Wits School of Social Sciences

10/04/2026

10/04/2026

Highlights from our first SOSS Seminar on Thursday, 19 March 2026 on Decolonising the Media: Gender Euphorias, which approached decolonising the media as an unlearning of the stories that have taught us who we are allowed to be. Our next one is on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 and is titled Language & Theory: Interrogating The Use of Western Feminist Frameworks in the Global South with Speakers Dr. Christiana Kelly and Shinta Jennifer Ayebazibwe and Chaired by Mila Mabhongo. RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfb3YnOb3OVeXj-VklHWvAICtEVRIV82B0eUzc6yQBATEglMw/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawRFjyhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe7_E4OW-nqTXjVv8mMWdz_eY8CRk8455xcfEKo8xPiqsbQmM931M74Bz9SI0_aem_YVr2j8pp0jCxEtGTXQf48g

10/04/2026

Please join WiCDS and the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) in launching this important new book. "East African Q***r and Trans Displacements" is edited by John Marnell, B Camminga, Barbara Bompani and Kamau Wairuri, and published by Bloomsbury Academic.

On Monday, 13 April, 13.30-15.30, at the WiCDS office (in-person event). Scan the QR code on the poster to download the book.

10/04/2026

🔉 EVENT: Join us next week for this hybrid public seminar titled, 'Fixed Systems, Mobile Lives: Structural Misalignment and the Negotiation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Care among Mobile Adolescents and Young People in Johannesburg', by ACMS's Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Lucy Khofi. Her discussant will be Professor Busisiwe Nkala-Dlamini of the Wits - University of the Witwatersrand's Department of Social Work.

📅 Date: 15 April 2026
⏰ Time: 12:30-13:30 (GMT+2)
📍 Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd Floor), Wits University (see directions here: https://tinyurl.com/46am68us)
ℹ️ For more details and the Zoom link, visit our website: https://tinyurl.com/57anh45b

📑 Abstract:
South Africa has strong legal and policy commitments towards universal health coverage (UHC) and the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). However, mobile adolescents and young people (mAYP) continue to face significant challenges in accessing SRHR services, particularly in rapidly urbanising contexts characterised by high levels of internal and cross-border mobility. This paper draws on rapid ethnographic assessments conducted in Johannesburg, including inner-city and Soweto township sites, to examine how mAYP experience and navigate access to SRHR services. It argues that SRHR service delivery in urban South Africa is structurally misaligned with the lived realities of mAYP, requiring them to continuously negotiate their access to care. These findings have implications for achieving UHC and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in relation to health, gender equality, and reducing inequalities.

18/03/2026

Session 1: Thursday, 19 March 2026 - Decolonising the Media: Gender Euphorias.

Speakers: Dr. Katlego Disemelo and Sihle Mazibu

Chaired by: Mehnaaz Moosa and Kholo Ndotshayisa

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfb3YnOb3OVeXj-VklHWvAICtEVRIV82B0eUzc6yQBATEglMw/viewform

16/03/2026

You're invited to our 2026 Seminar Series starting this Thursday, 19 March 2026 with Session 1: - Decolonising the Media: Gender Euphorias

This seminar approaches decolonising the media as an unlearning of the stories that have taught us who we are allowed to be. It reflects on double consciousness and the tension between being seen as a woman and being recognised as fully human, particularly within colonial and patriarchal frameworks. Media is examined as a space where bodies are disciplined and made disposable through beauty standards, ageism, r**e culture, and the commodification of femininity, especially in relation to Black women, young girls, and marginalised communities of colour. The discussion traces how capitalism, romance, and social media shape desire, innocence, and worth, asking who is rendered visible, lovable, or expendable. By centring q***r representation, alternative masculinities, and gender euphoria, the seminar imagines decolonised media as a site of affirmation, resistance, and the possibility of seeing and being seen otherwise.

Speakers: Dr. Katlego Disemelo and Sihle Mazibu

Chaired by: Mehnaaz Moosa and Kholo Ndotshayisa

RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfb3YnOb3OVeXj-VklHWvAICtEVRIV82B0eUzc6yQBATEglMw/viewform

23/01/2026

📢 Call for Papers

Lorena Núñez Carrasco (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa), Ana Lucia Olmos Álvarez (CONICET / Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda, Argentina) and Olga Lidia Olivas Hernández (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico) are co-editing a Special Issue of the Journal of Social Sciences & Religion titled "Health, Religion, and Spirituality: Interstices in a Complex Field of Knowledge and Practices."

The call is open until April 30 and welcomes submissions in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. All manuscripts will go through a double-anonymised peer review process. Proposals must be sent to the following link: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/csr/about/submissions

14/11/2025

The History Department, University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with African Bank, invites applications for the African Bank Black Pioneers PhD Scholarship for 2026 - 2028.

Closing date: 18 December 2025

Welcome to the Wits History Department Whether you are an intending major, sampling one of our courses as an elective, or planning on joining us for a postgraduate degree we are delighted that you have joined us on your academic journey. You join one of Africa’s longest standing departments, estab...

09/11/2025

STUDY: Our postgraduate programmes in Migration and Displacement Studies are still open for 2026 applications. The closing date has now been extended to 15 November 2025.

ACMS, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, is a leading institute for migration and society research, and also an African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Migration and Mobility.

🧑🏽‍🎓 We offer Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Masters and PhD programmes.

💡 Join us in our exciting, interdisciplinary teaching and research environment.

🌍 Get involved in innovative research projects, connecting with regional and international players in the migration sphere.

📝 Gain practical skills necessary to understand, analyse and advise on the drivers, impacts and management of migration.

ℹ️ For more information email [email protected], or download our prospectus here: https://www.migration.org.za/study-at-acms-applications-extended-15-nov/

08/11/2025

⚠️ Hurry and join us, applications are still open!

WiCDS call for Honours, Master's, and PhD applications is open until 30 November 2025. Become part of the WiCDS community next year! �

Apply today: www.wits.ac.za/postgraduate/applications

23/10/2025

The School of Social Sciences at Wits University, in partnership with the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), hosted a two-day workshop titled Beyond Binaries: Global Circuits of Influence, Exchange and Knowledge Production on 18–19 September at the Wits Humanities Graduate Centre. The event brought together scholars, researchers, and students to explore new ways of thinking about decolonisation, academic exchange, and fieldwork.

Beyond Binaries project challenges practices in knowledge production 30 September 2025 - Wits University Scholars say new forms of solidarity are desperately needed and that the social sciences must continue to resist and dismantle longstanding hierarchies. The School of Social Sciences at Wits Univ...