The Wits History Workshop has been awarded a prestigious grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to undertake research and support a graduate development programme on ‘The Everyday and Public History’ over a five-year period.

Postgraduate Fellowships

Rooted in the History Workshop’s tradition of social history and history from below, the project seeks to give sustained attention to ‘the everyday’ as a conceptual frame through which to understand social, cultural and political processes in southern Africa and to simultaneously enable an engagement with everyday practices of historical knowledge production in the field of public history.

The experience of everyday life could be explored as part of thematic areas that include (but are not limited to): the politics of everyday life; love, marriage and the family; leisure and the everyday; space and place. The programme will foster collaborations between students, researchers and communities engaged in the production of public histories through workshops on theory and methodology, writing retreats, reading groups, a public lecture series, research grants for established scholars, a public history network, a public history fellowship and an international colloquium.

The project is interdisciplinary and welcomes applications from emerging South African postgraduate scholars with distinguished academic records - from Honours to postdoctoral level - in the humanities to produce innovative research around theories, practices and histories of the everyday. Preference will be given to South African citizens or permanent residents and the programme is committed to active transformation.

The value of the fellowships is:

• R85 000 for Honours (4 positions)
• R95 000 for Masters (two positions)
• R125 000 for PhDs (three positions)
• R190 000 for Postdocs (one position)

To apply please submit the following: 


• A detailed and uptodate CV. 

• An example of any recent published (or written) work (third year essay for Honours applications).
• Names and contact details (including email addresses) of 2 referees. 

• Certified copies of degrees. 

• An academic transcript (for Honours, Masters and PhD applications).
• A covering letter detailing the proposed research focus and how that might fit into this initiative. 


Please note that for Honours, Masters and PhD fellowships, students must be registered at Wits and apply separately to the academic department that they wish to study in.

Applications should be emailed to: Mrs Antonette Gouws, antonette.gouws@wits.ac.za 

Closing date: 30 November 2016


For further information about the programme please contact the administrator, Antonette Gouws, email: antonette.gouws@wits.ac.za, tel: +27 11 717 4291.