WISER Seminar Papers

WISER is very pleased to host the Wits Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Humanities. The presentations for the remainder of the current academic semester are listed below. The seminar takes place every Monday during the teaching term at 4:00pm SA time. We are currently holding all of the discussions on Zoom. (For the Zoom link, please subscribe to the notices here. Participants should please note that they are required to read the paper prior to the event. WISER, and its predecessor institutions the Institute for Advanced Study and the African Studies Institute, have hosted similar seminars that date back to the late 1960s. The archive of those events is also available on the WISER web site at http://wiser.wits.ac.za.
Date Presented by Title
Monday, 13 February, 2023 - 16:00
  • Wendy
  • Hunter
Denationalization in the Dominican Republic: Trapping Victims in the State’s Administrative Maze
Monday, 20 February, 2023 - 16:00
  • Sakiru
  • Adebayo
The Memory Flâneur in Teju Cole’s Open City
Monday, 27 February, 2023 - 16:00
  • Gustav
  • Kalm
Capitalizing on competing property titles in the Simandou iron ore reserves in Guinea:investor-state arbitration vs host-stranger relations
Monday, 6 March, 2023 - 16:00
  • Ricardo
  • Soares de Oliveira
Researching Africa and the Offshore World
Monday, 13 March, 2023 - 16:00
  • Cecilia
  • Passanti
  • & Marie-Emmanuelle
  • Pommerolle
The (un) making of electoral transparency through technology: The 2017 Kenyan presidential election controversy
Monday, 20 March, 2023 - 16:00
  • Jeanne
  • Bouyat
Looking below racism. Renegotiating authority at school through challenging the policing of hairstyles, an inside view on a girls-led protest in Soweto.
Monday, 27 March, 2023 - 16:00
  • Enrique
  • Martino
Labour recruiters as Lumpen-brokers
Monday, 3 April, 2023 - 16:00
  • Christian
  • Lund
An air of legality – legalization under conditions of rightlessness in Indonesia
Monday, 24 April, 2023 - 16:00
  • Clovis
  • Bergere
“We Will Not Follow You Like Sheep”: Literacy, Officialdom, and Generational Politics in the Digital Age
Monday, 8 May, 2023 - 16:00
  • Keren Weitzberg &
  • Radha Upadhyaya
Regulatory efforts to reign in digital credit: Case study of evolving regulation in Kenya
Monday, 15 May, 2023 - 16:00
  • Polly
  • Pallister-Wilkins
“Open Doors” and “Stranger Natives”: white supremacy, racialisation and governing im/mobilities in African Trusts
Monday, 22 May, 2023 - 16:00
  • Joel
  • Pearson
Center-led Fiscal Reform and the Rise of Regional Power Blocs in a Limpopo Municipality, 1980-2020
Monday, 5 June, 2023 - 16:00
  • Natasha
  • Erlank
Nets of Social Motion: Black Christianity in South African History
Thursday, 8 June, 2023 - 10:00
  • Janet
  • Roitman
Platform economies: Beyond the North-South divide
Monday, 31 July, 2023 - 16:00
  • Jonathan
  • Klaaren
Changing Verifiable Identity Across Africa: A Sociotechnical and Political Economy Mapping of Initiatives for Digital Public Infrastructure
Monday, 7 August, 2023 - 16:00
  • Andries
  • du Toit
The Land and its people : The South African ‘Land Question’ and the Post-Apartheid Political Order
Monday, 14 August, 2023 - 14:00
  • Kirk
  • Sides
“Astral Forms: Halley’s Comet and Sol Plaatje’s Reading of the “Long White Tail” of Colonial History.”
Monday, 21 August, 2023 - 16:00
  • Sean
  • Redding
"The girl is not consulted" : Abduction marriages and gendered traditions of violence
Monday, 28 August, 2023 - 16:00
  • Polly
  • Pallister-Wilkins
“Open Doors” and “Stranger Natives”: white supremacy, racialisation and governing im/mobilities in African Trusts
Monday, 4 September, 2023 - 16:00
  • Romesh
  • Silva
A population-based estimation and assessment of persons lacking official proof of legal identity
Monday, 11 September, 2023 - 16:00
  • Tara
  • Weinberg
Bargaining with the state? Black farmers’ petitions for agricultural support, amidst white farmers’ subsidies, 1920s-1970s
Monday, 18 September, 2023 - 16:00
  • Simon
  • Hull
An Overview of Frontier Technologies for Land Tenure: How to Avoid the Hype and Focus on What Matters
Monday, 2 October, 2023 - 16:00
  • Sara
  • Byala
A Catalytic Role Untold : Coca-Cola and the Undoing of Apartheid
Monday, 16 October, 2023 - 16:00
  • Sonwabile
  • Mnwana
On land, mining, and ‘community’: Rethinking conflict and local politics of distribution in rural South Africa
Monday, 23 October, 2023 - 16:00
  • Stephan
  • Scheel
The Politics of Seamless Travel: From matters of care and concern to matters of dissent