CURRICULUM VITAE OF DAVID B. COPLAN
Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
P.B. 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
tel. 27-11-717-4405; fax 0865535984; cell 0833287882
David.Coplan@wits.ac.za
EDUCATION:
Phd.D. Indiana University - Bloomington, 1980
Major: Anthropology (Performance); Minor: African Studies
Specializations: African ethnology, history and theory of anthropology,
performing arts, urban anthropology, culture change, social organization
Dissertation: The Urbanization of African Performing Arts in South Africa,
supervisor Alan P. Merriam (deceased March 1980)
M.A. (anthropology) Indiana University - Bloomington, 1976
M.A. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon,
1972 Major: African Studies, specializing in anthropology and performing
arts. Thesis: Krobo Klama, a Study of Sacred Traditional Music in Krobo
Society; supervisor, Professor J.H.K. Nketia
B.A. with highest honors, cum laude, Williams College, Williamstown,
Massachusetts, 1970, Major: English Literature
Honors: Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1970;
Editor, Red Balloon literary magazine, 1969-70
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
The Professor and Chair in Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
1997-current. Head of Department, 1997-2006
Visiting Professor, Historisches Seminar, University of Basel, March-May, 2011
Visiting Distinguished Scholar, University of Bayreuth, Germany, May-July 2010
Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Pennsylvania, March 2008
Visiting Professor, Institute for Historical Studies, University of Basel, April 2005
Visiting Professor, École des Hautes Études Sciences Sociales, Paris, May 1999, MayJune, 2003
Associate Professor, Department of Social Anthropology University of Cape
Town, 1993-1996
Visiting Full Professor, Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston,
Texas, 1994-1995
Associate Professor (tenured), Anthropology and African Humanities, Program
in Comparative Humanities, State University of New York, College at Old
Westbury, 1981-1992
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Fulbright Lecturing and Research Professor, University of Cape Town and
University of the Western Cape, 1991
Adjunct graduate faculty, Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School
of the Arts, New York University, 1990
Occasional Lecturer, African Studies Program, Foreign Service Institute,
Department of State, Rosslyn, VA, 1981-1992
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, 1980
Adjunct faculty, Indiana University-Purdue University, Columbus Center, 1979-80
Associate Instructor, Introduction to Anthropology, Indiana - Bloomington, 1979
FIELD RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EMPLOYMENT:
Member, Steering Committee for Sacred Sites, Commission for the Promotion and
Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities, 2009
Member, Selection Panel for Councils of Heritage Institutions, Department of Arts
and Culture, of South Africa, 2006 Chief Researcher, ‘Mobilising Culture and Heritage for Nation Building:
Proposal for Research, Policy Formulation, and Practical Initiatives’,
Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa, 2007-2008
Screening Panel for research grants, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological
Research, 2001-2002
Consultant, Ignitions Art and Design: To Be World Class We Must Live Our
Values, educational stage performance event and video, Polifin Corporation, 2000
Consultant, $20 Coke Project: Cultural visions of Southern Africa, CocaCola Co.,
1997 Reference Group, research on the impact of immigration on the
South African Labour Market, Dept. of Labour, Pretoria.
Screening Committee for pre-doctoral fellowships and grants,
Social Science Research Council/American Council of Learned
Societies, Joint Committee on African Studies, 1987-1988
Advisory Panel for research planning in African Humanities, Social
Science Research Council/American Council of Learned Societies Joint
Committee on African Studies, 1987
Occasional Lecturer, African Studies Program, Foreign Service Institute,
Department of State, 1981-present
Research Project design and survey for the International Conference of
Symphony and Opera Musicians, May-August, 1981
Ethnographic Research Consultant, University of Pennsylvania Museum and
International Library of African Music, for ethno-musicological film research and
liaison in South Africa, 1975 and June, 1976 to June, 1977
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS:
Swiss-South African university staff exchange program, University of Basel, MarchMay, 2011
Anderson-Capelli Fund, grant for sabbatical research, Lesotho and Switzerland, 2011
University Research Council, ad hoc grant for publication, 2009
National Research Foundation, Rated Researchers Incentive Grant, Immigration and
Migration, 2008
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Earnest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, Faculty of Humanities ad hoc, and AndersonCapelli Fund grants for travel and research at University of California, San Diego,
February to June 2007
National Arts Council of South Africa, Mmino programme and Wits University
Research Council Grants for research and writing of updated and revised edition of
In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre (1985) 2004.
Ernest Oppenhiemer Fellowship, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, 2002
Council for Science Development, HSRC, supervisor allocation graduate scholarship
for research project A Border Amidst Our Land: Transformations Of and Across
the Lesotho - South African Border 1998-2000 renewable
Council for Science Development, HSRC, research grant for project: A Border
Amidst Our Land: Transformations Of and Across the Lesotho - South African
Border, into mutual cultural transformations along the Caledon River Valley, 1998
Wenner-Gren Foundation small grant for research A Border Amidst Our Land:
Transformations Of and Across the Lesotho - South African Border
Witwatersrand University, Senate Research and Equipment Grants for the Project:
A Border Amidst Our Land, 1998
Witwatersrand University Senate Research Grant for research along the Caledon River
Free State – Lesotho Border, 1997
SSRC, CSD grant to participate in an international conference abroad:
2nd International Conference on Oral Literature in Africa, Accra, 24-30 Oct., 1995
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, grant for
research on The Legal Protection of Migrant Workers in South Africa, 1995-96
Human Sciences Research Council, Council for Scientific Development, grant for
research into Musical Action for People's Progress and other youth cultural
education organizations in disadvantaged communities in the Cape Flats, 1994-1995
International Development Research Centre, Ottowa, Canada and the University
of Cape Town, project in the social impact of changes in the structure of
employment in the migrant labour system in Lesotho, 1993-1994
National Endowment for the Humanities, Translations of African Historical
Documents Project, support for the preparation of Lyrics of the Basotho
Migrants, for publication by Michigan State University Press, 1989-1993
Zora Neale Hurston Visiting Fellow, African Humanities Institute, Northwestern
University, March 1992
Fulbright Lecturing/Research Fellow, South Africa, 1991
National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for Independent Research,
June 1988 - June 1989
Social Science Research Council, post-doctoral research grant, April 1989
American Council of Learned Societies, Grant for International Meeting, 1987.
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend, 1987
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Seminar in Oral Literature,
The University of Texas - Austin, 1985.
Social Science Research Council, post-doctoral grant for field research
project, Performance, Self-definition, and Social Experience Among Basotho
Migrant Mineworkers; Lesotho, 1981-82(declined); Awarded 1983-84(accepted).
Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship for dissertation research in anthropology, 1977-78
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National Defense Foreign Language Fellowships, 1975, 1976, 1977
Assistant, Human Relations Area Files, Indiana University, 1974
Indiana University Fellowship, 1973-74
FIELD WORK AND RESEARCH:
Research for documentary film, experiences of migrant workers under apartheid, Dec.
2010 – January 2011; June-August, 2011
Research on border management and immigration along the South Africa – Lesotho
border, National Research Foundation, 2008-2009
Research on comparison of US-Mexico and South Africa-Lesotho borders, February –
November, 2007, San Diego California and Tijuana, Mexico; Maseru, Lesotho
Contemporary South African performing arts, Johannesburg, 2000-2006
Oxford University, Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House. Border Studies
in southern Africa, specifically, South Africa – Lesotho, April-July, 2002
Eastern Free State and Lesotho, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. Research into the
cultural and social dynamics of cross-border interaction and migration along the
Caledon River
Cape Town, 1994: research into the operation and impact of Musical Action for
People's Progress in disadvantaged communities in the Cape Flats
Lesotho, 1993-1994: The impact of changes in the migrant labour system on
communities in Lesotho and implications for future migrant labour policy.
South Africa, 1991: Interviews for the Late Editions Project sponsored by
the Department of Anthropology, Rice University
Lesotho and South Africa, June 1988 - June 1989: Research on Basotho
ethnography and oral literature
Lesotho, December, 1983 to August, 1984: Research into the musical poetry
and social experience of Basotho migrants
Washington, D.C. and New York City, 1981: Research into the personal and
professional problems of American Symphony Orchestra musicians;
commissioned by the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians
Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, United Kingdom, 1978: rural-urban linkages and
rural foundations of modern southern African performing arts
South Africa, May-June, 1975 and June, 1976 to June, 1977; research into the historical
urbanization of performing arts in Johannesburg's African townships
Southern Ghana, July-August, 1974; traditional music of the Ashanti and Krobo
peoples; urban music and social history
Southeastern Ghana, 1971-72; traditional music and society of the Krobo people
CONFERENCES
Host, African Borders Research Network Annual Conference, ‘How is Africa
Transforming Border Studies?’ Wits University, Johannesburg, 10-14 Sept., 2009
Host, Workshop and Launch: “Cultural Practice and Memory: reclaiming living heritage
through Sacred Sites”, CRL Rights Commission, Wits University, 21 April, 2010
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PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
2007 In Township Tonight! Three Centuries of South African Black City Music and
Theatre (2nd edition, revised and updated). Johannesburg: Jacana; Chicago: Chicago
University Press, November 2007 and February 2008.
1995 Lyrics of the Basotho Migrants. Translations of African Historical
Documents (David Robinson, Series ed.), Madison: University of Wisconsin.
1994 In the Time of Cannibals: Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants.
Chicago and Johannesburg: University of Chicago and Witwatersrand University
Presses. Winner, University of Cape Town Book Award, 1995
1985 In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theater. London, New
York, Johannesburg: Longman; Ravan Press, 278pp. (Finalist: Melville
Herskovitz Prize for the best scholarly book on Africa, African Studies Association).
French Edition: In Township Tonight! Musique et Théâtre dans les illes noires
d’Afrique du Sud. Editions Karthala, Paris 1990
Occasional Papers:
2002. The Border Within: The future of the Lesotho-South African International
Boundary. SAMP Migration Policy series no. 26. Cape Town: IDASA, 65 pp.
2000 Lice in Your Blanket: the Meaning of the Lesotho-Free State Border. Southern
African Migration Project. Cape Town: Institute for Democratic Alternatives in SA.
1992 The Meaning of Sesotho. Occasional Paper, Journal of Research, National
University of Lesotho, No. 3:1-55
Special Reports:
2001 Passport Control Reform at the Free State – Lesotho International Border.
Prepared for IDASA in partnership with Sechaba Consultants, March 2001.
Articles: (partial)
2011 ’Mantsopa. in Dictionary of African Biography, edited by Henry
Louis Gates Jr. and Emmanuel Akyeampong. NY: Oxford University Press
2010 Guest Editor, Journal of Borderlands Studies, 25.2. includes: ‘Introduction:
from Empiricism to Theory in African Border Studies’, and ‘First Meets Third:
Analysing Inequality along the US- Mexico and South Africa-Lesotho borders’,
pp. 1-5 and 53-64
2009 Erasing History: The Destruction of the Beersheba and Platberg African
Christian Communities in the Eastern Orange Free State, 1858-1983. South African
Historical Journal, 61, 3 (September)
2009 Innocent Violence: Social Exclusion, Identity, and the Press in an African
Democracy. Critical Arts (Durban), 23 (1), pp. 64-84. Also published in Identities,
v. 16, n. 3, May-June, 2009:367-389
2006 ‘I’ve Worked Longer Than I’ve Lived’: Lesotho Migrants' songs as Maps of
Experience. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 32, no.2, pp. 223-241.
2005 (with Bennetta Jules-Rosette) Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and the Liberation of the
Spirit of South Africa. African Studies, v. 64, no. 2, pp. 285-308
2005 God Rock Africa: Thoughts on Politics in Popular Black Performance in South
Africa. African Studies (Johannesburg), v. 64, no. 1, July, pp. 9-28.
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2004 (with B. Jules-Rosette) ‘Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika: From Independent Spirit to
Political Mobilization. Cahiers D'études Africaines 2004, n°173-174
2004 ‘Anthropology: Music’. South African Music Society Journal, v. 22 (2002),
2003 Land from the Ancestors: Popular Religious Re-Appropriations Along the
Lesotho-South African Border, Journal of Southern African Studies, 29 (4) pp. 977-993
2003 Dire la race et l'espace dans une zone frontaliere de l'Afrique du sud et l’espace
dans une zone frontalière de l’Afrique du sud. Politique Africaine 91, Oct.: 139-154.
2003 review article: Louise Meintjes, Sound of Africa! (Duke University Press,
2003). Anthropological Quarterly, 76, 1, winter, pp. 135-150.
2002 La Identidad y el renacimiento africano en la musica popular tradicional
contemporánea de Sudáfrica. Música oral del Sur, no. 5:167-185
2002 Sounds of the ‘Third Way’: Ethnic Identity and the African Renaissance in
Contemporary South African Music Journal of Black Music Research (Chicago),
1, Spring, pp. 107-124.
2001 A River Runs Through It: The Meaning of The Lesotho-Free State Border,
African Affairs, January, 100, 81-116
2000 A Measure of Civilisation: Revisiting the Caledon Valley Frontier, Social
Dynamics, special issue in memory of Leroy Vail, Edited by Patrick Harries and
Megan Vaughan, vol. 26, no. 2, Summer, pp. 116-153.
2000 Popular History; Cultural Memory Critical Arts (Durban) 14,2, Dec. 147-169.
2000 Unconquered Territory: Narrating the Caledon Valley, Journal of African
Cultural Studies 13, 2, December, pp.185-206
1998, Fieldsights: The Anthropological Narration of Post-Apartheid South Africa,
African Studies (Johannesburg), 57(2) December, pp. 133-146.
1997 Musics, in Anthropology: Problematics and Perspectives, special issue, M.
Herzfeld, ed. International Social Science Journal, (Dec.) Paris: Unesco, pp.637-649
1997 South Africa: Popular Culture, in John Middleton, ed., The Encyclopedia of
Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Scribners.
1997 A Chief by the People: Nation Versus State in Lesotho (with Tim Quinlan)
Africa (London), 67 (1) January, pp. 46-102
1995 In a State of Emergency: Democracy, Power, and Nationalist Discourse in
Lesotho. Transformation (Durban) 26:47-62.
1993 History is Eaten Whole: Consuming Tropes in Sesotho Auriture. History
and Theory, special issue, History Making in Africa, Beiheft 32, Dec., pp. 80-104
1991 Fictions That Save: Migrants' Performance and Basotho National Culture.
Cultural Anthropology, 6 (2), Spring. Reprinted In George Marcus, ed., Rereading
Cultural Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992
1991 Notes on New and Old World African Drumming: Just Playing Like You Mean
It Is Not Playing. African Music, 7 (1): 105-109
1990 Structure, Secrets, and Sesotho: Migrants Performance and Basotho National
Culture. South African Journal of African Languages (Pretoria). special issue in
honor of David Rycroft. Rosalie Findlayson, ed.
1988 Musical Understanding: The Ethnoaesthetics of Migrant Workers' Poetic
Song in Lesotho. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY, 32(3): 337-368
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1987 Eloquent Knowledge: Lesotho Migrants' Songs and the Anthropology of
Experience. American Ethnologist, 14(3): 413-433
1997 Reprinted in Karin Barber, ed., Readings in African Popular Culture.
Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute
1987 The Power of Oral Poetry: Narrative Songs of the Basotho Migrants.
Research in African Literatures, 18(1):1-35
1987 The Dialectics of Tradition in South African Black Popular Theatre.
Critical Arts. special issue, Popular Performance Revisited.4(3):5-27
1986 Performance, Self-definition, and Social Experience in the Oral Poetry of
Sotho Migrant Mineworkers. African Studies Review, 29 (1) March: 29-40
1986 Ideology and Tradition in South African Black Popular Theatre. Journal of
American Folklore, 99, 392: 151-176
1985 South Africa: Cultural Politics and the Well-Springs of Theatre. Old Westbury
Review, 1, 1, 1985.
1982 The Urbanization of African Music: Some Theoretical Observations. In Richard
Middleton, ed., Popular Music: A Yearbook, Vol. II. Cambridge U. Press, pp113-129
1980 Marabi Culture: Continuity and Transformation in African Music in
Johannesburg 1920-1940. African Urban Studies, 6
1979 The African Musician and the Development of the Johannesburg Entertainment
Industry. Journal of Southern African Studies, (Oxford) 5(2):136-164.
Chapters in books:
2012 Borders Show Business: Performing States at the Margin. In Hastings Donnan and
Thomas Wilson, eds. Blackwell Companion to Border Studies. London: WileyBlackwell.
2012 African Radio in a Saucepan. In Elizabeth Gunner, et. al. ed. Radio in Africa:
Shared Pasts, Shared Futures? Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
2009 Siamese Twin Towns and Unitary Concepts in Border Inequality. In Ulf Engel
and Paul Nugent (eds.) 2009. Respacing Africa. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.
2008 Borders. In Shireen Hassim, Tawana Kupe, and Eric Worby, eds. Go Home or
Die Here. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
2008 Socialising the City: The Creation of Black Identity in Johannesburg. in
Laurent Fourchard, Odile Goerg and Muriel Gomez-Perez (eds.). Histoire des lieux
de sociabilité urbaine en Afrique, Paris: L'Harmattan.
2008 Black Popular Music in South Africa, in Puchowski, Douglas, ed. The Concise
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. New York: Routledge, pp. 111-122
2008 Socialising the City: The Creation of Black Identity in Johannesburg. In Laurent
Fourchard, Odile Goerg et Muriel Gomez-Perez (eds.), Histoire des lieux de
sociabilité urbaine en Afrique, Paris: L'Harmattan.
2007 ‘Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika”: from independent spirit to political mobilisation’. In
Composing Apartheid: Essays on the Music of Apartheid. Grant Olwage, ed.,
Johannesburg: Wits University Press, in press.
2007 ‘Iconology: Exploring the DVD in Southern African Migrant Culture Research’,
in Alan Grossman and Aine O’Brien, eds. Projecting Migration: Transcultural
Documentary Practice. London: Wallflower Press
2005 ‘Lesotho’ in The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol.
VI, Africa. John Shepherd et. al. eds., New York and London: Continuum Press.
7
2002 Maskanda: South African Popular Traditional Music. In Playing with Identities
in Contemporary Music in Africa, Mai Palmberg and Annemette Kirkegaard.
Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikaininstitutet, pp.104-116
2002 Unconquered Territory: Narrating the Caledon Valley. In Debie LeBeau and
Robert Gordon, eds., Challenges for Anthropology in the `African Renaissance’,
Windhoek: University of Namibia Press, pp. 295-308.
2001 Telling the Old Basoetoeland: Parallel Narration in the Caledon Valley, in
City and Country in South African History and Fiction, Chris van der Merwe, ed.,
London: ContentLot.
2001 Le teatre en Afrique du Sud: L’engagement politique d’un art populaire, in
Bernard Muller, ed., Performing Arts and African Societies Today: Ritual
Performances, Theatre, and Film-making in Subsaharan Africa, Ibadan:IFRA.
2001 Orature, Popular History and Cultural Memory In Sesotho, in Russell Kaschula,
ed., African Oral Literature: Functions in contemporary contexts. New Africa
Educational Publishing: Cape Town. Africa World Press: New Jersey.
2001 South Africa, in C. Ember and N. Ember. eds. Countries and their Cultures.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.
2001 You Have Left Me Wandering About: Basotho Women and the Culture of
Mobility, in Wicked Women and the Reconfiguration of Gender in Africa, S.
McCurdy and D. Hodgson, eds., Exeter, N.H.: Heinemann.
2000 Intervention: La Contribution de ‘Anthropologie et de la Sociologie a la
Construction de la Realite Sociale Africaine (The Contribution of Anthropology and
Sociology to the Construction of the African Social Reality). In Jean-Paul Martin,
ed., Social Sciences in sub-Saharan Africa: Results and Perspectives. Paris: Unesco.
2000 Good For Blacks: Lesotho Migrants in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Labour
Movements and Policy Making in Africa, Jimi Adesina and Ali El-Kenz, editors,
Dakar: CODESRIA Books Series
2000 Popular Culture in Southern Africa, in The Uncertain Promise of Southern
Africa: York Bradshaw and Stephen Ndegwa, eds, Bloomington: Indiana U. Press.
1999 Locations of Nation: Mobility and Locality in the Cultural Economy of Lesotho
Migrants, in Dissociation and Appropriation: Responses to Globalisation in Asia
and Africa. Katja Füllberg-Stolberg et. al. eds., Berlin: Z.M.Orient, pp.235-254.
1997, Lesotho and South Africa: Popular Styles and Fusion, in Groves New
Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: New Groves
1997 Popular Music in South Africa. In Ruth Stone, ed., The Garland Encyclopedia of
World Music, Vol. 2: Africa.
1995 Damned If We Know: Public Policy, Labour Law, and the Future of the Migrant
Labour System. In J. Boberg, ed., Labour Migrancy in Southern Africa: Prospects for
Post-apartheid Transformation. Southern African Labour Monographs 3/95, Cape
Town: UCT Labour Law Unit, pp. 49-64
1995 Motherless Households, Landless Farms: Employment Patterns Among
Lesotho Migrants. In J. Crush and W. James, eds., Crossing Boundaries:
Mine Migrancy in a Democratic South Africa. Cape Town: IDASA/IDRC.
1993 A Terrible Commitment: Balancing the Tribes in South African National
Culture. In George Marcus, ed., Perilous States: Conversations on Race,
Culture and Nation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.305-358.
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1992 Songs of the Adventurers: Sound and Sentiment in the Sung Poetry of Lesotho
Migrants. In Bonnie Wade, Ed., Text, Tone, and Tune. New Delhi & Oxford: A.I.I.S.
1990 Ethnomusicology and the Meaning of Tradition. in S. Blum, D. Neuman, and
Philip Bohlman, eds., Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press
1986 Black Africa: Popular Dance. In Selma Jeanne Cohen, ed., International
Encyclopedia of Dance. NY: Scribners.
1982 The Emergence of an African Working-class Culture. In S. Marks and R.
Rathbone, eds., Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa. London:
Longman, 358-375
1981 Stylistic Process and Development in Black South African Urban Music. In
Caroline Card et al., eds. Discourses in Ethnomusicology, Vol. II. Bloomington:
E.P.G. pp.43-65
1980 Popular Music. The Encyclopedia of Africa. Cambridge University Press.
1979 African Performers and the Johannesburg Entertainment Industry: the
Struggle for African Culture on the Witwatersrand. In Belinda Bozzoli, ed., Labour,
Townships and Patterns of Protest. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. pp. 183-215. Also
published in Pula, Journal of the University College of Botswana, 1,1, l979
1978 Go to My Town, Cape Coast! The Social History of Ghanaian Highlife. In
Bruno Nettl, ed., Eight Urban Musical Cultures: Tradition and Change. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, pp. 96-114.
Editorial:
2010, Editor, special issue on African Borders, Journal of Borderland Studies,
25, 2, December
1987 Guest Editor, Old Westbury Review. Issue, The Crisis in Southern Africa. 3,1.
1983 Guest Editor, Critical Arts: A Journal for Media Studies (Grahamstown) Special
Issue, Popular Culture and Performance in Africa, 3, 1.
Permanent Member, Editorial Boards: Critical Arts: A Journal of Cultural
Studies (Durban); South African Theatre Journal, African Studies; Identities
Book reviews: American Ethnologist; Int. J. of African Historical Studies;
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY; African Studies Review; Journal of Ritual Studies; Research in
African Literatures; Journal of African History, Politique Africaine
INVITED LECTURES, PAPERS, AND PRESENTATIONS (PARTIAL):
Encapsulated Migrants: living outside your heart in bordered Johannesburg. Paper
presented to the Workshop, FENCES, NETWORKS, PEOPLE Exploring the
EU/AFRICA borderland, University of Pavia, Faculty of Political Sciences, 15-17
December 2011 African Borderlands Research Network,
Border Wars: The Heroic Tragedy of Lesotho’s Independence, paper presented to the
Round-table: African Independences and Boundaries, National Institute for the
History of Art, Paris, 21st and 22nd May 2010
In Township Tonight! Revisited. Presented to the Seminar on World Music, Music
Archiv, University of Mainz, 12 June, 2010
Arts and the City: The Making of Johannesburg. Paper presented to the School of
Music, University of Hildesheim, 28 June, 2010
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Ambushed by History: the Historical Lifecycle of Basotho Migrants to South Africa.
Institute for the Free University of Berlin, 30 June, 2010
Land from the Ancestors: Popular Religious Pilgrimage along the South AfricaLesotho Border. Africa Seminar, University of Bayreuth, 26 June, 2010
Innocent Violence: Social Exclusion, Identity, and the Press in an African
Democracy, Dept. of Ethnology, University of Cologne, 9 July, 2010
Thula Mabota: South African Musical Innovations since 1994. Keynote address
presented at the public symposium, Ten Years of Hip Hop and Jazz. Centre for
African Studies, University of Basel, 11 September, 2008.
Siamese Twin Towns and Unitary Concepts in Border Inequality. Paper presented to
the 2nd annual conference of the African Borders Research Network. Bayreuth,
Germany, 13 June, 2008.
Radio and its Communities, Past and Present, presented to the symposium, Radio,
Publics and Communities in Southern Africa, WISER, 10-11 October, 2007
Inseparable Since Birth: Twin Towns and Unitary Concepts in Border Osmosis,
Presented to the Forced Migration Programme at Wits University Migration and
Society Seminar Series, Tuesday, 11 September, 2007.
Post-township renaissance: Rewriting black music after apartheid. Paper for the
symposium: “Theorizing Southern African Music: Perspectives and
Conjectures”, University of the Witwatersrand, 11-12 September 2007 Inseparable
Since Birth: Twin Towns and Unitary Concepts in Border Studies.
Presented to the African Border Studies Network, inaugural conference, Univ. of
Edinburgh, 13 June, 2007
Loose Canon: In Township Tonight! Reloaded. Presented to the School of Arts and
Architecture, University of California – Los Angeles, 23 May, 2007.
Border Burlesque: Deception and Disappearance on the New South African-Lesotho
Frontier. The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, UCSD, 10 April, 2007
Post-township renaissance: rewriting South African black performance after
apartheid. Paper presented to the conference on New Identities in African Music,
CNRS, Paris, France, November 24, 2006
Socialising the City: The Creation of Black Identity in Johannesburg, Éspaces de la
Sociabilité. Université de Paris 7 Denis Dierot, Paris, 12 June, 2005
Land from the Ancestors: popular Religious Pilgrimage along the Lesotho- South
Africa Border, paper presented to the Anthropology Seminar, University of
Bergen, 23 October, 2005
The Street is the Studio: The Role of Independent Producers in the South African
Recording Industry. World Music and Small Players in the Global Music Industry
Seminar, 19-20 August, 2005, Copenhagen: Danish Inst. for Int. Studies
Born to Win: Music of the 'Black Atlantic' Revisited. Winter School, National Arts
Festival, Grahamstown, 6 July, 2005
Erasing History: The Extirpation of the Beersheba and Platberg African Christian
Communities in the Eastern Orange Free State, 1858-1983. Paper presented to the
Africa Seminar, EHESS, Paris, France, April 2005
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika: From Independent Spirit to Political Mobilization (with
Benneta Jules-Rosette). Paper for the conference: ‘Composing Apartheid’, New
Music Indaba, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, 1 July 2004
10
The Switzerland of Africa: Protestant Missionary Anthropologists in Lesotho. Paper
presented to the Conference, Imperial Culture in Countries Without Colonies: Africa
and Switzerland. University of Basel, 23-25 October, 2003
Anthropology: Musics Keynote Address to the Congress of the South African
Musicological Society, Wits School of the Arts, Johannesburg, 29 August, 2003
God Rock Africa: Thoughts on Politics in Popular Black Performance in South
Africa. Presented to the Centre d’Etudes Africaines, EHESS, Paris, 10 June, 2003
Anthropologie missionnaire. Séminaire ‘Etat, Sociétés et problèmes sociaux en
Afrique australe’ (EHESS), Séance du 11 juin 2003, Université de Paris VI., France
Also presented to Anthropology South Africa, Cape Town, 24-27 August, 2003
Eaten by the Lice in Your Blanket: Consuming Politics in Sesotho, An Address to the
Symposium on Corporality in African Political Discourse, University of Maryland
Center for Historical Studies, 4 December, 2002
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika: From Independent Spirit to Political Mobilization. Coauthored with Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Presented to the African Studies Association,
Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C., 7 December, 2002.
Major Warden’s Knife: Narrating Race and Place in a South African Borderland.
Presented, in French translation, to the African Studies Seminar, Ecole des Hautes
Etudes, Paris, 15 May, 2002
In Township Tonight!: The Morning After. Presented to the Dept. of Sociology,
University of Basel, Switzerland, 18 June, 2002. Also presented to the Dept. of
Musicology, University of Zurich, 21 June, 2002
Land from the ancestors: popular religious re-appropriations along the South
Africa- Lesotho Border. A Presentation to the Southern Africa Seminar, St.
Anthony’s College, Oxford University, 30 May, 2002
Border Burlesque: Deception and Disappearance on the New South African-Lesotho
Frontier. Seminar Presented to the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Univ., 30 April,
Also presented to the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, 1 Dec., 2003.
Passport Control Reform at the Free State – Lesotho International Border. Seminar
presented to the WISER seminar, Wits University, March 2002
I’ve Worked Longer than I’ve Lived: Lesotho Migrants’ Songs as Maps of
Experience. Symposium: Music and Migration, Sussex University, 14 June 2001
A Measure of Civilisation: Revisiting the Caledon Valley Frontier, seminar,
Department of Race Relations, Oxford University, 15 June, 2001
Locations of Nation: Cultures of Mobility Across The Lesotho - South African
Border, Graduate Seminar, University of Bergen, Norway, 25 Oct. 2000
Sounds of the ‘Third Way’: Ethnic Identity and the African Renaissance in
Contemporary South African Music, for the conference, Playing with Identities in
African Contemporary Music, Nordic Africa Institute, Turku, Finland, 19 Oct. 2000.
Gatvol But We Hungry: Poverty of the Spirit in Post-Apartheid South Africa, paper
for the conference, Manchester ’99 Visions and Voices, panel on Postcolonial
Subjectivities in Africa, Manchester University, 27-31 October, 1999
Le teatre en Afrique du Sud: L’engagement politique d’un art populaire, paper for
the conference Performing Arts and African Societies Today: Ritual Performances,
Theatre, and Film-making in Subsaharan Africa, IFRA, Ibadan, 4-5 Nov., 1999
11
Intervention: La Contribution de l‘Anthropologie et de la Sociologie a la
Construction de la Realite Sociale Africaine. Plenary Session of the UNESCO,
colloquium Les sciences sociales en Afrique sub-saharienne: bilan et perspectives,
Libreville, 7-11 June 1999
Conquering Territory: Sesotho Auriture and the Culture of Mobility. English Studies
Research Seminar Programme, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 15 April, 1999
Culture for Race: Ironies of Ethnography in Post-apartheid South Africa, Paper
presented to the AAA, Annual Meetings, Philadelphia, December 2-6 1998,
`A Border Amidst Our Land': Cultures Of Mobility Across the Lesotho/South African
Border, Paper presented to the 9th General Assembly, CODESRIA, Dakar, 14-18
December, 1998. Also presented at the Institute for African Studies, Columbia
University, New York 8 December 1998
Anthropology, CODESRIA Symposium On Globalization And Social Sciences In
Africa, Session 3: The Disciplines: Concepts, Objects, and Theories, Graduate
School of the Arts, Witwatersrand University, 18 September 1998
Orature, Popular History and Cultural Memory in Sesotho, Presented to the 3rd
Meeting, International Association for Oral Literature in Africa, UCT, 21 Oct. 1998
Locations of Nation: Mobility and Locality in the Cultural Economy of Lesotho
Migrants. A paper presented to the Symposium, Dissociation and Appropriation of
Global Processes an Ideas: History, Religion, and Local Culture in Asia and Africa,
Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, 23-25 October, 1997
Representing Interpretation: the Literary and Cinematic Anthropology of Southern
African Auriture. Seminar, Free University of Berlin, 27 October, 1997
Democracy, Power, and Political Discourse in Lesotho. Paper for the conference,
Africa and the Discipline of History, Rice University, 30 March-2 April, 1995
Performance Practice: The Structure of Feeling in Basotho Migrants' Auriture.
Faculty Seminar, Dept. of Anthropology, Rice University, 25 April, 1995
Also presented to the African and African-American Studies Research Project,
Univ. of California - San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 21 February, 1995
Incorporations: A Practical Poetics of Identity in the Southern African Periphery.
Presented to the Harvard Africa Seminar, Harvard University, 7 April, 1995
The Meaning of Sesotho: Class, Culture, and Basotho Nationalism. presented to the
American Anthropological Association, annual meetings, Atlanta, 28 Nov., 1994
Reconfiguring Migrancy: Basotho Migrants and the `Retrenchment Industry' on the
South African Mines. African Studies Association, Toronto, Nov. 3-6, 1994
Motherless Households, Landless Farms: The Social Implications of Changing
Employment Patterns Among Lesotho Migrants. Paper for the Conference on Mine
Migrancy in the 90's (Southern Africa), U. of Cape Town, 27-29 June, 1994
In a State of Emergency: Power, Class, and Nationalist Discourse in Lesotho,
presented to the conference on Democracy and Difference, Cape Town, 2 May, 1994
Revised version presented to the History Workshop, Wits University,
12-16 July, 1994, and to the Faculty Seminar, Dept. of Anthropology, Rice
University, 15 Sept. 1994
Damned If We Know: Public Policy, Labour Law, and the Future of the Migrant
Labour System. Regional Workshop on Labour Law and Industrial Relations in
a Changing South Africa, Durban, July 13-15, 1993.
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Proteus Unbounded: Living with Postmodernism. A Seminar Presented to the
Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, 27 April, 1993
History is Eaten Whole: Consuming Tropes in Basotho Auriture. Paper presented
to the African Humanities Institute, Northwestern University, March 16, 1992
Them As Us: Cultural Studies in a Future South Africa. University Lecture,
University of Durban-Westville, October 31, 1991
Rethinking In Township Tonight!: A series of four graduate seminars, Contemporary
Cultural and Media Studies, University of Natal, Durban, September 1991
Fictions That Save: Migrants' Performance and Basotho National Culture.
African Studies Seminar, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 3/3/1991
Songs from the Place of Cannibals: Understanding Basotho Migrants' Auriture.
University of Cape Town, Department of Social Anthropology, Feb. 28, 1991
Structure, Secrets, and Sesotho: Migrants' Performance and Basotho National
Culture. University Professors' Program, Boston University, May 9, 1990
Shebeens, Studios, and Secrets: Migrant Tavern Singers of Lesotho. A paper
presented to the conference, Redefining the Artisan, University of Iowa, Mar. 9 1990
Shebeens, Studios and Sesotho: Popular Music and Basotho National Culture. Paper
for the Departments of Anthropology and Music, Univ. of Vermont, Feb. 27, 1990
Basotho Working-class Auriture and the Meaning of Tradition. Anthropology
Seminar, U. of Cape Town, March 29 and ISER Seminar, Rhodes U. June 7, 1989.
In the Time of Cannibals. Institute of Southern African Studies Seminar, National
University of Lesotho, May 9, 1989
The Poetics of Political Economy: Basotho Migrants' Songs of Southern Africa,
Anthropology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, April 11, 1988
Civilizing the City: Emergent Tradition in Black South African Music.
Ethnomusicology Colloquium, Columbia University, March 4, 1988
Popular Culture in South Africa. Lecture Series, South Africa Today: Life in
a Divided Society. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 1 Feb., 1988
Anthropology as Translation: Oral Literature in Lesotho. Graduate Workshop in
Anthropology, University of Chicago, November 10, 1987
Historiography and Ethnography in African Oral Literature: Poetic Songs of the
Basotho Migrants. African Studies Lecture Series, Northwestern Univ., Nov. 9, 1987
From Shaka to Soweto: Meaning and Transformation in Zulu Music.
Ethnomusicology Colloquium, Hunter College, April 21, 1987.
The Oral Literature of Labor Migration in Southern Africa. Evening Seminar,
Southern Africa Research Program, Yale University, April 3, 1987.
Music Under Oppression: Songs of Migrant Miners and Working Women in
Southern Africa. Tufts University, March 10, 1987.
Musical Meanings: Aurality and Eloquence in the Sung Poetry of Lesotho.
Invited presentation to the conference on Text, Tune, and Tone. American
Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi, India, Dec. 29, 1986 - Jan. 2, 1987
Tradition and Consciousness: Cultural Production in Southern Africa. Invited
presentation to the African Studies Seminar, Indiana University, December 10, 1986
Oral Literary Sources of Consciousness among Lesotho Migrant Workers.
Invited presentation to the Columbia University Seminar on Contemporary
Africa, New York, October 21, 1986
13
Interpretive Consciousness: The Reintegration of Self and Society in the Oral
Poetry of Basotho Migrant Workers. Paper presented to the conference, Perspectives
on Consciousness in Southern Africa, Harvard University, May 27-28, 1986
Musical Poetry of Basotho Migrant Workers in Southern Africa. Paper presented
to the York University Programme in Music and Dept. of Anthropology Colloquium,
Toronto, April 4, 1986
Processes of Tradition in Zulu Music. Lecture presented to anthropology, folklore, and
ethnomusicology, The University of Texas, Austin, March 19, 1985
The Culture of Social Sectors: Performance, Social Experience, and
Self-Definition Among Southern African Migrant Workers. Paper presented
to the conference on Popular Arts and the Media in Africa, UCSD, May 17, 1982
Sophiatown, `Little Harlem': Black American Performing Arts in Southern Africa.
Lecture/Demonstration for Africa Week, Howard University, D.C., April 8, 1981
African Working-class culture in Town and Country in South Africa, 1870-1930.
Paper presented to the conference, Class Formation, Culture, and
Consciousness: the Making of Modern South Africa. University of London,
Center for International and Area Studies, January 2-5, 1980
The Influence of Western Music on the Music of the Zulu of South Africa.
Lecture to the N.E.H. Summer Seminar, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, June 28, 1979
Afro-American contributions to Black South African Performing Arts and Culture.
Conference on Afro-American Interactions with Southern Africa, Howard
University, Washington, D.C., May 1979
African Performers and the South African Entertainment Industry. Presented to the
Southern Africa Seminar, Inst. for Commonwealth Studies, London, Oct. 17, 1978
The Marabi Dance and the Development of African Working-class Culture in
Johannesburg, Seminar on Southern Africa, Oxford University, 6 December, 1978
The African Performer and the Johannesburg Entertainment Industry: the
Exploitation of a Cultural Labour Force. History Workshop, University of
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, February 3-7, 1978
PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS: PANELS AND PAPERS
Erasing History: The Destruction of the Beersheba and Platberg African Christian
Communities in the Eastern Orange Free State, 1858-1983. American Anthropological
Assn. Annual Meetings, Montreal, 16 November 2011
State, Government, Market and Community In (South) African Radio: A Reflective
History. Paper presented to the American Anthropological Association, Annual
Meetings, Philadelphia, Dec 3, 2009
Who Now, is a South African: Unstable Identity in a New African Democracy, Paper
presented to the American Anthropological Association, Annual Meetings,
Washington, D.C. November 28-Dec 2, 2007
‘Culture’ Beyond Commodity: Anthropology and its Representations in South Africa
Paper for the Panel, Culture Beyond Common Sense, Anthropology Southern Africa,
Annual Meetings, Cape Town, December 3-7 2006
Embodied Politics in the Performance Culture of Black Youth in South Africa,
paper presented to the African Studies Association, Annual Meetings, Washoington
D.C. 17-21 November, 2005.
