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Artist Andrea Rolfes
The History Workshop Since 1977 the History Workshop has been promoting research into the lives, experiences and social worlds of people and communities in South Africa that have by and large been neglected by scholarly investigation to address the erasures of colonialism and apartheid.
Soweto History and Archives Project In 2023 the History Workshop was awarded a grant for the Soweto History and Archives Project (SHAP!). Despite its prominence, Soweto’s history has not been chronicled in depth.
Public History A guiding concern for the History Workshop has been to collaborate with communities to write and archive their histories. Since the 1990s, the History Workshop has received requests for participation in public history and projects driven from below, reflecting its reputation as one of the country’s leading public history institutions.
Local Histories and Present Realities The National Research Foundation awarded a Research Chair on the theme ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’ to Prof. Philip Bonner in 2007 and renewed this to Prof. Noor Nieftagodien in 2012.
Photography William Matlala
The 'Everyday' And Public History In 2017 the Wits History Workshop was awarded a prestigious grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to research ‘The Everyday and Public History’. The project seeks to give sustained attention to the ‘everyday’ as a conceptual frame in the field of public history.
People The History Workshop is made up of an interdisciplinary research group of academics in the School of Social Sciences at Wits. The group is involved in a range of heritage and public history projects, including published community histories, exhibitions and museums, and other major public history initiatives.

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