[SAHS] Call for Papers: Southern African Historical Society Conference, 28-30 June 2022, East London, South Africa

[Chris Holdridge]

CALL FOR PAPERS: SOUTHERN AFRICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY CONFERENCE

28 - 30 JUNE 2022
 
Hosted by the Department of History, and the National Heritage and
Cultural Studies Centre, University of Fort Hare
 
EXPANDING MARGINS: NEW AND LINGERING QUESTIONS, AND DEBATES ON SOUTHERN
AFRICAN HISTORIES
 
The 28th Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society
(SAHS) is running a year later than its usual schedule because of the
Covid-19 global pandemic, and, is being hosted at the University of Fort
Hare (UFH)’s East London campus. The 2022 SAHS Conferences coincides
with the 106th anniversary year of the founding of the UFH. In addition,
the UFH will be celebrating in 2022 the 30th anniversary year since it
took custodianship of the rich archival material, which the major
political organisations involved in the struggle against segregation and
apartheid donated to the UFH. In the last 25 years or so, some scholars
used this vital collection held at the UFH’s National Heritage and
Cultural Studies Centre (NAHECS) to add to ongoing historiographical
revisions, especially onto topics related to broader liberation
processes in the Southern African region.
 
Present-day Southern Africa shares common history, and the colonial
governments of the British, thePortuguese and the Germans from the late
Nineteenth Century, largely shaped existing geo-politicalboundaries of
the region. Such decisive European imposition in mapping out of what
later became the Southern African national states, did not however
necessarily denote first-time recording and presentation ofthis region’s
past. Nor did it infer immunity against reassessment of current Southern
African historiography of conquest, and resultant liberation processes
of the Twentieth Century. Even so, the dynamism of people’s ideas in the
region, their actions towards socioeconomic plights, and their
challenges in pursuing forms of social justices have continued to test
postcolonial and post-apartheid Southern African states. Likewise, there
have been persistent political contests, readjustments of power
institutions, albeit, against unending authoritarianism, and declining
space for civil society. All of these trials have occurred not only in
testing socio- political, but, also under severe natural environments,
exhibited through climate and agrarian change, as well as swelling food
insecurities. They have also been displayed in shapes of falling basic
rights and rising hardships, such as diasporas, homelessness and job
losses. Yet in spite of all these challenges, the scope has continued to
widen for further historical research, and production of new historical
knowledge.
 
It is thus envisaged that the 28th biennial SAHS conference will address
key questions about the prospects and production of history and engage
with complex old and new forces in the Southern African region. This can
be achieved by reconsidering and expanding existing historiography, and
byrepresenting as well as reporting on hidden histories of the
marginalised. In also inviting newly emerging historical insights on
intricate forces and the varied people of the region, it is imagined
that the conference will provide platform for critical dialogue on
Southern Africa’s past, whilst similarly making sense of its present. In
addition, the current Covid-19 pandemic poses delicate methodological
questions concerning historical production as techniques that revolve
solely on conventional use of primary sources are increasingly
challenged.
 
The SAHS invites contributions from professional historians,
postgraduate students and related specialists such as archaeologists,
heritage practitioners, archivists, museum curators, and documentary
film-makers. The SAHS 2022 Conference organisers endeavour to encompass
and reflect the broad diversity of thediscipline in the region and
consequently wish that the participants at the conference encapsulate a
broadrange of topics, including (but not limited to) the following:
 
§  Disputed princ§  Historical Studies, past and contemporary University
§  Archives, heritage and remembrance(s)
§  Forms of history production: analog and digital
§  Creative history: art, drama, imagination and expression(s)
§  Governance and authority systems: from precolonial to colonial and
postcolonial Africa
§  Legacies of dispossession in Southern Africa: land, labour, migrancy
and language
§  Contested rights to land: histories and politics of land and agrarian
reforms
§  Histories and politics of displacement(s): borderlands and mutable
human settlements
§  Nationalism, identities and prejudice(s)
§  The militia: insurrection, coups, war(s) and strident reformations
§  Pathways of Gender and Afro-feminism
§  Predicaments of development: international capital, debt and African
elites
§  Trade, employment and the Global South
§  Sociopolitical formations and institutional values
§  Indigenous (and Indigenised) knowledge systems: technologies, health
and society
§  Medical and medicinal histories: health, wellbeing and healing
§  Unsettled settings: indigence, famine, epidemics and cataclysms
§  Histories, politics and governance of control of water, and other
natural resources
 
PROPOSALS

We request proposals for sessions in three different formats: papers,
panels and roundtable debates. Participants are kindly requested to
consider selecting a session format within the suggested broad range
oftopics above and their own historical specialisations with the
objective of enabling active interaction amongst presenters and
respective audiences. Paper submissions should include an abstract (max
250words) and short profile for each participant. Panel and roundtable
submissions should include a minimumof three papers (each with a 250word
abstract and short profile of each participant), a proposed
moderator/chair (if it is possible) and a 250word abstract. Please email
these to Luvuyo Wotshela, lwotshelaSAHSConference2022 at ufh.ac.za by 31
January 2022.

Conference Fees
 
The following conference fee structure is made on the assumption that
the conference will be held in person. The SAHS Executive will review
the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and make any necessary
adjustments to conference logistics if required.
 
The conference registration fee includes the Welcome Cocktail Reception,
conference materials, mid-morning and afternoon refreshments, daily
lunches and the Conference Gala Dinner.
 
Conference registration commences on 1 February 2022 Early-bird
registration ends on 8 April 2022
Early-bird registration fee: R2500.
Regular fee after 8 April 2022 - R2900
Postdoctoral fellows: Early-bird R2200.
Regular fee after 8 April 2022 – R2400
Postgraduate students: Early-bird: R1700.
Regular fee after 8 April 2022 – R1900
A limited number of postgraduate bursaries to assist with registration
fees are available. Postgraduate students are welcome to apply to the
Local Organising Committee for consideration for these bursaries.
 
More details regarding conference registration, student bursaries,
travel and accommodation, conference arrangement, the SAHS
Vice-Presidential student essay prize, and the special conference
edition of the South African Historical Journal will be published on the
SAHS conference website in due course. Visit http://www.sahs.org.za
 
Current members and prospective members can contact SAHS Treasurer Anton
Ehlers on matters regarding new member applications or renewals at
aehl at sun.ac.za
 
For more information, please email Luvuyo Wotshela: LWotshela at ufh.ac.za
or Nomalanga Mkhize naledi.nomalanga at gmail.com 


 
Dr Chris Holdridge
BA Hons MA (Cape Town), PhD (Sydney)
Senior Lecturer: History, School of Social Sciences
North-West University, Potchefstroom campus
Building F13, Room 106
+27 (0)18 299 1594 | chris.holdridge at nwu.ac.za
 


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