14
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and the Liberation of the Spirit of South Africa, Paper
presented to the AAA, annual meetings, Washington, D.C. 30 Nov. – 4 Dec., 2005
Session co-organiser and co-chair, Land of Senseless Peace: New Directions in
South African Ethnography American Anthropological Assn., annual meetings,
Chicago, 29 November -2 December 2003
Border Burlesque: Deception and Disappearance on the New South African-Lesotho
Frontier. Paper presented to the American Anthropological Association, annual
meetings, Chicago, 1 December 2003.
Place of Ancestors: Popular Religion and Land Contestation in South Africa’s Eastern
Free State. Presented to the African Studies Association, Annual Meetings,
Washington, D.C., 5 December, 2002.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika: From Independent Spirit to Political Mobilization. Coauthored with Benneta Jules Rosette, Presented to the African Studies Association,
Annual Meetings, Washington, D.C., 7 December, 2002.
Take Your Knife and Cut the Country: Disjunct Narrations Along The Lesotho-South
African Border. Presented to the American Anthropological Association Annual
Meetings, San Francisco, 15-19 Nov. 2000
Unconquered Territory: Narrating the Caledon Valley, paper presented to the
Association of Anthropologists of Southern Africa, Windhoek, 8 May, 2000
‘A Border Amidst Our Land': Cultures Of Mobility Across the Lesotho/South African
Border, paper for the 9th General Assembly, CODESRIA, Dakar, 14-18 Dec., 1998
Culture for Race: Ironies of Ethnography in Post-Apartheid South Africa, American
Anthropological Association, annual meetings, Philadelphia, 6 December, 1998
Democracy as Selective Tradition: The Nation Discards Its State in Lesotho. Paper
presented to the Amer. Anth. Assn., annual meeting, San Francisco, 25 Nov. 1996.
Saving the Nation, Discarding the State: Basotho Versus Lesotho. Paper presented to
the African Studies Association, annual meeting, San Francisco, 24 Nov., 1996.
Mapping Misery: Some Thoughts on the Art of Anthropology in Post-contemporary
South Africa. Paper Presented to the Association of Anthropologists of Southern
Africa, annual meeting, Pretoria 9-13 September, 1996.
The Politics of Gender and Genre in Basotho Migrants' Auriture. 2nd International
Conference on Oral Literature in Africa, University of Ghana - Legon, 24 Oct., 1995
Reconfiguring Migrancy. Paper for the Association of Anthropologists in
Southern Africa. Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6-9 September, 1995
The Meaning of Sesotho: Class, Culture, and Basotho Nationalism. Paper for
the American Anthropological Association, annual meetings, Atlanta, 28 Nov. 1994
Reconfiguring Migrancy: Basotho Migrants and the `Retrenchment Industry' on the
South African Mines. Paper for the African Studies Assoc., Toronto, 3 Nov. 1994
The Meaning of Sesotho. Paper presented to the Association of Anthropologists
of South Africa, annual meetings, Johannesburg 8-11 September, 1993
Session Organizer and Chair: Imagined Communities: Current Reflections on the
Study of Culture in South Africa. Paper presented: Performance Ethnography:
Identity, Representation, and the Work of Interpretation. Association of
Anthropologists of South Africa, annual meetings, Johannesburg 11-14 Sept., 1991
Audio Resources in Research in the African Humanities. Roundtable on
Documentation Resources in the African Humanities. African Studies Assoc.,
Denver, 20 Nov. 1987
15
By the Graceland of Paul Simon: Popular Music and Cultural Struggle in South
Africa. Paper for the Int. Assoc. for the Study of Popular Music, Accra, August 13,1987
Panel Organizer and Chair: Text into Film: Oral Poetry and Visual Anthropology in
Lesotho. American Anthropological Assn. Annual Meetings, Philadelphia, Dec. 4-7,
1986, Paper : Text and Context: Oral Poetry and Labor Migrancy in Lesotho.
Panel Organizer and Chair: Text into Film: Oral Poetry and Visual Anthropology in
Lesotho. Af. Studies Assoc., Annual Meetings, Madison, Wisconsin, Oct. 31, 1986.
Paper presented: Text and Context: Oral Poetry and Labor Migrancy in Lesotho.
Panel Chair: Music/Text, Context, Filmtext: Musical Poetry and Visual
Ethnomusicology in Lesotho. Society for Ethnomusicology Ann. Meeting,
Rochester, Oct. 16, 1986. Paper: Performance and Context: Musical Poetry and
Labor Migrancy in Lesotho.
Vagabonds of God: The Ethnopoetics of Basotho Migrant Mineworkers in Southern
Africa. Paper for the American Anthropological Association, annual meeting,
Washington, D.C. December 5, 1985
In the Whiteman's Land: The Poetic Songs of Basotho Migrant Mineworkers. Paper
for the Mid-Atlantic Society for Ethnomusicology, Howard Univ., April 12, 1985
Adventurers' Songs: The Oral Poetry of Basotho Migrant Mineworkers. Paper
presented to the Research Seminar, I.S.A.S., Lesotho, July 26, 1984
Panel Organizer and Chair: The Teaching of African Studies to Undergraduates
African Studies Association, Annual Meeting, Boston, MA Dec. 7-10, 1983
Panel Organizer and Chair: The Teaching of African Studies to Undergraduates.
African Studies Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., Nov. 4-7, 1982
Panel Organizer and Chair: African Theatricality I and African Theatricality
II. African Studies Assoc., Annual Meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, October 23, 1981
Politics, Class, and Culture in South African Black Theatre. Paper presented
to the African Studies Assoc., annual meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, Oct. 21, 1981
Theoretical Reflections on the Study of the Arts in Urban Africa. Paper presented to
the African Studies Assoc., annual meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, October 24, 1981
Social and Political Implications of Urban African Theatre in South Africa. Paper
presented to the ASA, annual meeting, Philadelphia, Oct. 15-18, 1980
The Stokfel: Rotating Credit Associations, Social Adaptation, and African
Performance Culture in Johannesburg. Paper presented to the American
Anthropological Assoc., annual meeting, Cincinnati, November 27, 1979
The Entertainment Media, African Performing Arts, and Urban African Identity
in South Africa. Paper presented to the African Studies Assoc., annual meeting,
Los Angeles, October 31-November 3, 1979
Marabi Culture: Continuity and Transformation in Black South African Music. Paper
presented to the Society for Ethnomusicology meetings, Montreal, Oct. 11-14, 1979
Johannesburg's African Performing Arts. Paper presented to Amer. Anthropological
Assoc., annual meeting, Houston, Dec.3, 1977
The Social and Musical Development of Ghanaian ‘Highlife’. Society for
Ethnomusicology, San Francisco, Oct. 21-24, 1974
16
READER:
American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Africa, Research in African Literatures;
The International Review of African Historical Studies; Ethnomusicology, South African
Theatre Journal, , Social Dynamics, University of Chicago Press, Witwatersrand U. Press
Reader and member of editorial board: African Studies (Johannesburg); Identities;
Critical Arts
External Examiner on Doctoral and Masters Dissertations: Universities of
Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Natal; Internal Committee of Assessors, Ph.D.
