Keynotes

Prof Willie Burger

Prof Willie Burger is a well-known academic, reviewer, and author. He heads the Afrikaans Department at the University of Pretoria, and contributed widely to the study of a range of aspect regarding Afrikaans literature, for example narrative, the aesthetic effect, modernity in Afrikaans fiction, World Literature, and comparative literature. His newest work, Die wêreld van die storie, looks at the ways in which literature (and also the pedagogy of literature) illuminates the tension between reality and fiction.

Prof Nompumelelo Zondi

Professor Nompumelelo Zondi is an Associate Professor and Head of Department: African Languages at the University of Pretoria. Previously, she has worked at the University of Natal and the State University of New York at Albany, where was attached to the Department of Africana Studies and taught a module in Zulu Language and Culture. In 2012, she joined the University of Zululand as an Associate Professor, teaching Traditional and Modern African Literature as well as Research Methodology. She utilises her main discipline – African Languages, as a platform to highlight the need for transformative approaches, which address concerns around inequality, access and human rights specifically with regard to women. Prof Zondi has published widely, and is recepient of numerous scholarships and awards, including Professoriate Mellon Fund (2017) and the Unizulu International Grant. In collaboration with UKZN and Wits Prof Zondi was recently a principal convener for the international conference, Thetha Sizwe: Intersections, Practices and Identities: Rethinking Gender in African Languages and Literature.