Date: 11 June 2025.
Time: 14:00 – 17:00 BST.
This CEID seminar will build from the recently published book edited by Professors Saleem Badat and Vasu Reddy (University of Free State, South Africa) reflecting on the work of Ruth First, a notable South African activist, writer and academic. She was killed by apartheid forces while working at a university in Mozambique, where she lived in exile.
Professor Badat will present key themes from their book, which interrogates, celebrates, and invites scholarship on Ruth First’s body of knowledge which spanned politics in many countries in Africa, women’s activism, theories of social transformation and the theme of activist research. He will distinguish between engaged, critical and activist research and pose questions about what activist research entails in the contemporary moment in different contexts. In commenting on the work, we will invite four scholars to discuss their engagement with some key themes from Professor Badat’s book.