TEXTS, MODES AND REPERTOIRES OF LIVING IN AND BEYOND THE SHADOWS OF APARTHEID

Papers, panels and round tables are invited for the 40th Annual Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA) to be held from 9 to 13 April 2014 at Wits University. April 2014 marks an auspicious moment in African history and experience: 20 years after the demise of apartheid. Elsewhere, the seemingly intractable challenges of poverty, social inequality, discrimination and tyranny continue to bedevil the continent. The conference presents a fitting occasion to embark on the kinds of retrospection, introspection and predictions that look both at the past and the future in more fluid and dynamic ways - particularly in relation to the shadows and unfinished business of apartheid and the possibilities for imagining and creating a more just, egalitarian and humane world. We invite papers and panels that use the conference theme as a catalyst but other explorations of any aspects related to African and Diaspora literatures are also welcome. For more information, click here. Abstract deadline: 30 November 2013. 

African Population Studies - Paper submissions are invited for a special edition with guest editor Osman Sankoh and journal editor Clifford Odimegwu

HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (SSA) Paper submissions are invited for a special edition of African Population Studies with guest editor Osman Sankoh and journal editor Clifford Odimegwu. The household is the basic building block of society and the unit of production as well as of reproduction. It is the primary context of socialisation and decision-making regarding the nutrition, health care and schooling of children.  The household is also a key context for the regulation of new unions, fertility, and migration. Almost all social institutions hinge on the household. Household structure reflects the living arrangement of persons, individually or in groups. Against this background, the family and household dynamics interest group of the INDEPTH Network proposes to publish a special issue of the African Population Studies on Household dynamics and the Millennium Development Goals in SSA. Data from HDSSs of the INDEPTH Network offer a unique opportunity to understand the pattern and dynamics of the households as well as their relationship with the MDG targets at the individual level. This will allow identifying patterns, similarities and differences in SSA, and recommending local, regional and country-specific as well as effective policies for improving the overall welfare of Africans. Manuscripts (in English only) should follow the style of the African Population Studies journal and are subject to both review and editing. 

Completed manuscripts should be submitted to the Journal through http://aps.journals.ac.za. Any inquiries regarding this special issue should be sent to jacques.emina@indepth-network.org and copied toosman.sankoh@indepth-network.org. Deadline: 31 October 2013.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: 4TH APARTHEID ARCHIVE CONFERENCE: RACE, SPACE, LOCATION, DISLOCATION: THEN AND NOW

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

4TH APARTHEID ARCHIVE CONFERENCE: RACE, SPACE, LOCATION, DISLOCATION: THEN AND NOW

The 4th Apartheid Archive Conference will be held at the University of Pretoria, and is jointly organised by the Wits School of Human and Community Development and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria. The aim of this conference is to explore reflections of the racial engineering of city spaces, locations and dislocations in the narratives contained in the Apartheid Archive, its effects on all aspects of the lived realities of ordinary South Africans during this period, and the echoes of this engineering in the occupation, usage and continued racial fragmentation of city spaces and social life in contemporary South Africa – 20 years after the transition to a fully enfranchised and democratic political dispensation. Potential thematic areas include: Geographies of race; Race and urbanities; Families, locations and dislocations; Spaces and communities; Transits and transitions; Migrants, movement and city spaces; City spaces, workspaces; Cities and identities; Race, space, memory; City spaces, arts spaces. We invite all those interested in the study of race and space in pre-and post-1994 South Africa, to submit podium presentation, panel discussion, dramatic art, and visual art exhibition abstracts for this conference, which takes place from 21 from 23 May 2014. 

First abstract submission deadline: 31 October 2013. 

The full conference call and abstract submission form can be obtained from and submitted to marinda.maree@up.ac.za or contact (012) 420-2505.

Wits Centre for Diversity Studies to co-host a conference/workshop with the Rock Ethics Institute (Penn State University, USA), 13 to 14 January 2014, at Wits University

Symposium: Critical Philosophy of Race

The Wits Diversity Studies (WiCDS),

and

The Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A.

We invite submissions on the above topic for a symposium to be held on 13 and 14 January 2014 at the WITS Club, West Campus, University of the Witwatersrand.

