The South Africa Reading Group
Cochairs: Associate Dean Stephen Ellmann (New York Law School) and Professor Penelope Andrews (CUNY Law School)
The South Africa Reading Group is an interdisciplinary group whose members share an interest in the ongoing developments in South Africa. Founded in 1994, and cochaired by Associate Dean Stephen Ellmann and CUNY Law School Professor Penelope Andrews, the South Africa Reading Group meets several times each year to discuss papers and presentations addressing South Africa from a wide range of perspectives, including history, anthropology, literature and, of course, law.
Fall 2009- Spring 2010
Friday,
October 2, 2009
Ahmed C. Bawa, Professor and Distinguished
Lecturer, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hunter College, City
University of New York; former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Knowledge
Production and Partnerships) of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and
Program Officer (Higher Education and Scholarship) for the Ford
Foundation, “Placing Knowledge at the Centre of the Transformation
Project in South African Higher Education”
Friday, October 23, 2009
Pierre de Vos,
Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance, Department of
Public Law, University of Cape Town, “Reflections on the Hlophe
Saga” (by videoconference)
Friday, November 20, 2009
Stu Woolman, Chair
of Ethics, Governance and Sustainability, University of the Witwatersrand;
Co-Director, South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public,
Human Rights and International Law, "Between Charity and Clarity: An
Insider's Response to Frank Michelman's 'Davidsonian Reading' of the
Constitutional Court"
Friday, February 5, 2010
Michael Bishop,
Extraordinary Lecturer, Department of Public Law, University of Pretoria,
and Visiting Research Fellow, Columbia Law School, “Vampire or
Prince? The Listening Constitution and Merafong Demarcation Forum &
Others v President of the Republic of South Africa &
Others”
Friday, March 19,
2010
Janette Yarwood, Postdoctoral Fellow, Monmouth
University, “Rearticulating Coloured Identity in Contemporary South
Africa”
Friday, April 16,
2010
Adam Ashforth, Visiting Associate Professor, Center
for Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, “Human
Security, Spiritual Insecurity, and Satanic Bloodsuckers”
Friday, April 30, 201
David Dyzenhaus, Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto,
and Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, of the University of Toronto
Faculty of Law, “The Pasts and Future of the Rule of Law in South
Africa”
Monday, May 24,
2010
Penelope Andrews (Valparaiso/La Trobe), Adam Dodek
(Ottawa), and Stephen Ellmann (New York Law School), “Three
Perspectives on Judges and Democracy in South
Africa”
Spring 2009
Friday, January 30,
2009
Hlonipha Mokoena, Assistant Professor of Anthropology,
Columbia University
Friday,
February 13, 2009
Frank Michelman, Robert Walmsley
University Professor, Harvard Law School
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Yvonne Mokgoro,
Justice of South Africa’s Constitutional Court
Catherine Admay,
Visiting Professor of Public Policy Studies, Departments of Political
Science and Public Policy/Duke Center for International Development, Duke
University
Thursday, May
14, 2009
Stu Woolman, Associate Professor of Law, University
of Pretoria Faculty of Law
Fall 2008
Friday, October 3,
2008
Jonny Steinberg, “Sizwe’s Test – A
Young Man’s Journey through Africa’s AIDS
Epidemic”
Friday, October
24, 2008
Brian Ray, Assistant Professor of Law,
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, “Understanding Engagement as an
Enforcement Mechanism for Socioeconomic Rights”
Monday, November 3, 2008
Steven Kahanovitz, Legal Resources Centre, Cape Town, “An urban
slice of pie: the Prevention of Illegal Evication from and Unlawful
Occupation of Land Act in South Africa”
Friday, November 21, 2008
Christina Murray,
Professor and Deputy Dean, University of Cape Town Faculty of Law, and in
2008-09 a Fellow in Princeton University’s Program in Law and Public
Affairs, “Accommodating diversity in South Africa: Education in the
language of one's choice”
Spring 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Professor Karen Czapanskiy, University of Maryland School of Law, &
Rashida Manjoo, Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law
School and Research Associate in the Law Faculty, University of Cape Town,
“The Right of Public Participation in the Law-Making Process and the
Role of the Legislature in the Promotion of this Right”
Friday, April 25, 2008
Professor Alan Whiteside, Director of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS
Research Division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, “Reviewing
‘Emergencies’ for Swaziland – Shifting the Paradigm in a
New Era” (co-authored with Amy Whalley)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Professor Penny
Andrews, Valparaiso University School of Law & CUNY School of Law at
Queens College, “Who’s Afraid of Polygamy?: Exploring the
Boundaries of Family, Equality and Custom in South Africa”
Friday, May 16, 2008
Justice Albie Sachs, Constitutional Court of South Africa, “Every
judgment [opinion] I write is a lie.”
Fall 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Nelson Tebbe, Assistant Professor, Brooklyn Law School, Witchcraft and Statecraft: Liberal Democracy in Africa, 96 Georgetown L.J. __ (forthcoming 2007).Friday, October 5, 2007
Adam Dodek, Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, “The Springbok, the Maple Leaf, and the Eagle: South African-Canadian Constitutional Relationships in a World of Old, New and Middle-Aged Constitutions”Friday, October 26, 2007
Deevia Bhana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, “‘Girls hit girls!’ Constructing and negotiating violent African femininities in a working class primary school”Friday, November 9, 2007
Dinni Gordon, Professor Emerita, Political Science, and Senior Research Scholar, Ph.D. Program in Criminal Justice, CUNY & John Jay College of Criminal Justice, “Author Meets Critics,” discussing her book, Transformation & Trouble: Crime, Justice, and Participation in Democratic South Africa (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006)
Fall 2006–Spring 2007
Friday, October 13, 2006
Sandile Ngcobo, Justice, Constitutional Court of South Africa, discussing the Constitutional Court judgments (which Justice Ngcobo wrote) in Doctors for Life International v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others and Matatiele Municipality and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and OthersFriday, October 20, 2006
Steven Dubin, Professor, Program in Arts Administration, Teachers College, Columbia University, “Mounting Queen Victoria: Transforming Museums in a Democratic South Africa”Friday, November 3, 2006
Theresa Hammond, Ernst & Young Research Fellow in Diversity Studies, Department of Accounting, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, “The Role of Multinationals in the Transition from Apartheid: Black Employment in the South African Accounting Industry, 1976-2000.”Friday, December 15, 2006
Elke Zuern, Department of Politics, Sarah Lawrence College, “The Politics of Necessity and the Construction of Democratic Citizenship: Community Organizing in South Africa”February 9, 2007
The Honorable Dennis M. Davis, High Court of South Africa (Cape Town), “Transformation and the Democratic Case for Judicial Review: The South African Experience.”March 9, 2007
Grace Davie, Queens College - CUNY, Department of History, “The Demand for Numbers: Popular Struggles and Poverty Statistics in Postwar South Africa”April 13, 2007
Lucy A. Williams, Professor, Northeastern University School of Law, "Issues and Challenges in Addressing Poverty and Legal Rights: A Comparative United States/South African Analysis," 21 South African Journal on Human Rights 436 (2005)April 27, 2007
Jens Meierhenrich, Assistant Professor, Harvard University, Department of Government and Committee on Social Studies, “The Legacies of Law,” chapter 7: “Apartheid’s Endgame and the Law II"
Fall 2005–Spring 2006
September 16, 2005
Karl Klare,
Dr. George J. & Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University
Professor, Northeastern University School of Law, "Development of the
Common & Customary Law in a Framework of Transformative
Constitutionalism." (Cowritten with Judge Dennis Davis, a
participant by videoconference link with the University of Cape
Town)
Friday, October 7, 2005
Marita
Carnelley, Associate Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Law,
Pietermaritzburg, "Influence of the Constitution on South African
Family Law."
Friday, October 14, 2005
James Gibson, Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government,
Washington University in St. Louis
Friday, November 18,
2005
Mark Kende, Director, Constitutional Law Center, and
James Madison Chair, Drake Law School
February 17, 2006
Professor Brook Baker, Northeastern University School of Law,
"Globally Engaged Activism on HIV/AIDS in South
Africa"
March 16, 2006
Professor Jeremy
Seekings, Department of Sociology, University of Cape Town, “What
Constitutes a ‘Neo-liberal” Urban Regime? Continuity and
Change in Post-Apartheid Cape Town”
April 28, 2006
Professor Nicoli Nattrass, School of Economics and Centre for
Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, "AIDS, Science and
Governance: The Battle over Antiretroviral Therapy in Post-Apartheid
South Africa."
May 16, 2006
Sean Jacobs,
Associate Professor in African Studies and Communications, University of
Michigan, “Mass media, democracy and citizenship claims in South
Africa”
Fall 2004–Spring 2005
September 24, 2004
Arthur Chaskalson, Chief Justice of South Africa, "Judicial Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights: The South African Experience."
October 15, 2004
Paul Benjamin, Senior Director, Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Inc. (Cape Town) & Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Cape Town, "Regulation and Transformation in Democratic South Africa."
November 1, 2004
Tony Leon, leader of South Africa’s Democratic Party, "Is the Independence of the Judiciary Under Threat in South Africa?" (Dinner session of the Reading Group)
November 19, 2004
Dhayanithie Pillay, Judge of the Labour Court of South Africa, "Constitutionalization of Labor Law in South Africa."February 11, 2005
Nelson Tebbe, NYU School of Law, “African Liberalism? Religion, Culture, and South Africa’s Interim Constitution of 1993.”Friday, March 11, 2005
Walton Johnson, Rutgers University (New Brunswick), "Are South African White People Ready for Democracy?"Friday, April 22, 2005
Michelle O’Sullivan, Women’s Legal Centre (Cape Town), "Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: Legal Activism for Women's Rights in South Africa" (coauthored with Ashley Martabano, Women’s Legal Centre intern).Reading Group member Ruth B. Cowan, scholar in residence at the Women & Politics Institute, School of Public Affairs, American University, also contributed her paper, "An Examination of The Women’s Legal Centre During Its First Five Years."
Fall 2003–Spring 2004
November 20, 2003
Frank Michelman, Robert Walmsley University professor, Harvard, “The Bill of Rights, The Common Law, and the Freedom-Friendly State.” (This is the first South Africa Reading Group videoconference, connecting speakers in Manhattan, Johannesburg, London, and Baltimore. Other participants are: Judge Catherine O’Regan of the South African Constitutional Court, Johannesburg; Professor Jonathan Klaaren of the University of the Witwatersrand Law School, Johannesburg; Professor Taunya Banks from the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore; and Bronwen Manby, deputy director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch in London.)February 26, 2004
Ashley Dawson, Assistant Professor of English at The College of Staten Island/CUNY, "Documenting the Trauma of Apartheid: Long Night's Journey into Day and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission."
April 28, 2004
Steven Budlender, Hauser Scholar, New York University School of Law, "Can You Discriminate in Your Will? A Comparative Assessment of South Africa's Bar to Private Discrimination."
May 6, 2004
Dennis Davis, Professor and Judge, "Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa: The Record After 10 Years."
Fall 2002–Spring 2003
October 31, 2002
Peter Vale, Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, and Fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies at NYU, "Migration and the Culture of Residual Insecurity in Southern Africa," chapter four of his book, "Politics and Security in South Africa: The Regional Dimension" (2002).November 8, 2002
Teboho Moja, Professor of Higher Education, NYU School of Education, "Transformation in Higher Education: Global Pressures and Local Realities in South Africa" (with Richard Fehnel et al., 2002).December 6, 2002
James Zug, freelance journalist and former teacher at an African high school in the Northern Transvaal in South Africa, "The Carry-On: The Legal Affairs of South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Newspaper," an excerpt from his book, "When We Stood Upright: A History of South Africa's Anti-Apartheid Newspaper, the Guardian, 1937–1963" (forthcoming 2004).February 7, 2003
Donna Katzin, Executive Director of Shared Interest ("a not-for-profit investment fund established to enhance the self-sufficiency of South Africa's low-income communities and their financial institutions"), "From Reconciliation to Reconstruction and Back ... Development Challenges and Opportunities in Today's South Africa."March 14, 2003
Diana Gordon, Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Senior Research Scholar in the Ph.D. program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, "Great Expectations? Democratic Transformation and Criminal Justice in South Africa."March 31, 2003
Howard Venable, Adjunct Professor (now Visiting Professor), New York Law School, "Land Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa."April 11, 2003
Jonathan Klaaren, Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Law, Johannesburg, South Africa, "A Second Look at the South African Human Rights Commission and the Promotion of Socio-Economic Rights."
Fall 2001–Spring 2002
December 12, 2001
Professor Saras Jagwanth, Department of Public Law, University of Cape Town School of Law, “The Right to Equality in South Africa.”February 8, 2002
Professor James L. Gibson, Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government, Washington University, and Distinguished Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, “Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation? Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process.”March 15, 2002
Thandabantu Nhlapo, South African Embassy, Washington, D.C. (former member of the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law), “Law Reform and Human Rights in a Multicultural Society.”April 12, 2002
Professor Stephen Clingman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, chapter 12 of his book, Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary (1998) and Professor Stephen Ellmann, New York Law School, “To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest: Bram Fischer and the Meaning of Integrity.”
