Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

The research area of conflict, violence, and reconciliation encompasses a multidisciplinary examination of the causes, dynamics, and consequences of violent conflict, as well as strategies for achieving sustainable peace and rebuilding societies post-conflict. This field is critical in understanding how societies can address the legacies of violence and foster reconciliation among divided communities. Conflict can arise in many different contexts, including personal relationships, organizations, and nations. Many researchers in the faculty, focus on conflict and reconciliation and the process of repairing or restoring relationships between individuals or groups that have been damaged by conflict or violence. The research includes looking at historical trauma; conflict resolution and factors that contribute to successful reconciliation efforts. Others focus on more direct forms of violence, including war, terrorism, domestic violence, and the effect of violent crimes on society. Researchers in FASS explore these issues from various perspectives, given the historical context of violence in South Africa, the level of crime and gender-based violence in society, and the underlying indirect cultural and structural factors that perpetuate violence.

Research Clusters

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies

Race, Culture, and Identity

Language and Society

Health, Welfare, and Human Security

Politics, Governance, and Citizenship

Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

Science, Technology, and Communication

Performance and Visual Arts

Department	Researcher	Areas of Focus
SARChi Violent Histories & Transgenerational Trauma; AVReQ	Dr Marietjie Oeloefsen	How and where South Africans talk about political trauma across racial and generational divides; the possibilities that exist for healing or recovery through mediating diverse experiences in the public sphere.
	Dr Samantha van Schalkwyk	The repercussions of gender violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. Interests include: gender violence and identity; addressing patriarchal trauma; psycho-social aspects of women’s agency.
	Dr Melanie Cilliers	Studying the collective influence of structural violence on the lived experiences of South African people through the lens of physiology, neurocognitive processes, and social psychology.
	Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela	Exploring the impact of dehumanising experiences of oppression and violence continues to play out in the next generation in the aftermath of historical trauma; relationship between remorse and forgiveness and the role of empathy; attempting to find a more complex understanding of empathy that takes African knowledge archive into account.
	Prof Kopano Ratele	Men and masculinity as it intersects with violence, class, traditions, sexuality, and race.
	Dr Wilhelm Verwoerd	Reconciliation, forgiveness, and apology within broader political and social communities.
CEBITA	Prof Marius Nel	Motif of forgiveness in the New Testament.
Centre for applied ethics	Prof Vasti Roodt	The way in which metaphor and analogy shape – and distort- philosophical reasoning about key political concepts, notably ‘violence’, ‘identity’, and ‘community’.
Drama	Mrs Estelle Olivier	Trauma in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
English	Dr Riaan Oppelt	Violence studies; Film and Media studies.
	Dr Lauren van der Rede	Genocide studies; questions of violence.
	Dr Wamuwi Mbao	Literature and trauma.
General Linguistics	Prof Brigitta Busch	Language and trauma.
History	Dr Chet Fransch	Inter- and intra-relationship related violence; Simone de Beauvoir’s work; sexual violence; gender and identity; Law and Justice; gangsterism and vigilantism.
	Dr Justin Pearce	The Global Cold War. Ideology, political identities, and international connections in anti-colonial struggles. Civil war, peace building and humanitarianism; Liberation struggles in Southern Africa.
	Prof Bill Nasson	South African World War II; South African war; 1899-1902; South Africa and the World Wars.
	Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa	Southern Africa’s conflict history during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’: elections, ethnic conflict, ‘China in Africa,’ and civil society conflict, particular reference to Zambia.
	Prof John Laband	History of wars, specifically focused on Zulu wars and warriors.
	Dr Elizabeth van Heyningen	Anglo-Boer War concentration camps.
Modern Foreign Languages	Dr Isabel dos Santos	Austrian literature of the interwar period.
Modern Foreign Languages	Mr Bo Lyu	Transformative South African literature.
Music	Dr Carina Venter	Grappling with representations of historical trauma and violence in music and sound, and troubles uncritical affinities between music and/as reconciliation in South Africa.
Philosophy; centre for applied ethics	Prof Louise du Toit	Sexual violence; GBV in armed conflict; GBV and transitional justice; truth commissions.
Political Science	Dr Guy Lamb	Conflict and violence analysis; crime and violence prevention; policing; peacebuilding; international and regional security (Africa); urban safety.
Psychology	Dr Zuhayr Kafaar	Gender based violence; Rape and rape myths.
	Prof Ashraf Kagee	Public mental health. Stress and trauma.
	Prof Hermann Swart	Social psychology of intergroup relations with a specific focus on diversity, intergroup contact (cross-group friendships), intergroup emotions, prejudice, and stereotypes in post-conflict societies.
RADAR	Dr Robyn Pharoah	Xenophobic violence during disasters.
Social Work	Dr Ilse Slabbert	Intimate partner violence.
Social Work	Dr Tasneemah Cornelissen Nordien	Empowerment services for survivors of child sexual abuse and their caregivers offered by NGO’s.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Prof Lindy Heinecken	Research focuses on armed forces and society, with a particular focus on civil-military relations, and the deployment of the military peace operations.
Sociology & Social Anthropology
Visual Arts	Prof Ernst van der Wal	Masculinity and/at war; the visualisation of masculinity during times of armed conflict.