The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, invites you to the concluding session of the Senior and Postdoctoral Fellowship Lecture and Workshop Series for Spring 2026.
This joint lecture brings together two Postdoctoral Fellows whose work engages questions of cultural exchange, migration, and global systems. The session will feature presentations by Kristina Dziedzic Wright, Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities, and Rosette Sifa Vuninga, Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies.
The lecture will take place online on Thursday, May 14, 2026, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM GST via Zoom.
The vibrant cities of Seoul and Nairobi provide numerous examples from the cultural and creative industries that bring together Africa and Asia through the arts. Analyses of art exhibitions and public festivals demonstrate how encounters with “otherness” through the imaginative engagement of art can foster an appreciation of cultural diversity. The concept of hospitality is applied to art curation to examine how curatorial practice, when framed in this way, can enable more inclusive and connective forms of engagement through exhibitions. As interactions between Asia and Africa increase through globalization and human migration, the arts offer expanded possibilities for transcultural exchange, particularly when curation is understood and practiced as a form of hospitality.
The lecture examines the late 2019 refugee protest in Cape Town and its aftermath. It revisits the protest’s causes, mobilisation, demands, and strategies, while also providing an update on the daily lives of those still living in shelters to which they were forcibly relocated in April 2020 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. It argues that, while xenophobia and violations of refugee rights in South Africa were genuine drivers of protest, the demands of protesters were primarily directed at challenging the international refugee system, including calls for mass resettlement in Western countries, rather than focusing on reform within the local South African refugee system.
Kristina Dziedzic Wright is the Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. She holds a Ph.D. in Museum, Gallery, and Heritage Studies from the University of Leicester and a Master’s degree in Rhetoric and Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research examines how the arts shape urban and national identity and foster cross-cultural exchange between Asia and Africa, based on comparative work in Nairobi and Seoul. Her current project explores migration, belonging, and curatorial practice as forms of radical hospitality. Read more.
Rosette Sifa Vuninga is the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of the Western Cape and was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and a University Research Committee Fellow at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on migration, identity, and transnational politics among Congolese communities in South Africa. She is currently completing a monograph based on her doctoral research while continuing work on Congolese homeland politics and activism. Read more.
Emery Kalema is Assistant Professor of History at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of the Witwatersrand and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Stellenbosch University, Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study program, and New York University’s CSAAD. His research focuses on historical trauma, memory, and postcolonial transformation, with an emphasis on African and global histories of violence and recovery. Read more.
The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, invites you to the concluding session of the Senior and Postdoctoral Fellowship Lecture and Workshop Series for Spring 2026.
The Africa Institute, Global Studies University, invites you to the concluding session of the Senior and Postdoctoral Fellowship Lecture and Workshop Series for Spring 2026.
This joint lecture brings together two Postdoctoral Fellows whose work engages questions of cultural exchange, migration, and global systems. The session will feature presentations by Kristina Dziedzic Wright, Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities, and Rosette Sifa Vuninga, Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies.
The lecture will take place online on Thursday, May 14, 2026, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM GST via Zoom.
The vibrant cities of Seoul and Nairobi provide numerous examples from the cultural and creative industries that bring together Africa and Asia through the arts. Analyses of art exhibitions and public festivals demonstrate how encounters with “otherness” through the imaginative engagement of art can foster an appreciation of cultural diversity. The concept of hospitality is applied to art curation to examine how curatorial practice, when framed in this way, can enable more inclusive and connective forms of engagement through exhibitions. As interactions between Asia and Africa increase through globalization and human migration, the arts offer expanded possibilities for transcultural exchange, particularly when curation is understood and practiced as a form of hospitality.
The lecture examines the late 2019 refugee protest in Cape Town and its aftermath. It revisits the protest’s causes, mobilisation, demands, and strategies, while also providing an update on the daily lives of those still living in shelters to which they were forcibly relocated in April 2020 amid the Covid-19 outbreak. It argues that, while xenophobia and violations of refugee rights in South Africa were genuine drivers of protest, the demands of protesters were primarily directed at challenging the international refugee system, including calls for mass resettlement in Western countries, rather than focusing on reform within the local South African refugee system.
Kristina Dziedzic Wright is the Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. She holds a Ph.D. in Museum, Gallery, and Heritage Studies from the University of Leicester and a Master’s degree in Rhetoric and Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research examines how the arts shape urban and national identity and foster cross-cultural exchange between Asia and Africa, based on comparative work in Nairobi and Seoul. Her current project explores migration, belonging, and curatorial practice as forms of radical hospitality. Read more.
Rosette Sifa Vuninga is the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of the Western Cape and was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and a University Research Committee Fellow at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on migration, identity, and transnational politics among Congolese communities in South Africa. She is currently completing a monograph based on her doctoral research while continuing work on Congolese homeland politics and activism. Read more.
Emery Kalema is Assistant Professor of History at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of the Witwatersrand and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Stellenbosch University, Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study program, and New York University’s CSAAD. His research focuses on historical trauma, memory, and postcolonial transformation, with an emphasis on African and global histories of violence and recovery. Read more.
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