WiSER is the pre-eminent interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences
Established by Deborah Posel in September 2001 WISER very quickly established itself as the pre-eminent interdisciplinary research institute in the humanities and social sciences in South Africa, and one of the most influential globally. The institute draws on a history of advanced interdisciplinary research at Wits that dates back to the late 1960s, but over the last decade, in particular, it has
17/06/2026
Meet Professor Hlonipha Mokoena! Author of The Nightwatchman - Representing Black Men In Colonial South Africa published by Wits University Press
Prof Mokoena is a historian and the Director of Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research she is also the author of Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual ❤️📚
01/06/2026
The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg has been ranked the No. 1 university in Africa in the 2026 Center for World University Rankings (CWUR). 💙🏛️
Read More: https://ow.ly/XFKT50Z60uC
25/05/2026
This month’s edition examines how trust becomes a tool of governance, contestation, and control across public life. The contributions move from the politics of the Edelman Trust Barometer to South Africa’s emerging digital identity regulations, anti-immigrant mobilisation, Ghana’s mobile money sector, and South Korea’s Zero Trust cybersecurity model.
URL: https://shorturl.at/GEd9W
18/05/2026
Please join WiCDS and the Innovation Foundation for Democracy for a SARChI Chair Distinguished Lecture, featuring Jordache A. Ellapen in conversation with Victoria Collis-Buthelezi and Sarah Nuttall.
‘Q***ring the Archive: Indenture Aesthetics and South African Blackness’ is based on Ellapen’s recently published book, Indenture Aesthetics: Afro-Indian Femininities and the Q***r Limits of South African Blackness (DUP, 2025). This lecture will introduce a few conceptual terms – indenture aesthetics, Afro-normativity, Afro-Indian, Blackening – thinking with and alongside South African Black Feminists - and will discuss the ethical politics of solidarity and coalitional building in post-apartheid South Africa.
Jordache A. Ellapen is Associate Professor of Feminist Studies in Culture and Media at the University of Toronto. He has spent the last two years (2024-2026) as an Associate Professor of Black Studies at the University of Rochester. With graduate training in South Africa and the USA, Ellapen works at the intersections of Global Black Studies, Feminist and Q***r Studies, and Visual Culture and Performance Studies. He has a particular interest in the making of race within the Indian Ocean world and genealogies of Blackness outside of the Atlantic World. He is the author of Indenture Aesthetics: Afro-Indian Femininities and the Q***r Limits of South African Blackness (Duke University Press, 2025), and a number of award-winning articles.
Tuesday, 19 May, 13.00, online and at the WiCDS office (13th floor, Es’Kia Mphahlele Building, cnr Jorrisen and Jan Smuts, above Wits Art Museum). Refreshments will be served.
Registration link for online attendance: https://wits-za.zoom.us/meeting/register/K1WT8dXeSL2Z3EJPI_oBDQ #/registration
***rness -IndianFemininities
07/05/2026
Join WICDS on 13 May at 13:30 for Sociology Hesitant: Du Bois and the multiple consciousnesses of being Black with Mosa Phadi and Cole Meintjies, chaired by Sandra Mbewe.
📍 WiCDS office + online
🗓 Wednesday, 13 May
⏰ 13:30
🔗https://shorturl.at/4G2RF
A conversation on Du Bois, Black consciousness, freedom, and liberation.
05/05/2026
The Portuguese Embassy invites you to a
A seminar with Isabel Hofmeyr (WiSER, Wits) and Lucy Graham (UJ)
RE-READING
CAMỐES
OCEAN WORLDS, CONTACT AND THE INDIAN OCEAN FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA
A contemporary re-reading of The Lusiads through Indian Ocean perspectives, exploring mobility, maritime routes, and early encounters in Southern Africa.
Wednesday, 6th May
09:30am
Humanities Graduate Centre
Seminar Room
Faculty of Humanities, Wits University
Refreshments will be served.
28/04/2026
This edition explores how trust is built and sustained across Africa’s digital, financial, and political systems through data, infrastructure, and institutions shaping everyday life.
Trust in Transition #26 Payments processing times
09/04/2026
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
31/03/2026
Remember to join WiSER & WiCDS for a book talk today with Kirk Sides on Environmental Entanglements: African Literature’s Ecological Imaginary
Exploring how African literature has long engaged ecological thought to contemporary speculative fiction.
Kirk Sides will be in conversation with Sarah Nuttall (WiSER) and Jarred Thompson (UP).
🗓️Tuesday, 31 March 2026
🕣12:30
📍WiSER Seminar room
RSVP : [email protected]
31/03/2026
This month: how trust is being reshaped across Africa’s financial & digital systems—from diaspora-led development and fintech growth to digital ID politics and AI-era verification challenges.
🔗 Substack :
Trust in Transition #25 Diaspora Philanthropy