The WISER Podcast

Friday, 1 May, 2020 - 13:30

Welcome to The WISER Podcast! Published weekly, the podcast features conversations, talks and audio-essays from WISER. 

You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. A complete list of all past episodes is at https://witswiser.podbean.com. For podcast transcripts, click here. For more WISER research, click here.

Podcasts

Thursday, 14 October, 2021 - 13:00

This week’s episode is the third in our series celebrating WISER At Twenty.

Today we hear from Najibha Deshmukh, WISER’s Senior Administrator and Adila Deshmukh, WISER’s Financial Manager. Najibha and Adila, who are sisters, give us their take on life at WISER, offering an inside view of everyday life, from both the front desk and the Institute’s financial office. In a richly nuanced and finely observed  - and often very funny – set of observations, they reveal aspects of their own stories over the last two decades, of the pressures and pleasures of their jobs, and of the lives, minds and foibles of academics at work. They talk about the joys of seeing students graduate and become professors – and about some of the strangest requests they received over the years. It’s a wonderful listen and will give you a new perspective on the academy – enjoy!

 

The members of The WiSER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu and Achille Mbembe.

WISER Research Theme: 

Thursday, 30 September, 2021 - 15:00

In this latest episode of The WiSER Podcast, Dr Tinashe Mushakavanhu discusses the coup of November 2017 in Zimbabwe, the death of Robert Mugabe, and why it is necessary to build a new set of digital tools for re-reading the country’s history. The podcast grapples with the question: how do we read a country beyond an individual? The members of The WiSER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu and Achille Mbembe.
WISER Research Theme: 

Thursday, 23 September, 2021 - 14:00

Today we release the second podcast marking WiSER’s 20th anniversary. As we recalled when we released last week’s episode, the Institute was launched in September 2001. Colleagues from Wits, the southern African region and beyond offer short reflections on the last two decades of WiSER’s critical engagement with a wide range of issues pertinent to our location and our world today. We again take the opportunity to thank all who have contributed to the Institute’s work over the last two decades.
WISER Research Theme: 

Thursday, 16 September, 2021 - 14:30

Today we release the first of several podcasts marking WiSER’s 20th anniversary. The Institute was launched in September 2001 and we asked a number of colleagues from Wits, the region and beyond to offer reflections on the last two decades of WiSER’s critical engagement with our country, our region and the world at large. In doing so, we also wish to thank all who have contributed to the Institute’s work over the last two decades, making it into what it is today.
WISER Research Theme: 

Wednesday, 8 September, 2021 - 10:30

Welcome to the next episode of Season 4 of The WISER podcast. Today we present highlights from an event “On Violence: An Intergenerational Conversation about Women's Resistance” held at WiSER on August 11 2021. Convened by WISER, the Governing Intimacies project at Wits and No10Publishers, the discussion features two feminist writers and activists, Zubeida Jaffer and Simamkele Dlakavu in conversation with Sisonke Msimang, prominent author and WISER writing fellow. The focus, as the title implies, is on questions of generation, feminism and activism in relation to South Africa’s violent histories.
WISER Research Theme: 

Thursday, 2 September, 2021 - 15:30

 

Welcome to Season 4 of The WISER podcast. We begin this season with a number of event podcasts, capturing key debates happening at WISER on matters of urgent national importance.

Today we release a two-part series
Uprising in South Africa, in which commentators reflect on the crises in KZN province which manifested so powerfully in the events of a few weeks ago, variously referred to as insurrection, food riots and looting sprees.


The podcast is an edited version of an event hosted by WISER, The Forge and the C150 Chair in Gender and African Politics and convened by Shireen Hassim who holds that Chair. While the intensity of the events that erupted in those weeks has receded, the participants in the discussions we listen to today remind us that the causes are systemic and ongoing and we would do well to keep them at the forefront of our analyses going forward. Speakers in today’s podcasts are Itumeleng MahabaneGlen RobbinsThina NzoRyan Brunette, S’bu Zikode, Kira Erwin, Monica Laganparsad and Elisha Kunene.

 

For Ryan Brunett’s short video, which many of the speakers refer to, see here.

WISER Research Theme: 

Tuesday, 6 July, 2021 - 13:30

Today we release the full suite of podcasts that have made up Season 3 of The WISER Podcast. In this 2021 edition, we have offered longer, 28-minute podcasts focusing on a particular theme or concept and drawing on multiple voices as we do so. These podcasts have appeared in either a two-part series or as a single episode. In case you missed any or would like to have a record of all of them for your reference, please see them at the link above. Our podcasts have attracted more than 17 600 listeners so far from many parts of the world.

In September we will release our final season of the year, Season 4.

You can find our WISER transcripts here.

The members of the WISER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mpho Matsipa, Achille Mbembe and Bronwyn Kotzen.

WISER Research Theme: 

Friday, 25 June, 2021 - 16:30

Today we release the next episode of The WISER Podcast entitled On Water: International Contemporary Writing

The episode focuses on oral poetry from the Kenyan coast and its relation to indigenous marine conservation knowledges; black travel writing from the Indian Ocean world in the early twentieth century;  learning to surf and read waves in Cape Town; and the recent rise in postcolonial fiction about mermaids. 

Each of these topics, and many more, form part of a special issue of the magazine Wasafiri on "Water", edited by Charne Lavery and Stephnaie Jones and available here:  https://www.wasafiri.org/product/wasafiri-issue-106/. The issue covers multiple forms of writing on water from around the world - from the Philippines to the Somali coast, Kenya to Antarctica - in a time of planetary change. It forms part of the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project (www.oceanichumanities.com) at WiSER . 

The podcast features contributions from Charne Lavery (University of Pretoria and WISER, Wits), Jauquelyne Kosgei (WISER, Wits), Asma Sayed (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Hedley Twidle (UCT) and Betsy Nies (University of North Florida). 

The members of the WISER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mpho Matsipa, Achille Mbembe and Bronwyn Kotzen.

WISER Research Theme: 

Tuesday, 8 June, 2021 - 13:30

Today we release The WISER Podcast on China Africa Futures : thinking beyond conspiracy.

The episode focuses on some of the most prominent themes in global and local preoccupations with the models of government that China holds out for African states and peoples.  We focus, in particular, on the threats and limits of state surveillance for African countries as they show themselves around the COVID19 pandemic, and the growing international concerns about the eYuan, the new digital currency championed by the People's Bank of China. 

The podcast is a conversation between Keith Breckenridge (Wits), Iginio Gagliardone (Wits), Mingwei Huang (Dartmouth) and Bulelani Jili (Harvard).

The members of the WISER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mpho Matsipa, Achille Mbembe and Bronwyn Kotzen.

WISER Research Theme: 

Thursday, 27 May, 2021 - 16:30

Today we release the second episode of our two-part series of The WISER Podcast on Regions2050: mobility, extraction, circulation.

The episode focuses on the Congo Basin eco-region of Africa, the world’s second largest rainforest block after the Amazon. In particular, the podcast examines how significant demographic, ecological, political and economic changes in this region are linked to climate. It also explores the interactions between human populations and the environments in which they live. 

The podcast is a conversation between Rogers Orock (Department of Anthropology, Wits), Achille Mbembe (WISER) and Joshua Walker (Congo Research Group, Center on International Cooperation, New York University). All are members of the research cluster on the Congo Basin within WISER’s Regions2050 project.

The members of the WISER Podcast team are Sarah Nuttall, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Isabel Hofmeyr, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mpho Matsipa, Achille Mbembe and Bronwyn Kotzen.

WISER Research Theme: