Cynthia Kros
Biographic Data
| ID | 243156 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cynthia Kros |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cynthia |
| FAMILY NAME | Kros |
| SIGNATURE | KROS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Witwatersrand |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7075-2273 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 63 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Bringing the Care Capital to the Worcester Museum
They Have Indeed Made History’
Archives of Times Past
Can the archive restore you? A study of three works
The article is intended to contribute to a growing debate about how to approach and interact with problematic archives. The article examines three works made by a photographer and two filmmakers, respectively, based on their artistic interactions with their respective archives. Their works were brought to annual workshops in 2019 and 2020 organized by Reframing Africa , co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Market Photo …
Exploring the Archive of the Times before Colonialism
On the Trail of Qing and Orpen
Significant elements of the seminal re-interpretation of southern African rock art dating to the 1980s or before rest on the outcome, almost a century earlier of an encounter between British coloni
Acting Up against Apartheid
This article arose out of an exercise designed to consolidate the Market Theatre archive under the auspices of Historical Papers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). It was called “Acting Up against Apartheid”. In the course of locating and collating documentation related to the Market Theatre in the struggle years, Vanessa Cooke and Carol Preston interviewed 17 of the practitioners who were involved in the Market Theatre at the time. C…
Teaching the Past in All Its ‘Messiness’
The title of this article is inspired by Peter Novick's injunction in his The Holocaust and Collective Memory (2001) to allow for encounters with the past in all its ‘messiness’, as a way of helping school learners to develop life-long habits of autonomous thinking, reasoning and working both systematically and imaginatively through evidence that might assist them in making difficult ethical choices. The article analyses one aspect of the current…
Tribing and Untribing the Archive
‘Tribing’ – not quite the word we used to strike out in our students' essays in the 1970s and 1980s on the grounds that ‘tribe’ had pejorative connotations. ‘Tribing’ is meant to do the ‘weirding’
Introduction
Babel Re-Play
This article discusses the first phase of Babel Re-Play, a collaborative project by academics and artists in South Africa and Switzerland applying principles of art as research and play theory. The interest of the participants, inspired by the larger research initiative Construction Site/Chantier, is in deepening our understandings of the ways modernity is playing out in contemporary cities. The article shows how re-playing the well-known myth of…
Twenty years of heritage studies - the showbiz of history
This paper is part of a collective retrospective convened in 2014 looking back at various disciplines in the Humanities at Wits over the 20 years of democracy. The seeds of the heritage studies programme at Wits were sown in 1990 when it became apparent that the apartheid regime was about to cede to a more democratic regime, creating a new opportunity for Wits academics to engage with public institutions. The paper discusses this moment against t…
The Nature of Heritage
Rhodes Must Fall
This article takes its departure point from the fact that the VIADUCT 2015 platform \noverlapped chronologically with the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign at the University of Cape \nTown (UCT). I ask whether bringing some of the archival theory that was discussed and \napplied at the platform to bear on an analysis of the campaign against the statue of Rhodes \nat UCT – in conjunction with the existing literature around monuments – is helpful in \nde…
Tainted heritage? The case of the Branly museum
The paper argues that, although the musée du quai Branly in Paris, inaugurated in 2006, may be tainted through the history of its collections as well as the political imperatives that brought it into existence in the Chirac era, it has the potential to make a radical break with its genre history. The paper takes up a metaphor adopted by one of the museum's curators that sees it as infected but not incurably stricken by the virus common to all eth…
Heritage, Culture, and Politics in the Postcolony
Herwitz declares this to be a philosophical book about heritage. It is just as well that this reviewer has been reading Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, which argues the case for fosteri
Becoming UWC
Lives in the Making
This article takes the author's recent experiences of working with Amina Cachalia on her memoirs as a starting point for engaging with the knotty problems of the autobiographical genre, especially in its relationship with more orthodox forms of history writing. An examination of South African women's autobiographies and memoirs suggests the existence of different kinds of historical narratives that subvert, either explicitly or tacitly, what Elai…
Public History/Heritage
This article is a reflection of the trajectory of heritage or public history since the path breaking History Workshop conference titled 'Myths, Monuments, Museums: New Premises?' The article briefly revisits some of the arguments made at the 1992 conference, particularly those that related to the fate of heritage representations crafted during apartheid. The Voortrekker Monument provides a path into discussion about the possibilities opened after…
