Back to the Future: “English” relearning its ABCs
| When: | Tuesday, 31 March 2026 |
| Where: | Staff Lounge (upper concourse), Bohlaleng Block, Wits Education Campus, 27 St Andrew’s Road, Parktown. |
| Start time: | 16:00 |
| Enquiries: | |
| RSVP: | RSVP to Ms Patricia Modiba at englishacademyofsa@gmail.com by 24 March 2026. |
English Academy of Southern Africa in partnership with the Wits School of Education invites you to the 2026 English Academy Percy Baneshik Memorial Lecture.
This talk will begin with some reflections on “English” – as an academic subject, as a scholarly field and as a spur to creative practice – along with the language of English (or Englishes) in multilingual contexts and in the age of Large Language Models. Professor Thurman will place these reflections in dialogue with aspects of Percy Baneshik’s career, especially his work as an arts critic and as a radio broadcaster. The lecture will conclude by taking a – hopefully unpredictable – South African Shakespearean turn.
Guest speaker: Professor Chris Thurman (Department of English, School of Literature, Language and Media, Wits University).
The event includes the presentation of the English Academy Gold Medal Award to Professor Mbongeni Malaba (University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus) for his outstanding service to English over a lifetime.
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