Hustling in Africa and the growth of entrepreneurship

The dialogue is hosted by #BeingAfricanInAfrica an initiative for sharing positive content and narratives on Africa.

One of the greatest advantages of running a side hustle is that a person has an opportunity to take risks while having a job that provides some level of stability. In many instances, side hustles have enabled the founders to establish themselves as entrepreneurs.

The discussion will provide an overview of hustling and entrepreneurship in Africa, as well as touch on the economic worth and dynamics of entrepreneurship in Africa. It will also focus on how to leverage on opportunities for the growth of entrepreneurship. Lastly, participants will have the opportunity to listen to real stories of how some side hustles grew into fully-fledged businesses that also provide means of income and livelihood to others.

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Sibanye-Stillwater, Wits and UJ Webinar

Join the Vice-Chancellors from Wits University and the University of Johannesburg and the CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater for a focused discussion on education.

The Wits Vice-Chancellor Prof. Zeblon Vilakazi will be in conversation with Neal Froneman, Chief Executive Officer, Sibanye-Stillwater and Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg. The discussion wil be facilitated by Cathy Mohlahlana, Senior News Anchor Newzroom Afrika. 

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Budget 2021: Will it be enough to save South Africa

The Wits School of Economics and Finance (SEF) and Business Day will host a public discussion to analyse the 2021 Budget Speech.

Panellists: 

• Busi Mavuso (Black Leadership South Africa)
• Lebo Mulaisi (COSATU)
• Hilary Joffe (Business Times)
• Fatima Bhoola (SEF)

The session will be moderated by Business Day Editor, Lukanyo Mnyanda. 

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Rethinking Marketing Strategy as We Navigate Towards the New Normal

Altinbas University and Wits University will host this online discussion as part of the Global Business School Lecture Series.

Join via Zoom

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Fanon After Fanon

The Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research will host this webinar as part of the WiSER Public Positions Series.

In this series, they will present ten public thematic dialogues on the new generation of Fanon studies. 

Speakers are invited to develop one or more arguments for 20 minutes each. This will be followed by a dialogue led by Professor Achille Mbembe before the session is opened to a broader audience. 

Panellists on Assembling & Disassembling & Reassembling Fanon:  

• Jean Khalfa (Cambridge University) 
• Robert Young (New York University)

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World Hearing Day 2021: Hearing care for all

The Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology and the Adler Museum will co-host a webinar in celebration of World Hearing Day 2021.

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The Bioeconomy in Science and Society – African Solutions to African Problems?

Professor Karl Rumbold from the School of Molecular and Cell Biology in the Faculty of Science will deliver his inaugural lecture.

Click here to join.

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Sefularo-Sheiham Memorial Lecture on Health Equity

Covid-19 and the social determinants of health inequalities: Reflections on ethical leadership for health equity and a socially just recovery.

In this 2021 lecture on Health Equity, Dr Dlamini will highlight the scientific evidence on COVID-19 and the social determinants of health [inequalities], and their intersection with gender, race and class disparities in South Africa.  As a trailblazer and role model, Dr Dlamini will reflect on the imperative of ethical leadership at all levels of society. She will challenge government, academics and civil society at large to confront health inequities, and the imbalances in power and resources that mitigate against equity. Dr Dlamini will make the case for strategies to ensure a socially just post-pandemic recovery in South Africa. 

Please register using the Zoom Registration link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e-9WXUfQQSm-FNWuu6SRDQ

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Data Privacy Matters

The Research Integrity Office at Wits will be hosting an event on Data Privacy

Along with recent developments in data management (including sharing of research data, confidentiality of student data, etc.) the Research Integrity Office will be hosting an event, titled: Data Privacy Matters!

Click here to join the event

This half-day event will take place on Friday, 23 April 2021, and will consist of a series of talks and presentations pitched for early-career Research Management and Administration (RMA) staff, and for experienced University staff who have had no direct training in data use, data management, data sharing, data privacy regulations, etc.

Who should attend? 

• School Administrators
• Finance Officers
• HR Officers
• Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs)
• School/University Ethics Committee Administrators
• ICT/Library Staff who support Researchers (esp. with data-intensive research projects)

The Research Integrity Policy can be downloaded here and the Staff in the Research Integrity Office can be contacted here. 

Programme (click here to download)

Programme Director: Dr Robin Drennan | Chairperson 1: Mrs Eleni Flack-Davison | Chairperson 2: Ms Caz McNamara

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What about Africanness?

The African Centre For The Study of The United States will co-host this webinar.

About the speakers:

Jane Taylor is known throughout the world for her performance work, both as a theorist and a practitioner. Her work in puppetry, especially her theatre collaborations with William Kentridge, has been a matter of international interest and critical acclaim for many years. Jane Taylor is the Andrew Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory, Centre for Humanities Research, the University of Western Cape, South Africa.

Curlee Raven Holton is an internationally recognized artist and master printmaker. He was David Driskell's longtime artistic collaborator. For the past several years he has served as the Director and Artist in Residence at the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park, US.

About the moderator:

Dr. yaTande Whitney V. Hunter (IDSVA PhD 2020 and David Driskell Fellow), is Assistant Professor of Dance at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, and Coordinator of the African Diasporic Dance Series at Temple University. His work focuses on africanist perspectives in contemporary dance practices

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Geology through a Lens Photographic Exhibition

The Origins Centre will host this photo exhibition.

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Anxious Joburg: The Inner Lives of a Global South City

Associate Professor Nicky Falkof Cobus van Staden and Renugan Raidoo will present this Faces of the City seminar.

The genesis of Anxious Joburg lies in the realisation that discussions of the psychological aspects of urbanism, and the wider experiential aspects of city life is overwhelmingly focused on cities in the Global North. Despite the fact that the world’s largest and fastest-growing cities are increasingly in the Global South, most mapping of the urban experience is still dominated by discussions of London, New York and Paris. Meanwhile, while a lot of anxious attention is directed to Global South cities from the Global North, blaming them for migration, pollution, drug trafficking and so forth, mainstream urban studies literature is less concerned with what life in a Global South city is like. In the book, the contributors of the book focused on mapping the emotional landscape of Johannesburg by unpacking the issue of anxiety via many different methodologies and approaches. Anxiety is a useful theme because, unlike fear, it has no fixed object. Instead, every person has different triggers for their anxieties, and it allows us to look at the free-floating tension that underlies the urban experience, one that particularly marks the experience of living in Johannesburg. The contributors used a wide variety of approaches to map this lived reality. We are delighted to specifically feature the work of Renugan Raidoo, who focused on the affluent gated communities dotting the outer reaches of the city. He showed that the anxiety infiltrating these communities doesn’t only relate to crime or security, but is also fundamentally shaped by anxieties about control over the natural landscape.

About the speakers:

• Cobus van Staden is a senior researcher focusing on China-Africa relations at the South African Institute of International Affairs, and a visiting lecturer at the Department of Media Studies at Wits University. He holds a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Nagoya in Japan. He is co-editor of Anxious Joburg
• Nicky Falkof is an associate professor in the Media Studies department at Wits University, and author of The End of Whiteness: Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa (2015). She has a PhD in interdisciplinary humanities and cultural studies from the London Consortium, part of Birkbeck College, University of London. She is co-editor of Anxious Joburg.
• Renugan Raidoo is a contributor to Anxious Joburg.

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Seminar series on Science, Society and Innovation

The University of Witwatersrand DVC for Research and Innovation, Prof Lynn Morris, invites you to attend a monthly online seminar series starting from May 2021.

This is a part of a more strategic and coordinated drive to enhance innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization at the university (https://youtu.be/UEukUCn0XpA).  To start this seminar series, we have invited a number of international experts to share with us their experiences on how they were able to successfully walk the journey from academic principle to commercially viable product covering many different disciplines.  We will also be hearing from experts on how they were able to change their organizations to better support the ideas of innovation.   

The first lecture will be by Prof David Secher from Cambridge on Thursday 27^th May 2021 at 16h00, and he will be discussing Innovation in Universities – What does it mean?

Please click here to register for this event.

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Ticking the box. Dutch “ja?” in third position

Professor Tom Koole will present this lecture as part of 2021 Umthombo Webinar Lecture Series.

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Informal work and public space in South Africa

Caroline Skinner, Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town will deliver this Faces of the City webinar.

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Historical inequalities and economic transformation in South Africa

The African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research and the French Embassy in South Africa will host this event featuring Wits academics.

Panellists will reflect on the effectiveness of public policies implemented in South Africa to eliminate historical inequalities and improve social mobility, with a particular focus on the productive assets of:
1. Labour: to assess progress in equalising education since 1994, given the current state of the education system and the labour market.
2. Financial capital: to assess both progress in transforming the finance sector, through Broad-based Black Economics Empowerment, and access to finance for all South Africans.

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Fiscal policy, debt and politics: Lessons from Latin America

The Southern Centre for Inequality for Studies will launch their new initiative, the Public Economy Project.

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A Quantum Computing Journey in Germany

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and IBM proudly present the joint inauguration of the most powerful production IBM Quantum computer in Europe.

In a compact virtual live event on June 15, 2021, starting at 2 p.m. under the motto "A Quantum Computing Journey in Germany", we’ll give you an exclusive detailed presentation of the system.

We are excited to welcome German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel as a live broadcasted guest speaker, as well as other high-ranking speakers from politics and science.
Register and ensure your attendance at a piece of computing history with just a few clicks.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Visit: https://www.ibm.com/de-de/events/quantum-opening-en for more information.

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The University as a laboratory for innovation and a catalyst for regional development

Dr Suresh Garimella, 27th President of the University of Vermont and a strong proponent of the value of public higher education will deliver this seminar.

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Cognitive justice: Rethinking tradition and health

The Origins Centre will host this lecture to be delivered by Dr Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes and Dr Kirti Ranchod

What can we learn from traditions where older people are viewed as sacred? How can traditional values lead to better relationships and health? Join neurologist, Dr Kirti Ranchod and author and researcher, Dr Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes as they discuss the potential of values rooted in tradition to support healthier societies. This talk forms part of the series Healthy Ageing & The Brain: Tapping into our Cultural Capital.

Platform: Memorability on YouTube

About the speakers

Dr. Woldeyes is a Senior Lecturer, multidisciplinary researcher, poet and writer based in Curtin University’s Centre for Human Rights Education. His research focuses on the critical study of development, education and law, and the importance of lived experience and epistemic diversity for decolonial and sustainable futures. Dr. Ranchod is a neurologist working on brain health and healthy ageing. Her approach includes an understanding of the potential health benefits of traditional ways of living.

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From epidemics to pandemics : Viral respiratory illness in South Africa

Professor Cheryl Cohen from the School of Public Health will deliver her inaugural lecture.

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Breaking the wall of silence on systemic problems in private healthcare

Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics announce the launch of a new annual lecture focused on advocating for patient-centred healthcare.

Titled, Towards healthcare with a more human face, the lecture will be presented by Dr Gareth Kantor, an anesthesiologist, healthcare improvement consultant and medical informaticist. 

Kantor's areas of interest include: health care quality improvement; clinical information systems; patient-reported outcomes; clinical policy and health economics technology assessment. Apart from his private practice, he holds positions as Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH, USA);  Honorary Lecturer, University of Cape Town; Faculty, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Boston, USA); and Consultant to Insight Actuaries & Consultants.

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Creating sustainable built infrastructure

2021 Economic Forum

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China's Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption

Online panel discussion with Yuen Yuen Ang author of China's Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption.

Click here for more information on the the book. A paper summarising Ang's arguments has just been published in Foreign Affairs. 

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Communication: A key to scientific progress

Dr Matteo Rini from the American Physical Society will present this lecture.

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Mandela Day 2021

R67 for Mandela Month. Donate funds to the Wits Food Bank

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African policy towards the US

The African Centre for the Study of the United States in collaboration with Good Governance Africa and other partners will host this seminar.

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Mobilising Big Data and AI Against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide

FREE online workshop to discuss responding to GBVF by mobilising data using Big Data and AI.

Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) has been described by President Ramaphosa as “the second major pandemic we face in South Africa today”. Our country has one of the highest incidences of femicide and rape in the world. Wits University hosts several research and engagement projects that aim to provide knowledge and tools to counter this scourge in our society. Wits also plays a prominent role as a leading institution in the fields of data science and AI.

You are invited to attend a FREE online workshop to discuss responding to GBVF by mobilising data using Big Data and AI. We will discuss practical interventions that can be made using dashboards, Apps and other digital tools to leverage access to data.

REGISTER: https://jcse.org.za/standard-event-registration/?event_name=GBVF%20Event

Panel moderator

Dr Judy Dlamini, Chancellor of Wits University and GBVF Response Fund Chairman. 

She is a medical & academic doctor, business woman, author, and philanthropist; has worked in different sectors of the economy. She is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Mbekani Group,  co-founder, sponsor and trustee of Mkhiwa Trust, her family’s PBO used for social upliftment, focusing in rural development, health and education; and founder of Female Academic Leaders Fellowship NPC, a PBO for developing a pipeline of black women leaders in academia. She chairs the board of Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, GBVF Response Fund and is a director of SA SME Fund. Her Doctoral thesis investigated the intersection of race, gender and social class in women CEOs’ career progression and strategies for gender transformation at leadership level. She is the former Chairman of Aspen Pharmacare Limited, former board member of Anglo American plc, Discovery Holdings Ltd, Woolworths Holdings Ltd, and Northam Platinum. She is a published author of ‘’Equal but Different”, “The Other Story” and “Grow to be Great”.

Click here to read more about the rest of the panel.

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Scientists and Students as Entrepreneurs

Hosted by the Faculty of Science.

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Drama for Life Conference and Festival

Drama for Life cordially invites you for Performing Democracy: The Fire, The Fight, The Fiction

13th Drama for Life Conference and Festival, in partnership with NTNU. 

This year our Conference and Festival seeks to respond to current events within the Arts sector by asking pertinent questions around DEMOCRACY, inclusion and performance work that challenges post-democratic conditions, corruption and uninspiring leadership. 

Our Conference and Festival marks the completion of a 3-year research project with NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and includes the launch of our latest research publication - an open-access book of research findings from the Theatre in Democracy Project.

Please save the dates 16^th-19^th August and, in particular, our opening ceremony which takes place on Monday 16^th August from 16:00-18:30 (SA Time)

Please note that the Conference and Festival is online and all sessions will take place on zoom. You can register for events that peak your interest by clicking on the live link in the programme.

Download the programme here.

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Advice to a young professional: Reflections from my corporate ladder

The Postgraduate Student Support of the Academic Development Unit of the Faculty of Engineering in commemoration of Women’s Month.

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Emergence, risk and enactment: Advancing a multifocal approach to the study of violence

Professor Brett Bowman from the School of Human and Community Development will deliver his inaugural lecture.

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Advice to a Young Scientist II and Women in the Frontline

The Postgraduate Student Support will host scientist and pioneer, Professor Sossina Haile to present this webinar.

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Effective ways to increase vaccination rates

Wits and Columbia University are partners on this 5-day series of webinars.

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Catalysing the future: Women leaders in business

Join a panel of businesswomen at different stages of their careers as they share experiences of combating gender stereotypes in the workplace.

They will provide an overview of the advantages, challenges, and opportunities for women in business.

Panellists include:

• Nolitha Fakude, Chair of the Management Board: Anglo American
• Busi Mabuza, Chair of the Board: Industrial Development Corporation (South Africa)

• Mpumi Madisa, CEO: Bidvest

• Monica Singer, South African Lead: ConsenSys

 Facilitator:

• Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Wits

Hosted as part of the WitsExecThinkTank panel discussions. 

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IBM Quantum Challenge Africa 

No formal education in #quantumcomputing is required.

The IBM Research Lab in South Africa and Wits University have developed an Africa-focused quantum computing challenge for African students, researchers and industry members. The IBM Quantum Challenge Africa is from 9 September to 21 September 2021.

The challenge is developed by African researchers for Africa to grow the quantum community and quantum skills on the continent, and will focus on problems in the fields of optimisation, finance and chemistry.

No formal education in quantum computing is required as the challenge focuses on its application to already existing classical problems.

READ MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

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Women Vice-Chancellor’s in Conversation: Leadership Insights for (Young) Women In Academia

The Dean of Student Affairs, Mr Jerome September, hosts this discussion as part of the Dean of Student Affairs' Women’s Month Leadership Conversations.

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Protection Issues & Solutions for LGBTIQ+ People in Contexts of Forced Displacement

The African Centre for Migration & Society will host this webinar.

This webinar is part of a series of interventions (including public workshops) to unpack the role of international protection and the reality of human rights-based protection claims on the ground in Southern Africa today.

Key topics and issues to be covered in this series:

• Protection claims of refugees in South Africa
  • The stretching and shrinking of international protection via state and local practices
  • Ground-level approaches to protection for marginalised groups
• International protection and localised forms and norms of protection
  •State approaches to health security and the international securitisation agenda
  • Regional responses to forced displacement, crisis and instability

The impact of Covid-19 on:

Protection Issues and Solutions for LGBTIQ+ People in Contexts of Forced Displacement: Program

This Forum is part of “PROTECT The Right to International Protection. A Pendulum between Globalization and Nativization?”. These events are part of PROTECT’s Expert Forums series, all of which seek to explore the legal potential and impacts of the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration. The events are organized by PROTECT’s South Africa-based researchers, Jo Vearey, Nicholas Maple, and Kudakwashe Vanyoro.

PROTECT is an EU funded research project which studies the impact of the UN’s Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration on refugees’ right to international protection. The vision of PROTECT is to discover ways of advancing the international protection system within today’s turbulent political context. We consist of 11 partner universities in Europe, Canada, and South Africa. More information can be found on the project website: https://protectproject.w.uib.no/

Topics to be covered:

• The role of international human rights instruments on the ground in Southern Africa
  • Refugee Status Determination Process (RSD) for LGBTIQ+ persons in South Africa: 10 years of refugee status denial letters
  • The role of the Global Compacts in relation to the protection needs of LGBTIQ+ persons
  • The impact of COVID-19 on labour, informality, access to specific services and forms of relief and protection

Speakers:

B Camminga (they/them) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University. Their work considers the interrelationship between the conceptual journeying of the term ‘transgender’ and the physical embodied journeying of transgender asylum seekers from the African continent. In 2018 they were runner up in the Africa Spectrum: Young African Scholars Award, which honours outstanding research by up-and-coming African scholars. Their first monograph Transgender Refugees & the Imagined South Africa (Palgrave, 2019) received honourable mention in the Ruth Benedict Prize for Queer Anthropology from the American Anthropology Association and the 2019 Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies. They are the co-convenor of the African LGBTQI+ Migration Research Network (ALMN).

Nyasha Zhakata, popularly known as Masiziva or Masi, is a lesbian from Zimbabwe and founder of the community-based grassroots organisation Pachedu LGBTQI. Formed as a collective in June 2018 to assist and support LGBTQI refugees and migrants from the African continent living in South Africa. With members from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, the collective provides mutual aid, including financial resources, food and medical and emotional support. Nysha is an Isibindi changemaker, and in 2020 she won an award for her work with Pachedu. At present, Pachedu, with their partners Triangle Project, Scalabrini, Passop, the African LGBTQI+ Migration Research Network (ALMN) and the Fruit Basket, are working to mitigate the impacts of COVID on its members by providing food, electricity, water and covering rental costs.

Tina Dixson is a PhD Candidate at The Australian National University researching the construction of narratives on queer women’s displacement and violence. Tina has previously co-founded the first Australian LGBTIQ+ refugee-led organisation Forcibly Displaced People Network. She works in social policy on issues of LGBTIQ+ inclusion, women’s safety and refugee rights.

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Faculty of Health Science Alumni Week

The Faculty of Health Sciences will host its Alumni Week from 6 to 8 October 2021.

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The Muthi we all need? Innovations in Traditional African Medicine

This webinar is co-hosted by the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care and the Adler Museum of Medicine.

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Botlhale Orenstein Memorial Lecture

The Adler Museum of Medicine will host the 2021 Botlhale Orenstein Memorial Lecture to be presented by Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong.

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The Revival of Business Groups’ Risk Sharing

The School of Construction Economics and Management invites you to this talk by Dr Masaki Mori, Associate Professor at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne

We examine the business groups’ risk-sharing hypothesis in the Japanese Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market in which the unique external management system seems to be reinforcing power relationships among firms affiliated with the modern Japanese business groups, called keiretsu. We find that REITs whose sponsors belong to one of the keiretsu groups (keiretsu REITs) have significantly lower volatility of profitability than REITs whose sponsors do not belong to the keiretsu groups (non-keiretsu REITs).

There is no significant difference in profitability between keiretsu REITs and non-keiretsu REITs, controlling for firm and property characteristics. The abnormal portion of the profitability unexplained by firm characteristics is also significantly lower with keiretsu REITs.

We also find that the keiretsu affiliation reduces the systematic volatility of affiliated REITs, while such an effect is not observed with the idiosyncratic volatility, suggesting that the risk-sharing effect may be beneficial for the value of REITs. Using the difference-in-differences design with propensity score matching, we find that the negative impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake on the profitability was significantly smaller with keiretsu REITs than with non-keiretsu REITs. Keiretsu REITs were also able to stabilise their capital structure by shifting some short-term debts to long-term debts without increasing the cost of loans under the uncertain situation caused by the Earthquake. Keiretsu REITs were able to borrow money from their affiliated group banks even right after the earthquake, while non-keiretsu REITs seem to have struggled to secure loans from those banks.

Dr Masaki Mori

Dr Masaki Mori has international educational and research experience in Real Estate Finance and Investment in Japan, U.S., Singapore, U.K., and Switzerland. Masaki Mori is constantly ranked as one of the world's academic leaders in the area of Real Estate. Before joining Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, Masaki Mori was a manager at Nomura Asset Management, Associate Professor of Finance at the International University of Japan, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, and Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance and Investment at the University of Reading. He also served as Associate Dean of Graduate School of International Management of IUJ and Programme Director of Master in Real Estate Finance at Reading. He has taught Real Estate and Finance courses such as Real Estate Finance and Mortgage Banking, Investment, Portfolio Management, Derivatives Markets, and Debt Securities Markets for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for business professionals. He was awarded University-level and School-level teaching excellence awards at NUS. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.

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You Look at Us Like Insects' Cinema’s Uncomfortable encounter with the Ethnographic Gaze

Hosted by the Reframing Africa and The Department of Anthropology as part of their second-semester webinar series: The Challenges and Surprises of the Archive.

 In 1965 Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembène’s historic encounter with ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch questioned the legitimacy of the cinematic ethnographic gaze in Africa. Though Sembène’s moral questioning remains valid, it is today necessary to recast cinema’s relationship to the ethnographic project by placing the self/body at the centre of its operations, not as object (insects) which has historically been the dominant mode of representation. But as an active subject engaged in deconstructing this uncomfortable relationship through a project of new epistemic inscriptions and modes of interpretation capable of interrogating the psychic spaces historically occupied by ethnographic filmmakers. This procedure requires sustained interpretive engagements with the archives because it is the site in which the body was framed and reframed by the ethnographic gaze. This presentation by Reece Auguiste (filmmaker/writer/co-founder Black Audio Film Collective, Associate Professor, Critical Media Practices, University of Colorado) proposes to explore how scholars of ethnography and moving image artists might utilize and reposition ethnographic cinema in the service of teaching and media-making predicated upon producing radically new conceptions of the self and its techniques of becoming in relation to the broader regime of decoloniality.