Ideological Straitjacket or Irreplaceable Principle of Democracy? Reflections on the French Debates about Laïcité and the Questions They Raise for South African Social Scientists
Laïcité, a particular product of French history and philosophy, is usually represented as having been formalised in the 1905 law providing for the separation of church and state, that is, the separation of religion from political power. But, the concept of removing religion to the private space as opposed to the public space of politics and the civil sphere is currently fiercely contested, driven in particular by reactions to various manifestatio…
Considering the Legacy of Radical/Social History in South Africa1 This paper was prepared for the Unisa Department of History's Sixtieth Anniversary Commemoration Series, 1946–2006 and was presented o…
(2007). Considering the Legacy of Radical/Social History in South Africa This paper was prepared for the Unisa Department of History's Sixtieth Anniversary Commemoration Series, 1946–2006 and was presented on 6 September 2006. . African Historical Review: Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 41-58
Secularity in a world ‘torn by difference
This paper attempts to raise questions about the model of multiculturalism that is the ideal in South African state schools, by examining the debates around secularity in the public space that came to a head in France in 2003, which have very different philosophical and historical antecedents from those that inform South African principles. The paper focuses on the arguments made by members of the Stasi commission, convened by president Chirac in…
Conversations with Historians
The editors of the South African Historical Journal decided to commemorate its 51st issue by asking a range of historians — some established, some emerging — to reflect on the state of the discipline. We present an edited collation below of the answers we received. Some of the responses were written, while others were given in the course of interviews with us, which may account for differences in structure, tone and length. We would like to thank…
Ethnic Narcissism and Big Brother
(2004). Ethnic Narcissism and Big Brother: Culture, Identity, and the State in the New Curriculum. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 38, A Decade of Democracy in Southern Africa / Une décennie de démocratie en Afrique australe, pp. 587-602
A New History of Formal Schooling in South Africa 1658–1910
The Dead Will Arise
Rhodes Must Fall
This article takes its departure point from the fact that the VIADUCT 2015 platform \noverlapped chronologically with the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign at the University of Cape \nTown (UCT). I ask whether bringing some of the archival theory that was discussed and \napplied at the platform to bear on an analysis of the campaign against the statue of Rhodes \nat UCT – in conjunction with the existing literature around monuments – is helpful in \nde…
Maqoma
Experiencing a Century in a Day? Making More of Gold Reef City
Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Myths, Monuments, Museums; New Premises? 16-18 July, 1992
New Culture of Control
New Premises for Public History in South Africa
Tainted heritage? The case of the Branly museum
The paper argues that, although the musée du quai Branly in Paris, inaugurated in 2006, may be tainted through the history of its collections as well as the political imperatives that brought it into existence in the Chirac era, it has the potential to make a radical break with its genre history. The paper takes up a metaphor adopted by one of the museum's curators that sees it as infected but not incurably stricken by the virus common to all eth…
Telling Lies and then Hoping to Forget all about History
Secularity in a world ‘torn by difference
This paper attempts to raise questions about the model of multiculturalism that is the ideal in South African state schools, by examining the debates around secularity in the public space that came to a head in France in 2003, which have very different philosophical and historical antecedents from those that inform South African principles. The paper focuses on the arguments made by members of the Stasi commission, convened by president Chirac in…
The Ghost of Equality
Acting Up against Apartheid
This article arose out of an exercise designed to consolidate the Market Theatre archive under the auspices of Historical Papers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). It was called “Acting Up against Apartheid”. In the course of locating and collating documentation related to the Market Theatre in the struggle years, Vanessa Cooke and Carol Preston interviewed 17 of the practitioners who were involved in the Market Theatre at the time. C…
Lives in the Making
This article takes the author's recent experiences of working with Amina Cachalia on her memoirs as a starting point for engaging with the knotty problems of the autobiographical genre, especially in its relationship with more orthodox forms of history writing. An examination of South African women's autobiographies and memoirs suggests the existence of different kinds of historical narratives that subvert, either explicitly or tacitly, what Elai…
Public History/Heritage
This article is a reflection of the trajectory of heritage or public history since the path breaking History Workshop conference titled 'Myths, Monuments, Museums: New Premises?' The article briefly revisits some of the arguments made at the 1992 conference, particularly those that related to the fate of heritage representations crafted during apartheid. The Voortrekker Monument provides a path into discussion about the possibilities opened after…
Interview with Carolyn Hamilton
The Dead Will Arise
New Culture of Control
Tokens of the Past?’
