The Mellon Research Chairs at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change and the Centre for Humanities Research are pleased to announce the 2014 ICGC Mellon Emerging Scholars Workshop, "Public History from the Global South," which will take place on Monday, October 13, 9am-3pm in 1210 Heller Hall. Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the workshop will showcase the dissertation research of five advanced PhD students involved in a scholarly exchange between the Universities of Fort Hare and the Western Cape in South Africa, and the University of Minnesota. This year's workshop engages with international scholarship on heritage and public history by introducing the intellectual and political stakes of doing this work in the Global South, and we hope that you will join us!
In preparation for the workshop, the graduate students listed will pre-circulate the following dissertation chapters to the participants a week prior to the event: Sian Butcher, "Racing Real Estate: Regulating Freehold, Finance and Freedom in Settler South Africa;" Geraldine Frieslaar, "(Re)Collections in the Archive: Making and Remaking the International Defense and Aid Fund (IDAF) Archival Collection;" Elliot James, "South Africa's Taxi Story: A Philosophy of Black Business Under Apartheid;" Sipokazi Sambumbu, "Investigating Heritage Discourse in Post Apartheid South Africa: National Museums and Sites;" Michelle Smith, "A House for the Dead: The De-Construction of the Red Location Museum." In addition to advancing wider scholarship on heritage and public history, the workshop is also intended to give these graduate student presenters feedback on their dissertations in progress. Therefore, papers will only be made available to participants from ICGC and its affiliated departments who RSVP in advance.
The format of the day-long workshop is as follows. There will be two sessions as well as a prepared lunch over the course of the day in order to facilitate five distinct conversations about students' work in relation to the workshop theme. The morning (9am-12pm) session will devote three hours to workshopping three chapters, and the afternoon (1-3pm) session will workshop two chapters over two hours. Each student will have 10-15 minutes to present their chapter. Invited faculty discussants will then spend up to 20 minutes giving detailed comments on the pre-circulated paper. And the remaining 25-30 minutes will be reserved for questions and comments from the audience. Participants are welcome to attend one or both sessions.
Again we hope that you will join us as we showcase and strengthen the exchange of emerging scholarship between our Centers. To confirm your participation in the 2014 ICGC Mellon Emerging Scholars Workshop, please RSVP to Elliot James (james235@umn.edu) no later than Friday, October 3.