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How will we supply the future need for electricity in South Africa?

Professor Wikus van Niekerk, Dean of Engineering at Stellenbosch University will present the 2021 John Orr Memorial Lecture.

South Africa has been struggling to cope with above inflation increases in our cost of electricity as well as a shortage of supply that led to rolling blackouts or “loadshedding”.  At the same time, we face the additional challenges of climate change and with most of our electricity currently supplied by coal-fired power stations, there is a clear need that we need to transition to cleaner production of electricity.

In this talk,Van Niekerk will explore the options available to South Africa to make this transition, the resources available to do so, the challenges that this will bring about and, most importantly, the projected cost trajectory of these new sources.

This lecture is hosted by the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering.

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Wits Cricket Research Hub Launch

All cricket stakeholders are invited to the launch of the Wits Cricket Research Hub.

The mission of the Wits Cricket Research Hub is to create new knowledge, which is not only relevant to our local context but also innovative and competitive in the international cricket sphere. The hub will generate impact by translating findings into practice and meaningful collaboration with other researchers, while fostering an evidence-based culture amongst coaches, trainers, healthcare providers, players, and other cricket stakeholders. Read more about the Wits CRH here: https://www.wits.ac.za/wcrh/

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African conversation on the future of our universities

Professor Ruksana Osman, Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, at Wits will facilitate the conversation.

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Checking the Facts: Authenticity, innovation, and the media in the wake of a pandemic

The Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care will host this webinar as part of the Imagining Innovations webinar.

For more information about this series visit the Wits Wethu page.

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Innovations in condoms: Their key role in pregnancy and STI/HIV prevention

Professor Mags Beksinska, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology will present her inaugural lecture.

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Global Electric Power Sector - Engaging with Environmental Issues

The SAIEE 70th Bernard Price Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Professor Saifur Rahman from the Advanced Research Institute Virginia Tech, USA.

The annual lecture is presented annually by eminent scientists or engineers.

Abstract: Efforts in the electric power sector to replace fossil fuel with renewables and nuclear will help. But if emission from the transportation sector continues to rise, the drop in power sector contributions will not be enough. Large scale electric vehicle deployment will help, but the question remains – how will the EV be powered?

This memorial lecture is jointly hosted by the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and Wits University in honour of Bernard Price who was respected locally and internationally for his technical expertise. His interest in the sciences led to him establishing the Bernard Price Institute for Geophysical Research and the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at Wits University. The University conferred on him an Honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1935. The Institute of Electrical Engineers founded the Bernard Price Memorial Lecture in his honour.

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The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition and Climate Change

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) in partnership with Wits will host the ASSAf Distinguished Visiting Scholar (DVS) Lecture.

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Electrical and Information Engineering Women's Conference

The School of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE) hosts its first annual women's conference to highlight and accelerate the research of women in STEM.

Guest speakers include Dr Tempest van Schaik, Senior Machine Learning Engineer from Microsoft; Dr Maletsabisa Molapo, Research manager from IBM and Prof. Michèle Ramsay, Director of the Wits Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB). View the programme.

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Book launch: Pandemics and Healthcare

Join this virtual launch of a new book on pandemics and healthcare.

A new book, Pandemics and Healthcare: Principles, Processes and Practice, by lead authors, Professors Ames Dhai, Daynia Ballot and Martin Veller, will launch in a virtual event hosted on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/jutawebmaster.

The guest speakers are Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, and Professor Glenda Gray, President and CEO: South African Medical Research Council and Research Professor at Wits University.

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