The SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory underwent its first-phase review in 2020 and has been awarded a second phase of funding for 2021-5 by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Both the review and the rating assessment praised the consolidation of the research field effected by the Chair and her team in this CHR research platform. These achievements are due to advanced postgraduate study, international workshops with leading scholars, and research publications. Among the latter, the co-edited volume Ambivalent. Photography and Visibility in African History was singled out for special praise because it refigures the terms of global debate around photography from an African position. This has been followed by the Special Issue of the journal Kronos (Volume 46 of 2020) foregrounding the latest research in African visual history presented at the 2019 international workshop ‘Other Lives of the Image’ hosted by the SARChI Chair.

The SARChI Chair is also pleased to announce the graduation of two doctoral fellows in Visual History & Theory, Pam Sykes and Rui Assubuji, and one MA fellow Retha Ferguson (cum laude) in 2020. The CHR warmly congratulates Patricia Hayes on this major recognition of her research and academic leadership as the SARChI Chair holder.