 2023 through the event registration. For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za.

The Speakers

The speakers include Premesh Lalu, Research Professor and former founding director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC); Wahbie Long, Professor in the Department of Psychology and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town (UCT); and Saleem Badat, Research Professor in the Department of History at the UFS, former Programme Director of International Higher Education and Strategic Projects at the Andrew Mellon Foundation in New York, and former Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University.

As South Africa grapples with the lingering impact of its apartheid history, this event promises an insightful exploration of the continuing reverberations of this historical trauma, inviting participants to reflect on the ways in which it continues to shape the present.

News Archive

NASA Deep Space Navigation engineer presents at Naval Hill Planetarium

2017-03-30

From the left: Chris du Plessis; US Consulate, Johannesburg,
Prof Petrus Meintjes; Dept of Physics UFS, Christopher Jacobs;
NASA, and Anthony Deaton; US Consulate Johannesburg.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

The University of the Free State (UFS) hosted NASA Deep Space engineer Christopher Jacobs on 27 March 2017 at the Bloemfontein Campus. The engagement was hosted by Prof Matie Hoffman of the Department of Physics and the Department of Institutional Advancement, in collaboration with the US Consulate General in Johannesburg.

Jacobs is stationed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology and has served as the Reference Frame Calibration task manager for 25 years. In this role he has been responsible for delivering the reference frames used to navigate NASA missions such as the Mars Science Laboratory to planetary targets.

His visit to the UFS included a presentation to the Department of Astrophysics at the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and at the Naval Hill Planetarium in Bloemfontein where he spoke on Stellar GPS: Navigating the Solar System. He also spoke about the latest research and developments at NASA in Astrometry. The visit will establish and develop shared interests and possible collaboration with UFS and other institutions of interest in the country. “South Africa, because of its well-placed geographic location in the southern hemisphere, holds a lot of answers to astronomy,” Jacobs said.

He has an active interest in professional and public education, and outreach, having given public lectures around the world. “Astronomy brings people together and is a point of common interest that is key in solving environmental and geographical challenges such as climate change, therefore global cooperation is important,” he said.

Prof Hoffman welcomed the initiative by the US Consulate and the possible outcomes of joint efforts to position the UFS as a key partner in South Africa on NASA’s astronomy projects. In the coming weeks Jacobs will speak at high schools in Gauteng including the Mae Jemison US Science Reading Room in Mamelodi, Pretoria, a centre that is focused on promoting science education.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept