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  • ACMS SEMINAR: The Adversity Grid – Beyond Epistemological Traps

    ACMS Seminar Room 2163, South East Wing, Second Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    Presenter: Tanatswa Chineka Title: The Adversity Grid: Beyond Epistemological Traps in the Gendered Liminality of Unaccompanied Migrant Boys Respondent: Prof. Edmos Mtetwa (Department of Social Work, University of Zimbabwe)  Date: Wednesday, 13 May 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514, Passcode: 012731 RSVP: Email ntokozo.yingwana@wits.ac.za Abstract: Unaccompanied migrant adolescent boys navigate health and protection systems from structurally precarious positions shaped by displacement, poverty, gendered expectations, and uneven institutional recognition. This paper argues that reductive framings of boys as vulnerable victims, resilient survivors, or problematic young men flatten the complexity of their lives and risk producing responses that are misaligned with their needs. Drawing on qualitative research in Zimbabwe, including interviews, focus groups, and field observations, I bring Renos Papadopoulos’ (2021) Adversity Grid into dialogue with scholarship on masculinities, constrained agency, and institutional misrecognition. Findings show that boys occupy a condition of gendered liminality and are subject to a girl-centred triage, achieving only partial recognition through the figure of the “good migrant boy.” I develop the concepts of interpretive displacement and differentiated recognition to show how boys are seen but […]

  • ACMS SEMINAR: Growing Up Across Borders

    ACMS Seminar Room 2163, South East Wing, Second Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    Presenters: Prof. Jane Freedman and Dr Aron Hagos Tesfai Title: Growing Up Across Borders Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514, Passcode: 012731 RSVP: Email ntokozo.yingwana@wits.ac.za Abstract: Growing Up Across Borders (GRABS) is a project at the Université Paris 8 that explores how migration, mobility, and urban life shape the health, wellbeing, and everyday experiences of young people across Southern Africa. Bringing together research, dialogue, and community engagement, the project focuses particularly on the ways mobile and migrant youth navigate access to healthcare, social support, education, and opportunities within contexts of inequality and precarity. By centring young people’s lived experiences across borders, the project aims to generate evidence that informs more inclusive policies, responsive health systems, and youth-centred approaches to social justice and development. About the presenters: Prof. Jane Freedman is the leader of the European Research Council (ERC) funded Growing Up Across Borders (GRABS) project. She is a professor at the Université Paris 8 and a member of the Paris Centre for Social and Political Research (CRESPPA). Her research has focused for many years […]

  • ACMS SEMINAR: Home Beyond Borders

    ACMS Seminar Room 2163, South East Wing, Second Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    Presenter: Dr Lydia Moyo Title: Home Beyond Borders: Belonging and Identity among Zimbabwean Venda-Speaking Migrants in South Africa Discussant: Dr Paddington Mutekwe Date: Wednesday, 27 May 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 (GMT+2) Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514, Passcode: 012731 RSVP: Email ntokozo.yingwana@wits.ac.za Abstract: This article explores how Zimbabwean Venda-speaking migrants in Pretoria, South Africa, construct and negotiate meanings of home under conditions of prolonged and precarious migration. Drawing on qualitative data from 30 participants collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically using Atlas.ti, the study shows that home extends beyond a fixed geographical place to include emotional attachment, memory, cultural practice, and social relationships. Participants use embodied practices such as food and music to sustain belonging across borders while maintaining connections to Zimbabwe. Although migration was often initially viewed as temporary, prolonged residence fostered forms of rootedness in South Africa alongside enduring transnational ties. The article argues that homemaking among precarious migrants is both portable and spiritually anchored through everyday cultural reproduction, ancestry, land, and burial sites, contributing to debates on transnational belonging and identity. About the researcher/presenter: Lydia Moyo is a […]

  • ACMS SEMINAR: Hearing the City

    ACMS Seminar Room 2163, South East Wing, Second Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    Presenter: Dr Brian Murahwa Title: Hearing the City: Pentecostalism, Urban Soundscapes and the Politics of Audibility in Johannesburg's Inner City Discussant: Carina Tenewaa Kanbi Date: Wednesday, 17 June 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 (GMT+2) Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp, Meeting ID: 957 8662 4514, Passcode: 012731 RSVP: Email Jaclyn.Modise@wits.ac.za Abstract: This article examines Johannesburg’s inner city as a complex auditory landscape where religious actors, informal economies, transport systems, and street life intersect, creating overlapping acoustic territories. Sound influences spatial order, social interactions, and belonging. Over the past two decades, the city has integrated new 'sounds' from Pentecostal Churches, whose growth has surged amid rising urban insecurity and uncertainty. The use of high-powered sound systems in Pentecostal churches has elicited mixed reactions – joyous for Pentecostals and an affront to other urban actors. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that the use of boisterous sound systems by Pentecostal Churches should not be dismissed as mere nuisances or ‘noise’, but rather, should be understood as forms of spatial production embedded within broader urban struggles over visibility, audibility, legitimacy, and survival. This study proposes ‘sonic justice’ as an alternative framework […]

  • EVENT: Parliamentary Symposium On Migration and Social Cohesion

    Wits School of Governance, 2 St David's Place, Parktown, Johannesburg, 2050

    ACMS migration expert and co-director Prof. Jo Vearey will be making inputs at the South Africa National Migration Symposium (SAN-MIS) tomorrow. SAN-MIS is a landmark initiative led by the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation in partnership with the Wits School of Governance (WSG) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Established as an annual platform for inclusive, evidence-based dialogue, SAN-MIS brings together policymakers, academics, civil society, migrant and host communities, diplomatic missions, and international partners to engage on one of the most pressing issues shaping South Africa and the African continent. The symposium seeks to promote informed public discourse, strengthen social cohesion, and generate practical policy recommendations that support safe, regular and humane migration while addressing the challenges associated with irregular migration. The inaugural symposium focuses on the theme, “Social Cohesion between Nationals and Migrants in South Africa”, reflecting the urgent need to address growing social tensions and their implications for community stability, regional relations and South Africa’s position within Africa. Through constructive dialogue, research-informed discussions and the sharing of lived experiences, the symposium aims to identify practical interventions that foster coexistence, counter misinformation, and strengthen social inclusion. By creating a trusted platform for engagement, SAN-MIS contributes to […]

  • INVITE: Towards Critical Apartheid Studies Conference

    Humanities Graduate Centre Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    Prof. Loren Landau (SARChI in Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand) will be presenting the keynote address at the 2026 Towards Critical Apartheid Studies Conference Title: An Apartheid of Uncertainty: Emerging Divisions in an Unsettled World Date: 29 July 2026 Time: 9:00 – 10:00 Venue: Humanities Graduate Centre, South West Engineering Building, Braamfontein Campus East, Wits University RSVP here. 

  • EVENT KEYNOTE: Apartheid After South Africa Conference – Prof Loren B Landau

    Professor Loren B. Landau (SARChI in Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the ACMS, WITS) delivered the keynote address at the opening of the Apartheid After South Africa: Legacies, Logics, and New Frontiers conference, hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand (29-31 July 2026). His presentation, "Apartheid of Uncertainty," explored how spatial, racial, and temporal divisions are emerging in an era of profound instability. Drawing on nearly a decade of research on mobility and meaning in African cities, Landau argued that uncertainty, driven by climate change, the changing nature of work, and political instability, is reshaping how communities form, who belongs, and who is excluded. He posed an essential question: What does collective action and membership look like when there are few clear pathways to a better future and little faith in our ability to produce one? Landau traced how lost faith in universal progress has given way to fragmented truths, particularism, and a turn to the miraculous, enabling forms of exclusion that border on genocide. He warned that the "apartheid of uncertainty" is not merely about racial or spatial separation, but about who can have a future. The keynote also reflected on the legacies of apartheid, the dangers […]

  • INVITE: Governing Gauteng Colloquium – 12 August 2026

    Join leading Wits researchers, policy experts, and practitioners for a frank, evidence-led conversation about the realities of local government in Gauteng. Governing Gauteng Colloquium: Practices, Principles, and Possibilities for Local Government Date: Wednesday, 12 August 2026 Time: 09:00 – 16:00 Venue: Wits Theatre, Braamfontein Campus East, Wits University RSVP From service delivery and infrastructure to municipal finance, public trust, and political accountability, the colloquium will examine what is working, what is failing, and what meaningful reform could look like beyond election promises. Speakers include: Graeme Gotz (Gauteng City-Region Observatory) Dr Federica Duca (Public Affairs Research Institute) Professor Noor Nieftagodien (Wits History Workshop) Seana Nkhahle (South African Local Government Association) Dr Mpho Tladi (City of Johannesburg) Professor Marie Huchzermeyer (Wits School of Architecture and Planning) Dr Caryn Abrahams (Wits School of Governance) Ferial Haffajee (Daily Maverick) Dr Jean Pierre Misago (African Centre for Migration & Society) Dr Tracy Ledger (Public Affairs Research Institute) Professor Garth Stevens (Wits Deputy Vice-Chancellor) Professor Lorena Núñez Carrasco (Wits School of Social Sciences)  

  • INVITE: Community Dialogue on Xenophobia – Prof. Loren Landau in Conversation with Koketso Moeti – 20 August 2026, 19:00

    Bannister Hotel, 9 De Beer Street, Braamfontein (4th Floor, Meeting Room) Bannister Hotel, 9 De Beer Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg

    Headlines have faded, but the challenges of xenophobic discrimination remain. You are cordially invited to a Community Dialogue on Xenophobia, hosted by the Siyafuna Sonke Action Campaign. As SADC debates regional immigration policy, Professor Loren Landau and Koketso Moeti will explore what this means for how the country is governed, and the prospects for fighting exclusion amidst mass unemployment, inequality, and institutional failure. Date: Thursday, 20 August 2026 Time: 19:00 Venue: Bannister Hotel, 9 De Beer Street, Braamfontein (4th Floor, Meeting Room)

  • ACMS SEMINAR: Why the Urban Matters in Understanding the Health of Migrants

    ACMS Seminar Room 2163, South East Wing, Second Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House, University of the Witwatersrand East Campus

    SEMINAR: Why the Urban Matters in Understanding the Health of Migrants: Insights from a Border Space between South Africa and Zimbabwe Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) Zoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/96044551994?pwd=yYEIcJb9Y6LmftslUALYZdwwan928m.1 , Meeting ID: 96044551994, Passcode: e*-A@32O0s Dr. Fehmida Qaddus Rabbani (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, African Centre for Migration & Society) will present a hybrid seminar exploring how everyday urban conditions shape the health and well-being of South Asian migrants in Musina. a busy South African town on the border with Zimbabwe. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork and interviews with South Asian migrants, this paper highlights the important role of daily urban conditions, access to secure housing, work, safety, and social services, in shaping health outcomes. While migration and health research is often framed around healthcare systems and policies, this seminar argues that the health of migrants is deeply shaped by how they experience life in an urban border area, where many remain for extended periods rather than simply passing through. Abstract: This paper explores how everyday urban conditions shape the health and well-being of South Asian migrants. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Musina, a busy South African town on the border with Zimbabwe, […]