UJ’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) recently received $175,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (the first such grant to UJ by the Corporation) for a two-year project (April 2018-March 2020) on “Transforming Ivory Towers to Ebony Towers: Lessons for South Africa’s Curriculum Transformation in The Humanities from Africa and African-American Studies.”
Prominent South African, African, and African-American scholars will present 24 papers on 18 and 19 August 2018 around four broad themes: The Challenges of Transforming the South African Higher Education Sector; Key Issues in Transforming South Africa’s Higher Education Sector; Lessons from Africa; and Lessons From African-American Studies. This conference draws on lessons from six African countries – Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Senegal – as well as the establishment of Africana and African-American studies in the United States (US), in an effort to contribute to scholarship and policy development for transforming South Africa’s curriculum in the field of humanities. A 25-chapter edited book and 5-page policy will be produced after the meeting, and widely disseminated across South Africa, Africa, and the US. Six book launches will also be held across South African universities after publication of the book.
Carnegie Corporation of New York is America’s oldest grant making foundation. Established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation’s work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy.