The WISER Podcast

Pamila Gupta and Drew Thompson discuss the visual archive of Ricardo Rangel, whose photography documents the last days of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique. Pamila Gupta is a Professor of historical anthropology at WiSER. Her latest book is Portuguese Decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: History and Ethnography (2019). Drew Thompson is Assistant Professor of Historical and Africana Studies at Bard College.

Hlonipha Mokoena examines links between masculinity, dress and "war work" in colonial South Africa.

Hlonipha Mokoena received her Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town in 2005. She is currently an associate professor at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is the author of Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual (2011). 

Nolwazi Mkhwanazi explores her work on Childbirth, Natality and 'Young Families'. Nolwazi Mkhwanazi an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology at WISER. She leads the Institute’s programme in Medical Humanities. She is the co-editor of “Young Families: Gender: sexuality and care”, and of “Connected Lives: Families, Households, health and care in contemporary South Africa”.

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Achille Mbembe and Dilip Menon discuss the newly published book Capitalisms a Global History, co-edited by Menon and Dr Kaveh Yazdani and published by Oxford University Press.

Professor Achille Mbembe is a world-renowned theorist, public intellectual and Professor of History and Politics at WISER. Professor Dilip Menon is Mellon Chair in Indian Studies and Director of CISA at Wits. Visit: https://wiser.wits.ac.za

In Part 2 of this two-part conversation, Achille Mbembe and Dilip Menon discuss the newly published book Capitalisms a Global History, co-edited by Menon and Dr Kaveh Yazdani and published by Oxford University Press. In this section, Mbembe and Menon explore technology, COVID-19, and capitalisms in Africa.

Professor Achille Mbembe is a world-renowned theorist, public intellectual and Professor of History and Politics at WISER. Professor Dilip Menon is Mellon Chair in Indian Studies and Director of CISA at Wits. Visit: https://wiser.wits.ac.za

Professor Richard Rottenburg discusses the cohabitation of people and pathogens in an increasingly digitised world. Richard Rottenburg is an Anthropologist of Science and Technology and Professor at WISER. His many-acclaimed works include Far Fetched Facts and The World of Indicators. Visit https://wiser.wits.ac.za

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh examines the politics of nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, a region of the world not usually associated with the geopolitics of nuclear disarmament. Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a Postdoctoral Fellow at WISER. He recently completed a DPhil in International Relations at Oxford. His first book, Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics (2017), won the City-Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award. https://wiser.wits.ac.za

In this episode two WISER Fellows, Dr Mpho Matsipa and Bronwyn Kotzen, explore similarities in their work relating to space, race, and the politics of cement.

Bronwyn Kotzen joined WISER as a Visiting Research Fellow in January, 2020. Bronwyn is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral research focuses on the political economy of materiality in urban Africa by tracing Pan-African cement flows and is supported by Emory University’s African Critical Enquiry Programme and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.Bronwyn’s broader research explores the interstices between materiality, politics and place in rapidly developing urban centres.

For more, visit https://wiser.wits.ac.za