Vansa Winter School 2024
WINTER SCHOOL 2024: IN COMMON – SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT
VANSA will hold its third annual Winter School in Johannesburg from Monday 31 July – Friday 4 August each evening from 6 to 8pm. We’re pleased to announce the list of speakers for Winter School: In Common.
Dr. Yvette Abrahams
Dr. Abrahams is an organic farmer, economic historian and traditional healer living east of Cape Town. Her research investigates income diversification strategies for small scale farming and highlights the role of gender and climate change. Dr. Abrahams is a ecofeminist. She is a research adviser to Project 90 by 2030, a low-carbon advocacy group and has held post at the University of the Western Cape and The Gender Commission for Gender Equality.
Mwenya Kabwe
Kabwe is an award-winning director, theatre maker, actress and facilitator. She is also a recipient of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) 2008 award for Best Upcoming Professional Artist and the 2008 Fleur du Cap award for Best Actress for her performance as Alma in Yellowman. She received a Spier Contemporary 2007 award for a collaborative performance work titled ‘unyawo alunampumlo’. Mwenya is a co-founder of the arts collective manje-manje projects and the Bonfire Theatre Company, Phakama Projects and UNIMA South Africa.
Motsumi Makhene
Makhene is music teacher, composer, arranger, performer and painter. He is the training the principal of Central Johannesburg College for Public Further Education. Makhene was instrumental in founding the Funda Arts Centre music department in Soweto. He is the former chair of the Music Industry Development Trust.
Dr. Mpho Matsipa
Dr Matsipa is a lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has written critical essays and reviews on public art, culture and space for Art South Africa, the Architectural Review and Thesis 11 (forthcoming). Dr. Matsipa is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and later, a Carnegie Grant. She has curated several exhibitions, including of the South Africa Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2008), and Studio-X Johannesburg, an experimental public platform on architecture and the city.
Prof. Achille Mbembe
Prof. Mbembe is a philosopher and political theorist. He has written extensively on African history and politics. Seminal texts include La naissance du maquis dans le Sud-Cameroun (Paris, Karthala, 1996), On the Postcolony (Paris, 2000) Critique of Black Reason (Durham, 2024). Mbembe is a Research Professor of History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg, South Africa and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Romance Studies at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University. He has also held appointments at Columbia University, Berkeley, Yale University, the University of California and Harvard University.
Dr. Abrahams is an organic farmer, economic historian and traditional healer living east of Cape Town. Her research investigates income diversification strategies for small scale farming and highlights the role of gender and climate change. Dr. Abrahams is a ecofeminist. She is a research adviser to Project 90 by 2030, a low-carbon advocacy group and has held post at the University of the Western Cape and The Gender Commission for Gender Equality.
Mwenya Kabwe
Kabwe is an award-winning director, theatre maker, actress and facilitator. She is also a recipient of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) 2008 award for Best Upcoming Professional Artist and the 2008 Fleur du Cap award for Best Actress for her performance as Alma in Yellowman. She received a Spier Contemporary 2007 award for a collaborative performance work titled ‘unyawo alunampumlo’. Mwenya is a co-founder of the arts collective manje-manje projects and the Bonfire Theatre Company, Phakama Projects and UNIMA South Africa.
Motsumi Makhene
Makhene is music teacher, composer, arranger, performer and painter. He is the training the principal of Central Johannesburg College for Public Further Education. Makhene was instrumental in founding the Funda Arts Centre music department in Soweto. He is the former chair of the Music Industry Development Trust.
Dr. Mpho Matsipa
Dr Matsipa is a lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has written critical essays and reviews on public art, culture and space for Art South Africa, the Architectural Review and Thesis 11 (forthcoming). Dr. Matsipa is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and later, a Carnegie Grant. She has curated several exhibitions, including of the South Africa Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale (2008), and Studio-X Johannesburg, an experimental public platform on architecture and the city.
Prof. Achille Mbembe
Prof. Mbembe is a philosopher and political theorist. He has written extensively on African history and politics. Seminal texts include La naissance du maquis dans le Sud-Cameroun (Paris, Karthala, 1996), On the Postcolony (Paris, 2000) Critique of Black Reason (Durham, 2024). Mbembe is a Research Professor of History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research in Johannesburg, South Africa and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Romance Studies at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University. He has also held appointments at Columbia University, Berkeley, Yale University, the University of California and Harvard University.