Nelson Mandela University's Humanities Faculty seeks a distinguished scholar to take up the strategic role of special Associate Professor/Full Professor of the African Literary Archive. The Associate Professor/Professor of African Literary Archive will support the Facultys strategy to revitalize the Humanities and reignite their catalytic role in the academy, and reposition the Faculty as a leader in the area of African Literary Archive regionally, continentally and internationally. They will advance scholarship on the African Archive, particularly the vast archive of 19th-century southern African historical literatures, newspapers, and other texts written in African languages by early African literates. We seek a scholar who is eager to shape the knowledge field of these African intellectual traditions and connect them to the longer histories of oratures and the multiplicities of indigenous literary forms. This is a transdisciplinary professorship at the intersections of African language studies, archival studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies, and historical studies. In addition to positioning the Faculty in this field, the incumbent must demonstrate attributes of being innovative, rigorous, and technically competent. The Associate Professor/Professor will also supervise, mentor, and train postgraduates in the range of competencies required in this field of scholarship. This includes developing their capacities for working academically with multiple southern African indigenous languages, texts in translation, relevant research methods and archival platforms. The successful candidate must have a track record of engagement in relevant high-level sector networks and forums advancing this focus area along with broad scholarship in African languages development. The Faculty has further identified the digitisation of archives as a potential area for development in the preservation and curation of African archives, to be explored under the professorship.