The 21^st century is increasingly described as “post-race.” Yet the signs and effects of “race trouble” are everywhere in evidence. The gradually diminishing hold of biological notions of race seems not to have significantly lessened the grip that the racial has on how society gets to be imagined and organized. How are we to understand this enduring power of “race?” How may our understandings have to shift in order to keep track with the apparent elasticity of “race” in the everyday world? What might not have been understood about “race” within the dominant epistemological traditions of the Western academy? Where are the conceptual blind spots? How might “race” be understood differently if the perspective from which it is theorized is not the prevailing world view within academia? How does the entry of scholarly interventions, and ways of knowing and being, that are not driven by elite, white, and male bodies and interests change the field?

The Critical Philosophy of Race consists in the philosophical examination of issues raised by the concept of race, the practices and mechanisms of racialization, and the persistence of various forms of racism across the world. Critical Philosophy of Race is a critical enterprise in three respects: it opposes racism in all its forms; it rejects the pseudosciences of old-fashioned biological racialism; and it denies that anti-racism and anti-racialism summarily eliminate race as a meaningful category of analysis.

This symposium aims to explore philosophical and conceptual questions related to race, racism, and racialization in contemporary society. While the conference is expected to concentrate on how questions related to race arise within the South African/African context and include comparative analyses of race/racism in the U.S. and the South African/African context, the deliberations are by no means limited geographically. Papers with different disciplinary and interdisciplinary and philosophical orientations are welcome, provided they

·       Focus on the conceptual/philosophical underpinnings pertaining to racialised dynamics;

·       Employ what can broadly be understood to be a critical perspective, cognisant of the operations of power in constructing epistemologies, social dynamics and subjectivities.  

We particularly welcome papers that engage with some of the current concerns within social theory, such as affect, space, and intersectionality, as well as the various complexities of postcolonial contexts. We also seek papers that present challenges to some of the thinking on these issues that are not often questioned.

This symposium will be a platform in which U.S. and South African race scholars can engage one another on the ways in which race and racialised ways of knowing and being shape our social world.

As the symposium is also intended to be an incubation forum for publications, participants whose abstracts are accepted and who are interested in publishing should submit a working draft of their papers for circulation by December 15, 2013.  The papers will be circulated to all symposium participants who will be asked to read papers beforehand so that meaningful conversation can take place and feedback can be used to refine the paper.

Selected papers will be published in a special edition of Critical Philosophy of Race http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_CPR.html.

Please submit a short abstract by November 30, 2013.  Submit abstracts simultaneously to Melissa Steyn [melissa.steyn@wits.ac.za] and Nancy Tuana ‎[ntuana@psu.edu]‎

Event unfortunately cancelled - Inside-out outside-in South African prisons interest group: Invitation to a breakfast behind bars

This event was unfortunately cancelled

The ladies inside Johannesburg female prison have arranged a breakfast behind bars in celebration of “Correctional Week”.

Date: Sunday 27 October

Time: 8am to midday

Cost: R60 p/p including a tour of the female section, a choir performance and breakfast.

For tickets please contact Pastor Eddie Walters 082 718 6225 / eddie.walters@gmail.com.

This 
event is open to the public and everyone can attend as long as you have purchased a ticket.

We have read about the Breakfast behind bars initiative on the Inside-out- outside-in South African prisons interest group - http://insideoutoutsidein.co.za/group-updates/

Now Available: First Edition of Journal of Social and Political Psychology

We read about the launch of the first edition of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology on the Southern Psychologies blog. To read more, visit the blog at http://feedly.com/k/16JQXrv

Notes on the AGM of the COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (CaSP) Division held at 12h30 to 13h15, Wednesday, 25 September 2013 at Venue Claudius, Emperors Palace, Johannesburg

Welcome

Eduard Fourie welcomed all present and provided a brief overview of the history and current status of the Division.

Apologies

Received from Ronelle Carolissen, Gillian Finchilescu, Kopano Ratele, Sally John and Bronwen Combrink

In attendance

Puleng Segalo, Wiehann Rademann, Nkateko Manabe,  Carmelitia De Bruin, Khonzi Mbatha, Suntosh PIllay, Jennifer Graham, Lavanya Pillay, Eduard Fourie, Nolwazi Somtsewu, Christabella Maluleka, Shahnaaz Suffla and Agenlo Fynn

Towards an agenda

Actions to promote psychological insight and well-being in communities

(proposed by Wiehann Rademan)

-       Intern psychologists and other members to actively recruit blog followers through further awareness raising  - use of existing network contacts

-       The recruitment and contracting of intern project leaders for pilot projects

-       Intern psychologists to be involved in the planning of small scale community projects

-       Intern psychologist and mentors to engage with identified key stake holders in communities and launch activities

-       Psychologists and other interested individuals to consider engagement with forums in communities to introduce positive and healing psycho-educational opportunities and collaboration

Co-creation and sharing of information

The Division’s blog - http://psyssacns.blogspot.com/ - to be further developed and marketed as engagement space for the sharing of community and social psychology projects, training, workshops, events, publications etc.

