1902/2012 South Africa & Translating Blackness

“1902/2012” traces the emergence of Blackness as an ontological category in South Africa. It offers an analysis of early twentieth century Black writing in order to make claims about what Blackness came to mean at the dawn of the last century.

Victoria Collis-Buthelezi is director of the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender, and Class at the University of Johannesburg. Her research interests are Caribbean studies, African and African diaspora literature, and black intellectual and literary history. Her current book project, Before Nation, excavates black globalism in Cape Town at the dawn of the twentieth century and its investments in empire thinking. She co-edits with Natalia Brizuela and Leticia Sabsay the Critical South Book Series (Polity).

Presented by the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Berkeley.