Sukuma Mkhize

Fellow: Department of History, MA

Sukuma Mkhize is an Astrophysicist (BSc Hons. UCT) & Photographer whose writing places the image in Astronomy at the forefront in modern (1970–) history of South African Astronomy. The M.A in Visual History held jointly between the Department of History UWC and the CHR pays special focus to Images emerging from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SKA-SA, HartRAO 1975), the South African Astronomical Observatory (1972*)  and those encountered in the Urban Astronomy (both Inner-city and township) which naturally arises in the Photographic essay over the same period. In this framework, the image is approached both as the Historian’s gambit in avoiding the silences often encountered in the modern History and Philosophy of Science literature as well as an active site of interdisciplinary exchange in Astronomy, Photography and the history of the visual in Humanities. Critical to the CHR fellowship which draws both from Astronomy & the Visual, is the crystallization of new modes of thinking around some of the current debates occurring at the level of the visual in Astronomy and the African Humanities. Recent Publication; Urban Astronomy in Four Parts, A4 Arts Foundation 2019 . Press Image: Tauriq Dolley, Cape Town