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26 September 2023 | Story Supplied

The University of the Free State is pleased to present the second Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by award-winning biographer and professor of English literature, Stephen Clingman. Well-known author and advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi will respond. 

The lecture, titled Bram Fischer, Or What Happens When the World Becomes Inhospitable, will consider the continuing importance of Bram Fischer in a South African and global context. Bram Fischer was born in Bloemfontein in 1908 into one of the most prominent of Afrikaner families. While never surrendering his Afrikaner identity, he also transformed it by identifying with the struggle for liberation of all South Africa’s peoples. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he faced an inhospitable world, yet his commitment was to make the world more hospitable to all. 

Date: Wednesday 11 October 2023
Time: 18:00 to 21:00
Venue: Equitas Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus, UFS

RSVP here to attend this lecture by 6 October 2023.

For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za.

The Speaker

Stephen Clingman is Distinguished University Professor of English and former Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has held several fellowships internationally and written widely on a range of topics. His books include The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside, The Grammar of Identity: Transnational Fiction and the Nature of the Boundary, Birthmark (a memoir/autofiction), and William Kentridge (the catalogue of Kentridge’s exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, 2022). His biography, Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary, was co-winner of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, South Africa’s premier prize for non-fiction.

The Respondent

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is a South African lawyer, public speaker, author, and political activist. He is a member of the South African Law Reform Commission. Ngcukaitobi has authored the books The Land Is Ours: South Africa's First Black Lawyers and the birth of Constitutionalism and Land Matters: South Africa's failed land reforms and the road ahead.

News Archive

Alumnus presents 27th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture
2015-09-07

 
Anton Roodt
Photo: iFlair

In a packed Civic Theatre in Bloemfontein, Anton Roodt, an alumnus from the UFS Department of Architecture, presented the 27th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture.
 
Roodt received numerous awards for his work during his career. He also completed three masters degrees at the UFS, all of them cum laude.

The theme for his lecture was: Big dreams in a small city. Places of memory¦Spaces of imagination.
 
In his presentation, he focused mainly on President Brand Street, one of the most beautiful streets in South Africa – a gem waiting to be rediscovered, as well as Waaihoek, where many projects are planned for the future.
 
During his career, Roodt has been involved in various projects in these areas, including the Fourth Raadsaal, for which he received a FSIA Award in 2011. The Mapikela House in Batho is another project he was involved in.
 
He believes universities are small cities with a good deal of ambition. A number of infrastructure projects on the campuses of the UFS were designed by Roodt Architects. On the Bloemfontein Campus, this includes the Student Centre on the Thakaneng Bridge, the Main Gate, the Financial Planning Law Building, and the Computer Centre, as well work done on the Albert Wessels Auditorium. They also designed the dining room and the Main Entrance on the Qwaqwa Campus.
 
Roodt was introduced to the audience by the familiar singer and his university friend, Coenie de Villiers, with the question: “Why architecture?” He replied: “It is one of the best professions to take you to places most people will never be able to visit – sometimes literally to the feet of kings.”
 
Roodt believes that architects are sellers of dreams. “Dreams are the purest form of imagination. Architects dream of places as if people matter,” he said.
 
The Women in Architecture initiative was also launched by the South African Council for the Architectural Profession at the event. Of more than 8 800 professional architects, only 21% are women.

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