PROGRAMME IN ‘LOCAL HISTORIES AND PRESENT REALITIES’
School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand

HONOURS / MA / PhD
Bursaries for 2012

Applications are invited for Honours and MA/PhD bursaries in the research programme ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’. The programme is funded through the National Research Foundation’s South African Research Chairs’ Initiative, which awarded a Research Chair along with research positions and research funding to Prof Philip Bonner in 2007. The time horizon of the programme is mainly 20th to early 21st century. Its geographical horizon is the area encompassed by the North West, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Free State provinces.

A core aim of the programme is to relate local pasts to local presents. Its main focus is small/intermediate towns and their hinterlands in the area specified. The project is interdisciplinary and would welcome applications from students with distinguished academic records in the fields of History, Political Studies, Sociology, Social Anthropology and relevant but less adjacent subjects. Students may register in any one of these departments.

Successful Honours applicants will receive R25000 annually plus research expenses for 1 year of study. MA applicants will receive a bursary of R55000 annually plus research expenses for 2 years and PhD applicants will receive a bursary of R80000 plus research expenses for 3 years. Some assistance with conference funding may also be available in certain instances.

To apply please submit the following:

1. A detailed and up to date CV, which shows clearly your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and component courses of study
2. An academic transcript
3. An example of any recent written/published work
4. Letters of reference from 2 referees
5. Certified copies of degrees
6. Applicants should provide a detailed application letter explaining their proposed area of research and how it might fit into this research programme.

Bursaries can be taken up from 1 January 2012. Students must be registered at Wits and MUST apply separately to the academic department that they wish to study in.

Closing date for applications is 28 October 2011.

For further details about the research programme contact the Administrator Mrs Zahn Gowar at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Applications should be sent by post or delivered by hand to:

Mrs Zahn Gowar
NRF Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities/History Workshop
Admin Office; 5th floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus
University of the Witwatersrand; Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050

Crime and its fictions in Africa: a conversation across disciplines

The story of Africa in the world is in some ways a history of crime: from the Atlantic slave trade to the Nigerian “419” email scam, violence and illegality have often been the means by which the continent is inscribed in the Western imagination. On a more local level, crime has also served as the medium through which Africa and its peoples have negotiated engagement with globalization. Besides the obvious movement of illicit goods onto the global market, this is evident in the intricate international networks for smuggling people across the Sahara; in the prostitution rings that link parts of Africa to parts of Europe; and in the poaching syndicates driven by Asian demand for exotica such as rhino horn. The problematic role of law and/or its absence has long been the focal point of historical and social scientific work on Africa, though not without controversy over the line between voyeurism and observation.

Increasingly, fiction writers and literary scholars have also got in on the act. In South Africa, authors such as Deon Meyer and Margie Orford have topped the best-seller lists with their crime fiction, and the genre has gathered steam across the continent. What explains this development? What, if any, is the connection between the boom in writing about crime, and the problem of crime as it is experienced day to day? Finally, how can we both acknowledge crime’s dominant place in African narratives (and narratives about Africa), and question the limitations of this negative paradigm?

We invite scholars from across the disciplines working on crime in Africa and related subjects to a conference at Yale University on March 23rd, 2012. Young and established scholars are welcome at what we hope will be an open and informal forum for pondering these issues. Those interested in delivering papers as part of themed conference panels should submit abstracts to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by no later than January 9th, with copies of accepted presentations to be sent in by no later than March 16th.

If you are a South African citizen between the ages of 21 and 35 or lecture to students of this description, you may with to have a look at the details of this essay competition. Details hyperlinked here.

The Africa International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS invites applications for the new African Research Fellowships. Details about how to apply can be accessed as a pdf here.