The Department of Library Services and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria cordially invite you to our annual celebration of mind-altering books, which will constitute the second webinar in the Scholarly Conversations Series. Find out how some of your favourite academics have been shaped by an encounter with a book.

Theme: Mind-Altering Books 2020

Programme:

10:00-10:05 Welcome

10:05-10:15 Prof. Tawana Kupe 

10:15-10:25 Prof. Elsabe Schoeman 

10:25-10:35 Prof. Fraser McNeill 

10:35-10:45 Dr Nedine Moonsamy 

10:45-10:55 Ms Kelly Liebenberg: Introducing Insta Novels 

10:55-11: 10 Questions and Answers

11:10-11:15 Conclusion and vote of thanks

Presenters’ information:

Tawane Kupe

Professor Tawana Kupe has been the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria since January 2019. He holds a BA Honours and Master’s degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe, a DPhil. in Media Studies from the University of Oslo, Norway, and in 2019 he had an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities bestowed on him by Michigan State University. Prof Kupe is the Africa Co-Chair of the Australia Africa Universities Network (AAUN) and he has chaired the Board of Media Monitoring Africa since 2005. He is a member of the Council of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), the Association of Commonwealth Universities Regional Committee for East and Southern Africa, and has recently become the first African member of Kairós, an international non-profit organisation that focuses on the innovative transformation of education to face the challenges of the 21st century. Professor Kupe is a popular speaker, academic expert and a regular commentator on issues of media performance on radio, television and the print media in South Africa, for local and international media.

Elsabe Schoeman

Prof. Elsabe Schoeman was born and raised in a small town (Khowa) in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in the Eastern Cape. She began her academic career in 1986 spending 14 years at Unisa and the next 14 years at the University of Auckland (New Zealand). She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Law at UP. Prof. Schoeman is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow and specialises in Private International Law. She advises law firms on transnational litigation in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.

Fraser McNeill

Prof. Fraser McNeill of the Department of Anthropology & Archaeology studied Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Glasgow before receiving his PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics in 2007. His thesis was based on a decade of ethnographic work in the Venda region of South Africa, and investigated the relationship between music, traditional leadership, AIDS education, female initiation and poisoning. His thesis was awarded the Audrey Richards Prize by the ASA (UK), and published as AIDS, Politics and Music in South Africa by Cambridge University Press

Nedine Moonsamy

Dr Nedine Moonsamy is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Pretoria. She is currently writing a monograph on contemporary South African fiction and she otherwise conducts research on science fiction in Africa. The Unfamous Five, her debut novel was published by Modjaji Books in 2019.

Moderator: Prof. Molly Brown

Target audience: All UP staff, researchers and students

Enquiries: adrienne.warricker@up.ac.za