TALKS

INVITED LECTURER/PANELIST:

Invited speaker at a workshop or symposium: 

  • Afrapix Photographers: Working Class Photography that Revealed the Everyday Violence of Apartheid, from Natal’s Plantations to its Factories.” “Producing Knowledge in and of Africa.” Stanford Humanities Center Workshop, Stanford University. 12 October, 2023.

  • “Rafiq Mayet’s images of factory workers, union meetings, and jazz clubs in Natal: a politically conscientized photographic practice in apartheid South Africa.” Cosmopolitan Visions, Imperial Projects: Prospects for a Global Technoscience. Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany. August 8-9, 2023. 

  • “Imagining freedom, constructing a politics of relationality on Natal’s ‘plantation’: the aesthetics of Afrapix photographers’ resistance photography”. Global Plantation Symposium. Department of African American Studies, Princeton University. 16 October 2020. 

  • “‘Inside the artery of political consciousness’: Khotso House, the Afrapix Photographers’ Collective, and the Synergies and Confluences that provided ‘a small and embattled community’ with a Practical Political Education”. Photography and Resistance Research symposium. 29th – 30th January 2019. University of Brighton, United Kingdom.

  • “‘The famous and the obscure were there, waiting for freedom’: Jeeva Rajgopaul’s photographs of South African Exiles in New York, 1991”. Conference: “Curatorial Care, Humanising Practices – Past Presences as Present Encounters”. VIAD, University of Johannesburg, 11-13 April, 2018.

  • Speaker: “Beyond the Frame: Contemporary Photography from Africa and the Diaspora” Symposium. Walther Collection/Columbia University. October 21, 2016.

Panel discussion participant/organiser: 

Invited speaker at an event:

  • “Contentious Remembering: The Afrapix photographers’ collective and agency.” 18 May 2023. The Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), University of Johannesburg.

  • “This is not the correct history.” Reading and conversation, with Cookie Jar editors Pradeep Dalal and Shiv Kotecha. Andy Warhol Arts Writers. 30 March 2023.

  • Invited presenter. “Photography and its Trouble with Black People.” Pakistan Photofestival Workshop for Photographers. 24 September 2021. 

    Speaker in a panel:

  • Panel participant: “Euclidean Gris Gris: Art Discussion with Todd Gray”. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut. With Todd Gray (artist), Zeynep Celik Alexander (Columbia University), M. Neelika Jayawardane (SUNY-Oswego). 13th May, 2021.

  • “Photography and its Trouble with Black People.” Pakistan Photofestival Workshop for Photographers. 24 September 2021. 

  • Panel moderator: “Reclamations_The Conversation: Mentorship & The Future of African Photography,” organised by Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, and the National Arts Festival, South Africa. Panelist/Moderator. 3 July, 2020. 

  • “African and African Diaspora Photojournalists and Artists: Infiltrating the Image Repertoire of Africa.” Ford Foundation’s “Global Conversations” Speaker Series. New York City.  November 2017. Speaker.

  • “How do I experience this work? Writing about art for contemporary audiences.” School of the Visual Arts (SVA). November 2017.

  • “Can We Have Mobility? Afropolitanism in the Age of White Supremacy, Nationalism, and Border Panic?” Harare Exchange for African Mobilities. Speaker. September 2017.

  • “Revealing Portraits: Zanele Muholi’s ‘Visual Activism.’” International Curators Independent Curatorial Hub, New York. 22 August 2017.

  • “Six Mountains on Her Back”: (Re) thinking African Feminisms Colloquium (South Africa). July, 2017. Speaker.

  • “Recent Histories in African Photography: Mimi Cherono Ng'ok, Monica de Miranda’s Homescapes.” The Walther Collection Project Space. New York. 16 December 2017. 

  • Panel Convener and speaker: Armory Show, Open Forum: “Writing About Art from African Perspectives: How African Art Writing and Publications Changed the View”. New York City. Friday, March 4, 2016. 

  • “Fashioning the ‘New’ Nation: George Hallett’s Photographs of Mandela and the 1994 Electoral Process in South Africa”. Black Portraitures Conference. New York University. February 19-20.

  • "Writing About Art from African Perspectives: 

  • Traces of Ecstasy: Rotimi Fani Kayode’s Photographs. Light Work, Syracuse University. Invited Speaker; Panel Organiser. September 17, 2015; Lubin House, New York City, February 11, 2016

  • “‘Seedtime’ An Omar Badsha Retrospective”. Panelist. South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. 6th June, 2015. 

  • “Ratnakara – the forger of gems: Omar Badsha’s photographs”. Centre for Indian Studies, University of the Witwatersrand. 28th May, 2015.

  • “Art and Politics: Reimagining and Rendering Africa without Borders.” Panel Discussion participant, University of South Africa (UNISA) Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa, in conjunction with exhibition, Towards Intersections, Negotiating, Subjects, Objects and Contexts, curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe. 25th May 2015.

  • “Fashioning a Visual Vocabulary: Omar Badsha's Photographs”. The Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa. 19th May 2015.

  • “Shifting the Digital Landscape: New Media in Africa, and the Impact of Africa is a Country.” Panelist on “#BlkStudiesDigitalAge: Race, Digital Media & Social Networks.” Center for African American Studies (CAAS), Princeton University. Video here. April 20, 2015.

  • “Winnie Madikizela Mandela: Reflections on the Mother of the Nation”; “Shifting the Digital Landscape: New Media in Africa and the impact of Africa is a Country”. Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. March 2015.

  • “‘Forget Maps’: Countering Global Apartheid, Creating Novel Cartographies in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret.” U. of Witwatersrand, Centre for Indian Ocean Research (CISA). June, 2014.

