Date : 06 February 2013

Time : 12:15 – 14:15

Speaker: Professor Marc Epprecht, Department of Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada.

The archive in Africa is often thought of as a dull and dusty repository of colonialist values, and there is some truth to that view. Yet archives can also provide us with invaluable evidence and perspectives from the past which shed light on burning contemporary debates. We have been seeing this in the past decade in widespread controversies over sexual minority rights and sexual health for the whole population.  History reconstructed from a wide range of archival sources can be an ally in the struggle to resolve those controversies in support of sexual rights and health, helping us to challenge laws, customs, policies, and social attitudes that are based upon inherited harmful stereotypes and stigmas. In this talk, I would like to make the case for more attention to history in the emerging scholarship on sexualities in Africa, bearing in mind the many challenges of using archives as well as their great potential.

Kindly RSVP by 4 February 2013

This lecture may be attended via video conference in Pretoria, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal. Details are indicated below.

Cape Town : HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Jean Witten, Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or JWitten@hsrc.ac.za

Durban :  First floor HSRC board room, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel (031) 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za

Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Happy Solomon, Tel 012 3022368, E-mail: HSolomon@hsrc.ac.za