Celebrating 100 years of Geography in South Africa
The Society of South African Geographers (SSAG) celebrated a century of Geography in South Africa with a centenary conference held at Stellenbosch University from 25-28 September 2016. Over 200 delegates participated in the conference, coming from across South Africa and from 13 other countries.
GCRO’s Richard Ballard, Siân Butcher, Christina Culwick and Christian Hamann attended the conference. GCRO participated extensively in the conference with each of the researchers presenting papers, and Richard and Siân also chairing sessions.
Richard and Siân both presented in a vibrant session entitled ‘Future cities?’. Richard presented ‘Imagining Gauteng: A conceptual framework’, and Siân presented ‘Urban Geography, meet Economic Geography: Sub-disciplinary dialogue in the age of Economic Freedom Fighters.
Christian Hamann presented research from his masters entitled ‘The central-south citadel and the dynamic periphery: (De)segregation and inequality in the City of Tshwane, South Africa’ in the session ‘Contested urban social dynamics’.
Christina Culwick presented some preliminary research entitled ‘Making an informal life in Gauteng: Changing economic and household arrangements in a context of rapid urbanisation’ in the session on ‘Informality and the everyday city’.
As part of the centenary celebrations, Richard Ballard was instrumental in organising a special issue of the South African Geographical Journal. The special issue presents a range of current research authored by South African geographers.
In addition to the conference, the SSAG organised a writing workshop for emerging scholars based at academic departments or institutes in South Africa. The intention of the workshop was to support and develop young Geographers in publishing academic journal articles. Richard Ballard contributed as a reviewer and discussant at the workshop. Christina Culwick participated in this workshop with a paper that she is currently writing with Hannah Dawson, a PhD candidate at Oxford University.
