Thinking from the South on Traditions of Politics and Aesthetics
Other Universals is a supra-national consortium supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The consortium consists of scholars from several universities in Africa (in South Africa: University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town, University of the Witwatersrand University of Johannesburg; in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University; in Ghana, University of Ghana- Legon); in the Caribbean, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus; and, in the Middle East, the American University of Beirut. Other Universals brings together scholars across different geographies to convene conversations around shared intellectual and political preoccupations. Other Universals hosts seminars, workshops, discussion groups across an array of thematic interests to support research on the long histories of radical anticolonial thought and cultural practices from the South. The consortium provides graduate student fellowships and creates a dynamic co-curricular programme for emerging scholars at the participating universities.
Thematic Areas
Other Universals encourages scholarship that draws on multiple anticolonial traditions to speak to universal predicaments. Currently, the consortium engages with the following.
Revisting Marxist traditions and the global South
This thematic area explores the relationship of Marxism/s to race, ethnicity, religion and sexuality. How might histories of internationalism in Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and South Asia offer ways to connect with traditions of Marxism in the metropoles that engaged cultural and political identities as they affect the colonial and postcolonial subject? What can a living tradition of Marxist thought proffer to our current imaginings of a future beyond coloniality?
Translation and Comparison As Method
In investigating methods of studying living archives of critical thought, this thematic area asks the following questions: How do we read figures, texts and objects across radical political and aesthetic traditions? How do we do translation and comparison across and within these different systems of meaning? What does it mean to read a text, figure or object conjuncturally towards historicizing the practice of critique?
The Epistemic Question
This thematic area examines questions of epistemic violence/justice in the modern university of the global South. What is the relationship of secular criticism to modernity, universal knowledge to particular knowledges, and the making of the distinctions between the sacred and the profane?
Identity and Identification
The relationship between the making of the colonial political subject and postcolonial political subjectivities is central to this thematic area. Wherein identities like Black, Queer, Dalit, Muslim/Jew, Tribal exist inside of political formations yet also exceed them. How might we understand the relationship between identity and identification in political and aesthetic worlds? What modes of cultural citizenship and idioms of difference define insider and outsider? How do notions of majority and minority work to produce the nation?
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Submerged BlackFem Voices in Electronic Dance Music
A Conversation in the Humanities in Session Series at the Centre for Humanities Research, part of the Advanced Research Seminar presented in partnership with the Consortium for Humanities Centres and Institutes’ Humanities Administration Network
Writing Workshop Announcement!
The Other Universals consortium will be running a 7 week writing workshop, facilitated by Anais Nony for Masters and PhD students working on their thesis. Further details on the poster attached.
On the Subject of Citizenship: Late colonialism in the world today, edited by Professor Suren Pillay
On the Subject of Citizenship: Late colonialism in the world today brings together reflections on citizenship, political violence, race, ethnicity and gender, by some of the most critical voices of our times.
Congratulations Prof. David Scott, Guggenheim fellow for 2023
The Other Universals consortium congratulates our long standing collaborator Prof. David Scott on his recognition as a Guggenheim fellow for 2023.
Epistemic Ethnonationalism: Identity Policing in Neo-Traditionalism and Decoloniality Theory
The Centre for Humanities Research and the Other Universals Consortium invites you to the following event, organised by the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
Race and Caste
The Other Universals Consortium and the Center for Race, Gender and Class (University of Johannesburg) are organizing a colloquium on Race and Caste; Hierarchy and Universality at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study on Feb 21-23, 2023.
Reconsidering Reparations
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting a webinar with Dr Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò on 28 October 2022.
Decolonisation, Africa, and International Law: Two Frames of Epistemic Violence
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting a webinar with Dr Mohsen al Attar is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and a Visiting Lecturer at UCL and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Keynote Address: Unpayable Debt
Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva (The University of British Columbia) will be delivering a keynote address “Unpayable Debt” as part of the Other Universals Consortium’s 2022 public engagements on Theorizing Aesthetics and Politics from Postcolonial Locations. Date: Friday, May 20th. Time: 7 pm SAST
Keynote Address: A Prolegomenon towards ukuNqakula as an Aesthetic and Political Location
Professor Thembinkosi Goniwe will be delivering a keynote address “A prolegomenon towards ukuNqakula as an Aesthetic and Political Location” as part of the Other Universals Virtual Institute 2021 inquiry into Aesthetics and Politics on Tuesday, 23 November.
Keynote Address: The Conjuncture of 1956
Professor David Scott will be delivering a keynote address titled “The Conjecture of 1956” as part of the Other Universals Virtual Institute 2021 inquiry into The Question of the Political: Thinking Difference in the Aftermaths of the Colonial Political Economy.