Registrar of community and social psychology projects and publications

The Division to create a registrar of current community and social psychology projects and publications.

To engage with other PsySSA Divisions, with academic departments and with individuals and community organisations.

5^th International Conference of Community Psychology – September 2014

Conference to be held early September 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Call for Papers to be posted on the CaSP blog.

20^th PsySSA Congress – September 2014

The Division to identify symposia themes for inclusion in the20th PsySSA Congress to be held in Durban in September 2014.

One proposal is a symposium on prison studies. For more information visit the inside out – outside in prison studies interest group at http://insideoutoutsidein.co.za/

Amendments to the CaSP constitution

(submitted by Wiehann Rademan)

“Full members shall be persons who are either registered students in psychology, at a recognised university at the undergraduate, Honours or Masters Level, and registered interns; or persons with a degree in any registration category in Psychology; or persons with an interest in or working in communities or who are involved in social interventions, social change or policy development.” 

[Are we sure of the latter, can members of public be members of CaSP? Suggestion that we create more engagement by raising external memberships. How would this effect payment methodology if any?  - to be discussed with Council]

“CaSP will consist of a group of 6 people who will decide who will take responsibility for different tasks related to its functions and will be referred to as an organisation committee.” The Executive Team to be expanded

“The term of office of all members is two years. Office bearers shall not hold office in the same position for more than two consecutive terms.”  To be revised in order for Team members to participate in the Executive functioning for more than two years.

“A nominated person shall represent CaSP on the council of PsySSA. The executive shall appoint the alternate when necessary.” Chair to give feedback during meetings.

“The division shall submit an audited income and expenditure statement to council for purposes of financial control.” How do we administer possible sponsorships and the like (income) from community members in the future? – Follow up with Council.

The revised constitution to be submitted to Council.

Further priorities

Marketing of the Division, Liaise with other PsySSA Divisions, Recruit members for the Division, involvement with the 4^th Southern African Students’ Psychology Conference with the theme ‘community engagement’ to be held in June 2015.

Elections of CASP Exec Members for 2014

Chair: Eduard Fourie

Vice-Chair and Treasurer: Puleng Segalo

Secretary: Wiehann Rademan

Additional members: Nkateko Manabe, Carmelitia De Bruin, Suntosh PIllay, Jennifer Graham and Lavanya Pillay

Minutes compiled by Wiehann Rademann and Eduard Fourie

26 September 2013

Invitation to a guest lecture by Prof Ian Lubeck at the Department of Psychology, Unisa

Psychology's "health": Tracing "health psychology's" growth in the context of neighboring developments in "social psychology", "mental health", "behavioural medicine" and "public health".

Tuesday, 15 October, 12:00-13:00, Room 5-94 TvW

Prof Lubek is currently in the country and has agreed to come give a talk in our Department. Ian Lubek is Professor (Adjunct) of Psychology at University of Guelph (Canada). His research interests have included theory, meta-theory and epistemology; gender issues in scientific mentoring and career productivity; the social psychology of science; violence and media; the history of social psychology; and, most recently, problems of participatory action research, community health issues concerning the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Cambodia, and multi-sectorial health intervention programs.

Please RSVP asap at meiril@unisa.ac.za.

Should you have any queries, contact Janice Moodley (moodljk@unisa.ac.za).

Hope to see you there!

Janice Moodley and Leana Meiring

1000 Hills and nearby waiting for interns

Message From Sally John:

I have been reading with interest the suggestions of this committee. I think 
there are some such good ideas. I heartily endorse involving interns in 
community as there is such a shortage of intern sites and such a shortage of 
service in underprivileged communities.I have sites around me in the rural area of 1000 Hills and nearby waiting for interns and I or other psychologists in this area would gladly supervise. Thanks and I hope the PsySSA conference was most enjoyable and interesting.
Kindly
Sally

Please send any contributions or comments to Eduard at fourime@unisa.ac.za