Research Publications

2026. "Challenging the Implicated Subject: Bringing memory activism into the South African university classroom". Journal article Published in Memory Studies (Issue number to be advised)

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Abstract

In this article, I explore the value of engaging with the intersections between memory studies scholarship and memory activism within the university classroom. I do so by documenting the approach I took to teaching Michael Rothberg’ s theory of the implicated subject to South African university graduate students. I introduced the students to the implicated subject within the framework provided by two interconnected courses which make connections between histories of antisemitism, the Holocaust, colonialism and gender oppression. Together, the courses required the students to explore their positionality, and contemplate what they can do to address global challenges, related to issues such as antisemitism and racism. To prompt their reflections, I provided the students with a range of case studies that explored, among other things, white South African students’ responses to the #FeesMustFall protests, and complex intersections between South African antisemitism and racism in a hate speech case. I also gave them creative assignments which provided them with the opportunity to explore their roles as curators and memory activists. Apart from documenting my approaches of teaching and assessment, I also examine a poem, produced by one of the students, which highlights how the students have come to apply memory activism and scholarship in their
everyday lives.

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2025. "Multidirectional Memory in the NGO Sector: The Case of the Hate Crimes Group and the Value of Cross-Sector Engagement".  Book chapter in Simply Human: A Guide to Understanding and Combating Hate. The book is edited by Kenneth S. Stern and published under Toronto University Press.

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Abstract

In this chapter, I explore how literary scholar Michael Rothberg's theory of multidirectional memory can be used as a framework to create connections between NGOs that occupy differing social, cultural and political orientations. The chapter uses the South African- based Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG) as a case study to demonstrate how multidirectionality could be employed. 

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2024. Poetry Non-Scenes: New performance poems beyond the struggle.  This is a poetry anthology, comprised of poems written by participants from our Poetry NonScenes poetry workshops in Johannesburg and Pretoria. It was co-edited with Tom Penfold and Deirdre Byrne and published under uHlanga Press. The anthology is supported by the Johannesburg Holocaust Centre, the External Engagement Committee of the History Department of University College London, the University of Pretoria and the University of South Africa.

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Blurb

A collection of performance poetry from a range of the freshest South African voices -- school learners, university students, and working professionals. Compiled from two workshops held in 2024, these poems show that the poetry of the stage is also of the page, covering an array of subjects and unrestrained by form. Edgy, experimental and passionate, here are diverse and dynamic reflections on the present moment in South Africa and the world, by those who will write its future.

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2024. "'If I Speak Like You, I Am You': Racial Passing in Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Other Stories". Journal article published in Literature, Critique , and Empire Today (Vol. 59, Issue 2-3)

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Abstract

In his memoir Born a Crime and Other Stories (2016), stand-up comedian Trevor Noah, draws on
the thematic concerns of his stand-up performances, as he documents his experiences of racial
passing in apartheid and then post-apartheid South Africa. Noah's reflections on these experiences
of passing are integral to shaping his commentary on how racial identities are constructed and
perceived. In this article, I will examine how Noah's racial passing narrative expands upon
depictions of and commentaries on race presented within works of South African racial passing
memoir writing. As I will demonstrate, Noah's use of elements of humour and imagination in
constructing his childhood self's perceptions of the racialized world, positions his persona as one
that contrasts that of the tragic mulatto as it is represented in other works of South African racial
passing memoir writing. Through this contrast, I will suggest that Noah's memoir challenges the
notion that one's identity is restricted and limited by systems of racial categorization by reflecting
on how race can, in fact, be interpreted as a site of creative expression.

 

2023. "The Humanity of Whiteness in Sindiwe Magona's Mother to Mother". Journal article published in Safundi (Vol. 24, Issue. 3).

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Abstract

In this article, I will use a textual analysis of Sindiwe Magona’s  Mother to Mother (1998) as a framework through which to critique and expand upon the concerns reflected in current studies of
whiteness. As I will observe, the field of Whiteness Studies offers an insightful lens through which to examine the constructions of whiteness, particularly with regards to how it capitalizes on Black
identities and subjectivities. Yet, it does not address the different formations of white identity that may emerge when seeking out points of empathy and connection between Black and white individuals
and communities. Through a specific focus on Magona’s portrayal of the figures of the white “madam”, the white liberal activist, and the white grieving mother in Mother to Mother, I will
examine how the novel demonstrates the ways in which engaging with the humanity of whiteness can potentially illuminatethese different formations of white identity.

2021. "Breaking Silences in the Aftermath of Historical Trauma in Elie Wiesel's Day". Journal article published in Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History (Vol 27, Issue 3)

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Abstract

This article employs a close reading of Elie Wiesel’s third novel, Day (1961), as a lens through which to explore the difficulties inherent in disengaging from the Holocaust past and their impact on the Holocaust survivor’s efforts to live in the present. In particular, The article explores how the novel’s narrative employs silence, a key Wieselian symbol, in constructing its overarching framework. These textual silences, I suggest, portray the text’s protagonist’s inability to escape his past at the camps. It is only through transforming these silences into speech that he is able to truly begin to live in the present.

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2020. "Find the 'Herstorical Narrative in Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give". Journal article published in English Studies in Africa (Vol 63, Issue 1). This article was also republished  as a book chapter in Cultures of Populism : Institutions, Practices and Resistance, edited by Merle A. Williams and published under Routledge. 

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Abstract

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In this article I use Angie Thomas’s popular young-adult novel The Hate U Give as a lens through which to explore how young adult fiction, produced by African American writers, can serve to facilitate social activism and change. In the novel, Thomas’s Black teenage protagonist, Starr Carter, undergoes a transformation from victim and witness to activist after she sees her Black male friend murdered by a white police officer. As I will demonstrate, the novel is guided and shaped by the ideologies of the Black Lives Matter Movement as it explores the complexities of Blackness in both post-racial and communal spaces. By drawing on these ideologies and employing the perspective of a Black teenage girl, Thomas engages her Black female readers in a readerly process in which they reflect on how Starr’s narrative relates to their own lives. In doing so, I argue, she encourages these readers to explore ways in which their own narratives can be used to instigate social activism and change.

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