Aesthetics and Politics: A Dialogue Across Continents
Join the CHR’s Heidi Grunebaum and members of the Other Universals Consortium Aaron Kamugisha (University of the West Indies), Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi (University of Johannesburg), and Chika Mba (University of Ghana) for an online conversation with colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities
The Other Universals Consortium and CODESRIA invite you to a webinar with Professor Mahmood Mamdani about his new book Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities.
Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment
A CHR Webinar held by the Other Universals Consortium with Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
ASA Book Prize Finalist: Elizabeth Giorgis
The CHR congratulates Professor Elizabeth Giorgis on her latest book Modernist Art in Ethiopia achieving finalist status for both the ASA Book Prize (Herskovits) and the ASA Bethwell A. Ogot Prize.
Decolonizing Theory: Thinking Across Traditions
A CHR Webinar held by the Other Universals Consortium with Aditya Nigam
[CLOSED] Call for Applications: 2021 Fellowships at the CHR
The Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is pleased to announce the 2021 Fellowship competition for Post-doctoral, PhD, MA and Honours awards.
The Other Universals Consortium Webinar Series
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting a webinar series from July – November 2020
Radical Disenchantment
A CHR Webinar held jointly between Winter School and the Other Universals Consortium with Fadi Bardawil
Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting a webinar with Adom Getachew.
In Search of Africa(s): Postcolonialism and the Universal
The Other Universals consortium will be hosting an online seminar with Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Illumination in Dark Times: David Scott on Stuart Hall
Professor David Scott is currently Extraordinary Professor in the CHR from 2019-2021.
Call for Papers – Revolutionary Papers: Counter-Institutions, Politics and Culture in Periodicals of the Global South workshop
The workshop will examine 20th century periodicals and related print ephemera – including newspapers, cultural and literary journals, magazines, manifestoes, newsletters and political pamphlets – as sites of Left, anti-imperial and anti-colonial critical production throughout decolonization, anti-Apartheid struggles, and the post-colonial era.
Marxism, Radical Traditions and the South: Reflections on “Stuart Hall’s Voice”
The Other Universals consortium of the CHR invites you to a panel
Workshop: Migrants, Markets and the Modalities of Rule
The Migrating Violence Research Platform of the Centre for Humanities Research presents a workshop on Migrants, Markets and the Modalities of Rule.
New Research Grants Announcement
The Centre for Humanities Research is pleased to announce the award of two new research grants, beginning in 2018, from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.
Public Lecture: Professor Gopal Guru
The formation and practice of Social and Political Theory in the Indian conceptual imagination have, by and large, been a low profile enterprise.
Other Universals Public Lecture: “Sylvia Wynter’s Black Metamorphosis and the World We Live In”
Other Universals presents a public lecture by Dr. Aaron Kamugisha (Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies) on "Sylvia Wynter's Black Metamorphosis and the World […]
Our Consortium Members
Principal investigator
Suren Pillay
Principal Investigator
University of the Western Cape
Centre for Humanities Research
Conveners
Samuel Aniegye Ntewusu
University of Ghana
Institute of African Studies
Yonas Ashine Demisse
Addis Ababa University
Political Science and International Relations
Victoria Collis-Buthelezi
University of the Witwatersrand/University of Johannesburg
Centre for the Study of Race, Gender & Class/English
Ruchi Chaturvedi
University of Cape Town
Sociology
Aaron Kamugisha
University of the West Indies/ Smith College
Cultural Studies/ African Studies
Chika C. Mba
University of Ghana
Institute of African Studies
Genevieve Nrenzah
University of Ghana
Institute of African Studies
Student fellows
Obenewa Amponsah
University of Witwatersrand
African Literature
Francesco Anselmetti
American University of Beirut
Centre for Arab and Middle East Studies
Arnaldo Pinto Teixeira Caliche
University of the Western Cape
History
Nelly Ganta
University of the Witwatersrand
Urban Geography
Reyda Gay
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
Cultural Studies
Elikem Kunutsor
University of Cape Town
Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies
Sikelelwa Anita Mashiyi
University of the Western Cape
Anthropology
Vania Patrick-Drakes
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
Social Policy
Rosette Sifa Vuninga
University of the Western Cape
History
Affiliated Academics
Samer Frangie
American University of Beirut
Political Studies and Public Administration
Danai S. Mupotsa
University of the Western Cape
History
Ayanda Nombila
University of the Western Cape
Political Studies
Project Administrators
Eric Narh Tei-Kumadoe
University of Ghana
Institute of African Studies
Phindi Malaza
University of the Western Cape
Centre for Humanities Research