UCT Faculty of Humanities

16/05/2026

Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela invites members of the university community and the public to the next UCT Inaugural Lecture, to be presented by Professor Ryan Nefdt from the Faculty of Humanities.

The lecture is titled “Language, Patterns and Automata: The Algorithms Behind Linguistic Reality” and will take place on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 at 18:00 SAST in the Mafeje Room, Bremner Building, Middle Campus.

Professor Nefdt is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, working at the intersection of philosophy of language, linguistics and cognitive science. His research focuses on the foundations of linguistic theory and the role of formal models in explaining language.

He is the author of several books and has received multiple awards, including the National Research Foundation P-rating and the Universities South Africa medal for emerging researcher in the humanities and social sciences.



Register now: https://qr.link/hfRkFq

15/05/2026

Professor Ryan Nefdt will deliver his inaugural lecture titled “Language, Patterns and Automata: The Algorithms Behind Linguistic Reality” taking place on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 at 18:00 SAST in the Mafeje Room, Bremner Building, Middle Campus.

Professor Nefdt is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, working at the intersection of philosophy of language, linguistics and cognitive science. His research focuses on the foundations of linguistic theory and the role of formal models in explaining language.

He is the author of several books and has received multiple awards, including the National Research Foundation P-rating and the Universities South Africa medal for emerging researcher in the humanities and social sciences.

Register now

12/05/2026

The Everyday Entrepreneur (11–13 May 2026) is a 3-day, in-person programme for UCT students at the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika (Middle Campus). It’s not about starting a business - it’s about learning to think and act like an entrepreneur in life: building creativity, adaptability, confidence in problem-solving, and the ability to turn uncertainty into opportunity.

Apply here: https://wkf.ms/4rTSIyr | Learn more: https://dschoolafrika.org/learn-design-thinking/student-programmes/the-everyday-entrepreneur/

04/05/2026

The Faculty of Humanities warmly invites you to attend the launch of Shackville: An AR/VR Exhibition, a commemorative project marking ten years since the 2016 protests.
This important digital humanities initiative revisits the legacy of Shackville through Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality installations across campus, engaging questions of memory, justice, student activism, space, and transformation. By overlaying digital artworks onto significant campus sites, the project invites us to reflect on how histories of protest continue to shape the present and future of the university.
Event Details
Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2026
Time: 16:30 - 18:00
Starting Point: Rustenburg Memorial
Concluding Point: Sarah Baartman Plaza
Guests will move through a guided commemorative walk and interactive exhibition experience across campus.
We encourage all colleagues to join us in supporting this significant Faculty initiative.
For further information, please contact:
[email protected]
[email protected]
We look forward to welcoming you.

23/04/2026

Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela invites members of the university community and the public to the next UCT Inaugural Lecture, to be presented by Professor Adam Mendelsohn from the Faculty of Humanities.

The lecture is titled “Where to for the Jews?” and will take place on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 at 18:00 SAST in Auditorium LT1, Neville Alexander Building, lower campus.

Professor Mendelsohn is the director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies.



Register now: https://qr.codes/jCTDy5

23/04/2026

Professor Adam Mendelsohn will deliver his inaugural lecture titled “Where to for the Jews?”
The lecture will take place on Wednesday, 29
April 2026 at 18:00 SAST in Auditorium LT1, Neville Alexander Building, lower campus.
Register now using link in story

14/04/2026

Michaelis School of Fine Art welcomes you to come and meet our passionate lecturers, tour our studios and workshops, and learn how we inspire a love for art every day.

24th April 2026
13h30 – 15h30



13h30 – Arrival

13h45–14h00 – HoD introduction (Michaelis Lecture Theatre)

14h00-14h15 – Q&A

14h20-15h30 – Campus Walkabout

24/02/2026

Professor Moore will deliver her inaugural lecture, “Who cares? The directions of state-family relationships in changing times”, on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 at 17:30 SAST at the New Lecture Theatre on upper campus.

This lecture will bring together a sustained body of research on how care is organised, experienced and governed amid social and economic change. It will also examine how responsibility for care is allocated between families, the state and other actors, and what this means for those who provide and receive care.

Professor Moore is professor of Sociology at UCT. Her work shows that care is not simply a private matter or moral choice. It is shaped by law, public policy, labour markets, demographic shifts and histories of structural exclusion in post-colonial contexts. Through this lecture, she will demonstrate how care operates as a social relation embedded in political and economic systems

Professor Moore’s research focuses on family life, gendered inequalities and the relationship between families and the state. She is the author of Generation, Gender and Negotiating Custom in South Africa (2022) and Divorce, Families and Emotion Work (2017), and co-author (with Chuma Himonga) of Reform of Customary Marriage, Divorce and Succession in South Africa (2015).

She is a recipient of UCT’s Distinguished Teacher Award (2021) and the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Responsiveness Award (2023). She currently holds a Wellcome Career Award (2023–2028) and an IDRC Scaling Care Innovations in Africa Award (2024–2027), through which she leads a regional research programme on family caregiving of older persons in Southern Africa. Over the past two decades, her scholarship has shaped public and policy debates on care in the region, and her current work on elder care is influencing regional policy frameworks.

As the sociologist Arlie Hochschild observed, “Care is the invisible heart of society”. Professor Moore’s lecture invites us to make that heart visible, to examine how care is structured, valued and distributed, and to ask who bears its responsibilities in changing times.

Click here to RSVP: https://shorturl.at/SrwIJ

20/01/2026

23/12/2025

Happy Holidays!