Meet some of our renowned authors
Allan Boesak
Allan Aubrey Boesak (born 23 February 1946) is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric, politician and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud in 1999 but was subsequently granted an official pardon and reinstated as a cleric in late 2004. Along with Beyers Naudé and Winnie Mandela, Boesak won the 1985 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award given annually by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to an individual or group whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy’s vision and legacy.
Jacob Cloete
Jacob Cloete is a filmmaker, researcher and entrepreneur. Born and raised in a small town called Bitterfontein in South Africa, Jacob developed his love for writing and film. He bought his first camera while he was a South African Defence Force soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and since then never looked back. He attended the University of the Western Cape (UWC), where he graduated with his PhD in Political Science. His work feeds into a growing global scholarship on the politics of belonging, reflected in South Africa’s xenophobic response and Europe’s anti-immigration and anti-refugee policies. His post-doctoral work focuses on the Khoekhoe, San and the problematic ‘coloured’ identity in South Africa.
Susanne Lundin
Susanne Lundin has created an interdisciplinary research environment at Lund University. She studies cutting-edge medical research in neurodegenerative diseases, reproductive technologies, gene therapy, stem cell research, transplantation, xenotransplantation and healthcare priorities. Her current research focuses on: Illegal medical treatments such as organ trafficking and falsified medicines. See for example the projects Global Bodies in Grey Zones: Health, Hope, Bioeconomy & Why do we choose the Internet instead of the doctor next door? The Internet as a site for medicines in grey zones.
Uma Mesthrie
Prof Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie’s NRF B1 rating is a recognition of the high quality of her work on India-South Africa mobilities. This work has garnered her international recognition and established her as a leader in the field. The Durban-born Professor began her career at UWC in the History department of the Faculty of Arts in 1993 – a very interesting time and place for scholars of South African history. Her research examines the connected histories between India and South Africa.
Wannie Carstens
Prof Wannie Carstens has been Director of the School of Languages at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus since 2001. He is currently also the chairperson of the Afrikaanse Taalraad, chairperson of the Suid Afrikaanse Akademie van Kuns en Kultuur, chairperson of the Nasionale Taalligaam vir Afrikaans and also serves on a variety of boards. He is, amongst others, also a member of the panel of translators for the new Afrikaans Bible translation. He was one of the founder collaborators of the collection of Afrikaans poetry that is housed in the Poëzie centrum in Gent, Belgium, and is also leader of a project that established a digital library on Afrikaans language sources (DBAT). He is a graded researcher of the National Research Foundation (NNS/NRF) in South Africa and also participates regularly in radio and television programmes on language matters. Carstens has already published 33 academic articles as well as numerous popular articles. He also acts as moderator for other universities (UNISA, UFS and UP) as well as external examiner of other universities’ dissertations and theses.
