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30 October 2024 | Story Jacky Tshokwe | Photo Bram Fischer
BRAM FISCHER MEMORIAL LECTURE 2024

Join us as Prof Premesh Lalu from the University of the Western Cape presents this year’s lecture, with a response from Prof Steven Friedman of the University of Johannesburg.

Lecture title: "Bram Fischer's Briefcase: What's Left of Apartheid?"

In a compelling narrative of historical irony, a briefcase exchanged between Bram Fischer and Sydney Kentridge after the Rivonia Trial was later reimagined in the 1997 theatre production Ubu and the Truth Commission, created by Jane Taylor, William Kentridge, and Handspring Puppet Company. Repurposed as the ‘Dogs of War’ puppet, this briefcase transformed into Brutus, Brutus, and Brutus – embodying apartheid’s enforcers and the unspoken tensions beneath South Africa's political history. Through the theatre lens, the lecture will explore whether Bram Fischer’s briefcase revealed apartheid as a tragicomedy that needed dismantling to foster genuine reconciliation.

Date: Thursday 14 November 2024
Time: 18:00 to 21:00

Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

Click to view documentClick here to RSVP before by 10 November 2024.

The Speaker

Prof Premesh Lalu is a prominent researcher and former Director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape, which was awarded flagship status by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSTI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in 2016. His books include The Deaths of Hintsa: Post-Apartheid South Africa and the Shape of Recurring Pasts (2009) and Undoing Apartheid (2022). He is a respected voice in publications such as History and Theory, the Journal of Southern African Studies, and Critical Times, and serves on various international advisory boards.

The Respondent

Prof Steven Friedman is a Research Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. A widely published authority on South Africa’s democratic transition, his work focuses on democratic theory and practice. His notable publications include Good Jew, Bad Jew: Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Assault on Meaning, and he writes a weekly column, Against the Tide, offering critical insights into South African democracy.

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

News Archive

Dreams come true
2014-06-11


Lizelke Klindt – part of the Kovsie family

 

“To be a Kovsie is awesome.” This is how Lizelke Klindt starts the conversation.

Who is Lizelke?

She is one of our top emerging academics. Expanding on her BSc in Astrophysics, she obtained an honours degree in Physics this year – cum laude – earning her the Dean’s and Senate Medal.

At this year’s Kovsie Open Day on the Bloemfontein Campus, Lizelke beamed across the stage at prospective students and their parents – embodying true Kovsie pride.  

Her academic journey has just begun, though. Lizelke is currently doing her MSc in Astrophysics. Her thesis focuses on the ‘Multi-wavelength Analysis of Unidentified Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermi 2LAC Catalogue’.

“This will allow me to travel around to collect my own data and will broaden my skill set in order to reduce the various data,” she says.

Her achievements have gone hand in hand with hard work and grapping every opportunity the university has to offer, she admits. She also has a lot of praise for our university for offering research opportunities to graduates in their respective fields.  

“My studies have allowed me to travel a lot and to meet people from all over the world. I have made friends in Germany, Poland, Australia and other European countries.

“And the best part of it all is I get to fly a lot. I absolute love it. And if there was such a thing as a second life, I would definitely be a pilot or hopefully an astronaut. It’s a good feeling to be part of the Kovsie family.”

Lizelke plans to continue onto her PhD in the coming years. And then? She fervently wishes to get a post-doctoral position at the very same university that opened a world to her that she loves passionately. A world she has dreamt of since childhood.

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