Prof. Zintombizethu Matebeni is one of the eight international Senior Fellows joining the College for Social Sciences and Humanities for the winter term

Prof. Zintombizethu Matebeni, Marie Jahoda Fellow 2022,  is joining the College for Social Sciences and Humanities as Senior Fellow for the winter term 2024/2025. Within the context of the fellowship, eight outstanding international scholars from universities around the world will spend the next six months working on collaborative projects with their tandem partners from the University Alliance Ruhr. Zethu Matebeni’s tandem partner is Prof. Dr. Henriette Gunkel from Ruhr University Bochum.

Together they will work on the tandem project Looking Black: Transnational Relations in the South Africa and German Experience:

Looking Black lies at the intersection of media, gender, queer and Black studies as a research project that seeks to forge connections between how South African (audio-)visual culture and performance translates to the German experience. In particular, the project seeks to uncover the ways in which relationality between the two locations continuously spark debates about decolonisation, violence, freedom and the Black experience. Two fundamental questions guide this research project:

  1. what frames the translation and/or adaptation of the Black South African experience into the Afro-German context in film and performance?; and
  2. in what ways can existing narratives and visual representations of the Black experience in South Africa and Germany shape a new present future?

As a consequence of sometimes overlooked “shared histories”, there is a dialectic relationship between South Africa and Germany. These histories appear in various ways, through politics, political economy, migration, colonialism, apartheid, postcolonialism and decoloniality. Furthermore, they appear strongly in social and cultural relations, either through media, the arts and aspects of public culture. The debates for example in South Africa about statues of colonial figures and street names have also sparked debates in Germany (and Namibia) about such public artefacts, symbols, buildings and representations of history and its presence. Such relationality shows many synergies while simultaneously concealing many differences. It is these meaningful and powerful interrogations, particularly through media and visual cultures, that mobilise two distinct yet interrelated geopolitics and their diverse diasporas.

You can find further information on the Senior Fellows and the fellowship in general on the website of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities.