HSRC 50/90 commemoration programme
The commemoration programme consists of the following interlinked projects:
1. Launch of State of the Nation 2018 in Cape Town
2. Archival research, document review, and stakeholder consultation with former HSRC staff and relevant external scholars.
3. Publication of a scholarly book in 2020 and a popular version on the same issues in the March 2019 HSRC Review issue.
4. Construction of a visual and interactive on-line timeline.
5. Production of a coffee table book that resonates with the on-line timeline and the scholarly book in a popular and image-based format.
6. A public lecture series consisting of four events hosted by the CEO of the HSRC:
a) Cape Town: The theme of this lecture focused on Poverty and Inequality: Diagnosis Prognosis Responses and was held in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Initiative, now the Poverty and Inequality Initiative (PII), the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), and the University of Cape Town on 4 March 2019.
b) eThekwini: Prof Soudien delivered the keynote speech at the annual eThekwini Research Symposium on 6 June, which was organised by a consortium consisting of eThekwini Metropolitan Council, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology, the University of South Africa, the University of Zululand, the HSRC and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The symposium focused on the nexus between urbanisation and service delivery. The keynote speech focused on the centrality of people and data, within the context of service delivery. The symposium was attended by a diverse audience, including academics, students business and society, which engaged with the lecture in order to promote the debate on race, poverty and inequality.'
c) Tshwane: Annual ASSAf Humanities Lecture The HSRC, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and the University of Pretoria (UP) offered this lecture as part of the 50/90/100 anniversary commemoration. The event took place on 14 August at the UP Future Africa campus. The lecture was entitled “Archives, scholars and bureaucrats” and focused on the archive as a means for understanding the relationship between the social science disciplines, the institutions—and particularly UP and the HSRC— and the idea of Pretoria – the capital of South Africa. This relationship shows how the bureaucratic mind meets the academic mind to facilitate the emergence of a praetorian sensibility — a sensibility of standing in ‘guard of power’.
d) Nelson Mandela Bay: The lecture A critical analysis of race and racism within current thinking is to be held at the Nelson Mandela University, in the form of a masterclass with students. It will coincide with the launch of the CEO’s book Cape Radicals: Intellectual and Political Thought of the New Era. These two events are scheduled to take place on 10 October 2019.
7. An HSRC alumni event, including an exhibition of the HSRC’s art collection and main HSRC publications.
8. The 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Conference, with invitations to external scholars.