Experiencing a Century in a Day? Making More of Gold Reef City
Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Myths, Monuments, Museums; New Premises? 16-18 July, 1992
New Premises for Public History in South Africa
Fact or Opinion? The Fatal Flaw
First Things First
Maqoma
Farewell to the Middle Style? Reflections on The Seed is Mine
Interview with Peter Delius
The Ghost of Equality
Pardoning the Past
Interview with Carolyn Hamilton
Defining the Real Nature of the Beast
Telling Lies and then Hoping to Forget all about History
New Approaches to Africa
Conversations with Historians
The editors of the South African Historical Journal decided to commemorate its 51st issue by asking a range of historians — some established, some emerging — to reflect on the state of the discipline. We present an edited collation below of the answers we received. Some of the responses were written, while others were given in the course of interviews with us, which may account for differences in structure, tone and length. We would like to thank…
Ethnic Narcissism and Big Brother
(2004). Ethnic Narcissism and Big Brother: Culture, Identity, and the State in the New Curriculum. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 38, A Decade of Democracy in Southern Africa / Une décennie de démocratie en Afrique australe, pp. 587-602
Secularity in a world ‘torn by difference
This paper attempts to raise questions about the model of multiculturalism that is the ideal in South African state schools, by examining the debates around secularity in the public space that came to a head in France in 2003, which have very different philosophical and historical antecedents from those that inform South African principles. The paper focuses on the arguments made by members of the Stasi commission, convened by president Chirac in…
Considering the Legacy of Radical/Social History in South Africa1 This paper was prepared for the Unisa Department of History's Sixtieth Anniversary Commemoration Series, 1946–2006 and was presented o…
(2007). Considering the Legacy of Radical/Social History in South Africa This paper was prepared for the Unisa Department of History's Sixtieth Anniversary Commemoration Series, 1946–2006 and was presented on 6 September 2006. . African Historical Review: Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 41-58
Ideological Straitjacket or Irreplaceable Principle of Democracy? Reflections on the French Debates about Laïcité and the Questions They Raise for South African Social Scientists
Laïcité, a particular product of French history and philosophy, is usually represented as having been formalised in the 1905 law providing for the separation of church and state, that is, the separation of religion from political power. But, the concept of removing religion to the private space as opposed to the public space of politics and the civil sphere is currently fiercely contested, driven in particular by reactions to various manifestatio…
Public History/Heritage
This article is a reflection of the trajectory of heritage or public history since the path breaking History Workshop conference titled 'Myths, Monuments, Museums: New Premises?' The article briefly revisits some of the arguments made at the 1992 conference, particularly those that related to the fate of heritage representations crafted during apartheid. The Voortrekker Monument provides a path into discussion about the possibilities opened after…
Lives in the Making
This article takes the author's recent experiences of working with Amina Cachalia on her memoirs as a starting point for engaging with the knotty problems of the autobiographical genre, especially in its relationship with more orthodox forms of history writing. An examination of South African women's autobiographies and memoirs suggests the existence of different kinds of historical narratives that subvert, either explicitly or tacitly, what Elai…
Heritage, Culture, and Politics in the Postcolony
Herwitz declares this to be a philosophical book about heritage. It is just as well that this reviewer has been reading Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, which argues the case for fosteri
Becoming UWC
History (36 works) · History (30 works) · Sociology (20 works) · South African History and Culture (16 works) · Political science (14 works) · Art (12 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · Ancient history (9 works) · Genealogy (9 works) · Geography (9 works)