  • “Immobilised by Immigration: Public Perceptions of Asylum Narratives, HIV, and African Women in Nafissatou Diallo’s Rape Case against DSK.” University of Witwatersrand, Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER). 26 June, 2014.

  • “Conversation with David Goldblatt: on the Rise and Fall of Apartheid Exhibition.” Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg. 24 June, 2014.

  • “Unmarked Bodies/ Impenetrable Skin: South Africa’s Cosmetic Surgery Industry and the Performance of Power.” Rethinking Politics in Africa: Media, Knowledge-Production, Techno-Politics. Graduate Programme in International Studies, The New School, NYC. April, 2013. 

  • “Everyone’s Got Their Indian”: the History of South Asians in South Africa.” International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES). Colombo, Sri Lanka. September 2012.

  • Lectures/Presentations for the Dept. of English, Women’s Studies Programme, and Dept. of Anthropology at Calcutta University, India. September 2012.

  • Lecture for the Department of Anthropology, State University of West Bengal, India. Sept. 2012.

  • “Love/Sick: Privilege, Poverty, and AIDS Denialism in Southern Africa.” Iowa State University, November 2010. 

  • “Impenetrable Bodies/Disappearing Bodies: Fat American Celebrities, Lean Indigenous People, and Multinational Pharmaceuticals in the Battle to Claim Hoodia gordini.” Centre for Humanities Research of the University of the Western Cape. Social Theory Colloquium. 20th August, 2009.

  • "Primitive Ecstasy: Sex, Desire and the Miscegenated Other in JM Coetzee’s Fiction.” 2009 Cape Town Biennial. Chimurenga Sessions at Cape Town Central Library.

  • “Infected Fictions: HIV and AIDS Denialism in Southern Africa.” Rocky Mountain’s Women’s Institution Retrospective. April 2009.

  • “David Goldblatt: South African Photographer”.  SUNY-Oswego. ALANA Conference, September 2008.

  • “Images of South Africa: Apartheid and After.” International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka.  August 2008.

  • “‘Extraordinary Renditions’: Transporting and Translating the Images of Torture from Abu Ghraib to Vogue Italia.” Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. April 2008.

  • “Capturing the Bodies of Desire: Anna Nicole Smith, Carmen Electra, and the Khomani San in the Battle to Claim Hoodia gordini.” SUNY-Oswego. Global and International Studies Annual Reception. April, 2007.

  • “Documenting Visibility and Erasure: Mobility and Containment of the Third World Immigrant in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret. Clarkson University, Pottsdam, New York. March, 2007.

  • “Documenting Visibility and Erasure: Global Media Images of Muslim Masculinity, and the Threat of the Third-World Immigrant in Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret.” Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa. September 27th, 2006.

Invited speaker at opening of exhibition: 

Workshop leader/ writing mentor:

  • Art Writing Work: New Engagements for Artists in East Africa. A collaborative project and a part of the ‘Networking Artists in East Africa’ programme. Partners include Nairobi Contemporary, British Council in East Africa, 32 Degrees East, Ugandan Arts Trust, Makerere University, and British Council. Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council and Global Challenges Research Fund (UK).Nairobi, Kenya; Kampala, Uganda. 25th-April—1st May, 2019.

  • Critical Writing Workshop for Arts Writers. Sponsored by Contemporary And, a site for writing about contemporary art from Africa. Harare, Zimbabwe. Lecturer/Workshop Leader. Sept. 2017.

  • Goethe-Institut Johannesburg’s Centres of Learning for Photography in Africa (CLPA) at LagosPhoto Festival. Critical skills workshop for photographers. Lagos, Nigeria. Workshop leader/lecturer. October 2016. 

Invited reviewer/ arts critic & writer: 

  • 2017 Venice Biennale. Venice, Italy. May 2017.

  • Johannesburg Art Fair. Johannesburg, South Africa. September 2016. 

  • Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters), 10th Edition: “Telling Time”. Invited Arts Writer – Guest of curator Olabisi Silva. November 1-5, 2015.

  • Sharjah Biennale. May 10-16, 2015. Invited Arts Writer – Guest of Hoor Al-Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Art Foundation.

Other speaking invitations: 

  • Interview on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More” with Jackie Lyden: “Writer Nadine Gordimer Was An 'Ambassador' For African Literature”

  • Interview on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Q” with Jian Ghomeshi: “Ever notice that almost all books set in Africa have the same cover?” (About African authors, and the stereotypical images of acacia trees and sunsets on book covers chosen for them by publishers.)

  • Interview on Public Radio International's “The World”:  "Need a cover for your book about Africa? Just add an acacia."  

  • Interview on South Africa after Mandela, for International Media group, CCTV: “South Africa: Long Way to Go”. 18 October 18 2013.

  • Panel Discussion: “Listening to Scorched: Women, War and Resistance”. Storch Theatre, Syracuse Stage/Drama Complex. With Carol Fadda-Conrey and Dana Olwan (SU), and Aisha Musa (Colgate University). 26 October, 2013.

  • Film Screening and Discussion on the Anniversary of the Partition of India and Pakistan: “Conversations on Archive, Art & Knowledge Production” Discussion with Neelika Jayawardane, Jon Soske & Rajee Jeji Shergill.  University of Toronto, Canada. 18 October 18 2013.

  • Moderator/discussant for NYC-based film series, with artists & filmmakers who have recent or current projects in the Dem. Rep. of Congo: Richard Mosse, Renzo Martens, Dan McCabe and Petna Ndaliko. 15 October 2013.