Wenner-Gren Foundation, Grants Review Panel 2001-2003
MEDIA PROGRAMS:
Casting and Program Consultant, Apartheid and Memory, documentary on the
experience of Basotho migrant workers under apartheid, Liza Key, 2011
Program Consultant, Tigress Productions for National Geographic Corporation, film
on the lives of Basotho migrant mineworkers in South Africa and Lesotho, 1999
Numerous radio and television appearances, in New York, Washington, D.C., Cape
Town, and Johannesburg, 1987- 2003
Research, script, and narration for documentary film, Songs of the Adventurers, produced
and directed by A.G. Zantzinger, Constant Spring Productions, 1986
Programs: U.S.: Music of South Africa. WWOZ New Orleans, November
26, 1985, November 29 1990; WKCR New York City, January 3, 1986.
African Music from Johannesburg - six broadcasts written and developed for
the B.B.C., Africa Service, 1980. Urban Music of South Africa in Historical
Perspective. Two broadcast scripts for West German State Radio, Cologne,
Jan. 17 and 31, 1978; preparation assistance, Shaun Barlow Afro-Pop Series,
National Public Radio, 1988; South African radio: Safm AM Live, Radio 702, Cape
Radio; South African Television: Three Talk, Big Question, Take 5, Felicia MabuzaSuttle Show, SATV3 News, Chat Room, ‘180 Degrees’ SABC Africa, CNBCAfrica,
etv ‘Morning Edition’, SATV 2 Weekend Live, SA International.
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Media/broadcasting, ethnomusicology, folklore, performance and ethno-aesthetics,
performing arts of Africa, working-class culture and consciousness in Africa, oral genres,
urban culture and social organization, social and cultural history, professional
musicianship in America and Africa, race and narrative in South Africa, labour
migration, borders and boundaries (Lesotho and South Africa / US-Mexico)
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
University of the Witwatersrand
Head of the Department of Social Anthropology
Senate of the University
Academic Board of the Faculty of Arts
Higher Degrees Committee and sub-commitee on Honours Degrees
Steering Committee on Forced Migration Studies
University of Cape Town, 1993-1996:
Senate of the University
Acting Head of Department, Social Anthropology, March-July, 1994
17
African Studies Library Committee
Steering Committee on Forced Migration
College at Old Westbury (1981-1992):
Chair of the Chairpersons/Conveners Council 1990
Chair, Program in Comparative Humanities, 1989-1990
Faculty Council, 1987 - 1988
Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee
Chair, conference on The Crisis in South Africa, SUNY- College at Old
Westbury, April 14-15, 1986
Faculty Development Committee, 1983-present; Chair, 1984-1992
Faculty campus officer for scholarships, grants and fellowships
Faculty representative: Fulbright-Hayes; Council for the International Exchange of
Scholars; Carnegie-Mellon Fellowship; Rhodes Scholarship; Henry Luce Fellowship
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND ACTIVITIES:
Steering Committee on Sacred Sites, CRL Commission, 2009-current
African Borders Research Network, founding and Steering Committee member, 2006current
Association of Anthropologists of Southern Africa (Anthropology, Southern Africa)
American Anthropological Association
African Studies Association
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Cultural Anthropology
American Ethnological Society
International Association for the Study of Popular Music
International Association for Oral Literature in Africa
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa
African Border Studies Network
COURSES TAUGHT:
University of the Witwatersrand:
Anthropology of Sport and Leisure
Media Studies (Broadcasting in Africa)
Performance Anthropology
Anthropology and Popular Culture
Development of Anthropological Thought
Theories of Ethnography
Introduction to Social anthropology; Culture Today
African Borders
University of Basel
Frontiers in Africa
Popular Musical Cultures of Africa
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Popular music and theatre of South Africa
18
Rice University:
Performance Ethnography
South Africa: Culture and Crisis
Metropolitan Africans
The Craft of Anthropological Narrative
University of Cape Town:
Anthropology of Religion
Belief, Symbolism, and Performance
Regional Studies: West Africa
Historical and Contemporary Cultural Theory
Honours in Social Anthropology: Performance and Cultural Theory
New York University:
Performance and Popular Struggle in Southern Africa
SUNY - Old Westbury:
Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology; Culture and Society
Analysis of Cultures (theory in cultural anthropology)
Peoples and Cultures of Africa
Contemporary Africa
South Africa - the Roots of Crisis
African History
African Philosophy
African Literature
Living Arts of Africa (visual, verbal, and performing arts)
World Cultures; World Civilizations
REFERENCES:
Professor Georg Klute, Anthropology, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Georg.klute@uni-bayreuth.de
Professor Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Department of Sociology, University of California –
San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093. bjulesro@ucsd.edu
Dr. George Marcus, Chancellor's Professor, Anthropology, University of California,
Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, gmarcus@uci.edu
Dr. Andrew Spiegel, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape
Town, Rondebosch 7700 South Africa. mugsy@humanities.uct.ac.za
Professor John L. Comaroff, Depts. of Sociology and Anthropology, University
of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637, USA
Professor Jean Comaroff, Depts. of Sociology and Anthropology, University of
Chicago, Chicago IL 60637, USA
Professor Bob Edgar, African Studies and Research Center, Howard University,
Washington, D.C., 20059, USA. redgar@howard.edu
Dist. Prof. Steven Feld, Departments of Anthropology and Music, University of New
Mexico. Albuquerque, NM 87131, feld@unm.edu
Prof. Keyan Tomaselli. Culture and Media Studies Unit, University of KwaZuluNatal,
19
Durban, King George V. Ave., Durban 4001 South Africa. tomasel@ukzn.edu
Professor Christopher Waterman, Dean of Arts and Humanities, University of
California, Los Angeles CA 90095-1657 USA cwater@arts.ucla.edu
Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Chair, Department of Anthropology, Kroeber Hall,
University of California, Berkeley 94720
Prof. Elizabeth Gunner, Research Fellow, WISER, Wits University, Johannesburg
2050, gunnerl@wiser.wits.ac.a
Professor Bruce Kapferer, Department of Anthropology, University of Bergen,
Norway bruce.kapferer@sosantr.uib.no
Patrick Harries, Director, African Historical Seminar and Institute, University of
Basel, Switzerland patrick.harries@unibas.ch
Dr. Veit Arlt, Director, African Studies Centre, University of Basel, Switzerland
veit.arlt@unibas.ch
Dr. Timothy Raeymaekers, Dept. of Political Geography, University of Zurich,
timothy.raeymaekers@geo.uzh.ch
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