Wits Centre for Diversity Studies

Wits Centre for Diversity Studies The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies is based in the Faculty of Humanities at Wits University.

Through interdisciplinary postgraduate education, courses for the public, and research, WiCDS aims to build capacity to meet the challenges of diverse societies, especially in post-apartheid South Africa.

Join us on Wednesday for a beautiful transnational discussion of drag, q***rness, history and memory.Please join WiCDS a...
28/09/2026

Join us on Wednesday for a beautiful transnational discussion of drag, q***rness, history and memory.

Please join WiCDS and the Wits School of Arts (WSOA) for a public lecture by Professor Evelyn Annuß. Wednesday, 30 September, 13.00-14.30, in the WiCDS office and online (follow the QR code on the poster to register).

Dirty Dragging. On Political Violence and Performativity

Against the backdrop of a globalising drift toward authoritarian forms of governing and accompanying resentment politics, the lecture examines two complementary drag scenes in the historical contexts of apartheid and National Socialism. Drawing on photographic sources from the GALA Archive at Wits and the Bavarian State Library in Munich, it discusses the current afterlife of different forms of political violence as well as the potential of performative defiance across time and space. By reformulating existing q***r theoretical approaches to drag, the lecture foregrounds the situatedness of performative practices and their entanglement with specific societal and political contexts. Bringing South African and German archival materials into dialogue, it asks how transoceanic perspectives might help to counter current processes of fascization.

Evelyn Annuß is a cultural and theatre studies scholar, professor of Gender Studies and head of the International Research Center Gender and Performativity (ICGP) at mdw, the University of Performing Arts Vienna. Her most recent publications include Facing Drag: Gender Bending and Racialized Masking in Performing Arts and Popular Culture (edited with Raz Weiner, mdwPress, 2025) and Dirty Dragging: Performative Transpositions (mdwPress, 2026).

Join Evelyn Annuß and Laura Mücke for a research seminar exploring performative techniques and the intersections of aest...
24/09/2026

Join Evelyn Annuß and Laura Mücke for a research seminar exploring performative techniques and the intersections of aesthetics, politics, gender, racism/colonialism and antisemitism.

In conjunction with the Drama for Life Research Week at Wits, the reading for this event is available at the link: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7475-0/dirty-dragging/?number=978-3-8394-7475-4

All are welcome: 29 Sep, from 12:30 to 14:00, at Wits Theatre.

Yesterday, WiCDS and the SA Research Chair in Science Communication hosted the book launch of The Cultural Politics of F...
23/09/2026

Yesterday, WiCDS and the SA Research Chair in Science Communication hosted the book launch of The Cultural Politics of Food in South Africa: Media, Nourishment, Inequality.

Editors Mehita Iqani and Sarah Gibson, together with authors Maya Loon, Brittany Kesselman and Tammy Langtry, joined us for a rich discussion on the intersections of food, culture, identity, politics and power.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

WiCDS has a new staff member! Dr Gavaza Maluleke is a Senior Lecturer and her research explores ways of knowing grounded...
22/09/2026

WiCDS has a new staff member!

Dr Gavaza Maluleke is a Senior Lecturer and her research explores ways of knowing grounded in isiNtu/xiNtu, as well as digital activism, transnational feminisms, migration, gendered violence and masculinities.

Welcome on board, Doc! ;)

Violence against women is everyone’s problem!The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies adds its voice to calls from feminist...
21/09/2026

Violence against women is everyone’s problem!

The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies adds its voice to calls from feminist and civil society organisations for the crisis of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa to be addressed with the utmost urgency.

Women, girls, q***r and female-identified people have the right to safety, freedom and full participation in society.
Addressing GBV requires transparent, robust and evidence-based solutions, alongside meaningful institutional accountability.

Our WiCDS Wednesday seminar was chaired by Prof Nicky Falkof, our director, and the guest speaker, Dr Ujithra Ponniah. U...
18/09/2026

Our WiCDS Wednesday seminar was chaired by Prof Nicky Falkof, our director, and the guest speaker, Dr Ujithra Ponniah.

Ujithra reflected on ‘pragmatic love’ in India, a concept drawn from her new book Becoming Agarwal: The Manufacture of a Close-Knit Mercantile Caste. Drawing on in-depth interviews and long-term ethnographic observations conducted among elite upper-caste women in Delhi, she explored the careful affective manoeuvrings within mother-daughter relationships, especially in the pre-marital stage of life.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this thought-provoking conversation!

Last week, WiCDS students gathered at Foxwood House for a writing retreat, making space for focused writing, collective ...
16/09/2026

Last week, WiCDS students gathered at Foxwood House for a writing retreat, making space for focused writing, collective reflection, new ideas and, of course, community-building engagement.

Many thanks to Hayley Gewer, who led a writing workshop in the mornings and to our postdoctoral fellow, Mayne Benedetto, who chaired and ensured a great event.

We appreciate everyone’s commitment to making that week special and productive!

WiCDS and the SA Research Chair in Science Communication are pleased to welcome editors Mehita Iqani and Sarah Gibson, a...
15/09/2026

WiCDS and the SA Research Chair in Science Communication are pleased to welcome editors Mehita Iqani and Sarah Gibson, as well as contributors Maya Loon, Brittany Kesselman and Tammy Langtry, for a discussion on this important book: “The cultural politics of food in South Africa: Media, nourishment, inequality”.

Food is both a material system of nourishment, necessary for human survival, and a communicative system that signifies multiple meanings across human cultures. This book explores the cultural politics of food in the South African context, bringing together a range of disciplinary perspectives on the links between media, nourishment, and inequality. The chapters all highlight the multiplicity of meanings that food has in South African society. These include historical perspectives on the impact of colonialism, migration and apartheid had on food and foodways in South Africa; sociological interventions on food and society; aesthetic practices in relation to food; and mediated food cultures in South Africa. Taken together, the book critically explores the multiple ways in which food is never just food, and always linked to complex and shifting modalities of meaning and knowledge in the South African context.

This event is in-person only. A light lunch will be served.

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13th Floor, University Corner, Jorissen Street
Johannesburg
2050

Opening Hours

Monday 10:00 - 16:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 16:00
Thursday 10:00 - 16:00
Friday 10:00 - 16:00

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+27117174418

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