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Professor
Name: Thembisa Waetjen
Location: A RING 242 Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Department of Historical Studies, Rated Researchers听 Staff Members
Contact Details:
Tel: 0115592001
Email:听twaetjen@uj.ac.za
About Prof Thembisa Waetjen
Research Interests
Politics and ontologies of 鈥榙rug鈥� substances in 20th century South Africa; medical histories and health humanities in colonial/post-colonial Africa; and urban politics shaping Indian Ocean migrant lives.
NRF Rated Researcher B2.
Recent Awards
2024: National 欧美福利100000 Teaching Award (NUTA)
2023: Vice Chancellor鈥檚 Distinguished Award for Teaching Excellence.
2021: Faculty of Humanities鈥� Teaching Innovation Prize.
2021: 听NRF Further Funding for Rated Researchers Award, 鈥楥annabis Histories and Apartheid鈥檚 War on Drugs鈥�.
2021: Wellcome Trust, Collaboration Grant for 鈥楽A-UK/MH: Medical Humanities co-working between South Africa and the United Kingdom鈥�
2020: 听Visiting Researcher, Stellenbosch Instituted for Advanced Study (STIAS)
2020: Teaching Innovation Grant, 鈥楤uilding an Archive with First Year History Students using Omeka鈥�
2018: 听欧美福利100000 Research Grant, 鈥楳uslim Lives across the Indian Ocean between Durban and Porbandar, 1860-1928鈥�
2017: 听Wellcome Trust Small Grant, 鈥楧rug Regimes in Southern Africa: Regulation and Consumption in Twentieth Century Contexts鈥�
2017:听听 NRF 鈥� Knowledge Interchange and Collaboration Grant, Opioids and Harm Reduction in South Africa: Growing a Multidisciplinary Conversation.
Current Teaching
鈥楪lobal History to 1500鈥� (first-year level); 鈥楨pidemics in History鈥� (third year); and Research Methods (post graduate).
I currently supervise post-graduate student research on topics in the medical and health humanities.
听
Recent Peer-reviewed publications
2023听听
A Blue Coat: The Addict and the Unspeakable Girl in South Africa鈥檚 Colonial Archive. 听Thesis Eleven, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07255136231209522
Settling 鈥榙agga鈥�? Shifting Frontiers of Cannabis Knowledge and Governance in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, forthcoming (with Perside Ndandu).
Building an archive for 鈥渇uture pasts鈥�: Undergraduates document their local Covid-19 鈥榤oment鈥� in World History Yesterday & Today, 29, December.
Advocates of 鈥榓n Unpopular Cause鈥�: Frances Ames, Helen Suzman and Cannabis Decriminalisation in South Africa, Historia, 68.1: 144-176 (with Lebohang Seganoe).
2022听
Apartheid鈥檚 1971 Drug Law: Between Control and Cannabis in South Africa.听 Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 36.2: 164-200.
Decolonizing Drug History? Notes on a Journey Southward (SI Introduction) Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 36.2: 119-128 (with Maziyar Ghiabi).
South Africa鈥檚 Century of Cannabis Politics, 1922-2022 South African Historical Journal, 74.2: 359-363.
2021听听听
Dagga: How South Africa made a Dangerous Drug, 1902-1928. Chapter 5 in Lucas Richert and James H Mills (eds), Cannabis: Global Histories, Cambridge: MIT Press.
2020听听听
Cannabis Policing in Mid-20th Century South Africa Historia 65: 1: 61-86 (with Phumla Innocent Nkosi and Richard Devey)
2019听
The Politics of Narcotic Medicine in Early Twentieth Century South Africa听 Social History of Medicine, 32.3: 586-608.
Global Opium Politics in Mozambique and South Africa, c 1880-1930 South African Historical Journal 71.4: 560-586.
[Edited Book] Opioids in South Africa: Towards a Policy of Harm Reduction Cape Town: HSRC Press.
2018听听听
Pharmaceuticals and Modern Statecraft in South Africa: The Cases of Opium, Thalidomide and Contraception Medical Humanities, 44.4: 253-262 (with Julie Parle and Rebecca Hodes)
2017听听听
The Rise and Fall of the Opium Trade in the Transvaal, 1904-1910听 Journal of Southern African Studies. 43.4: 733-751.
2016听听听
Poppies and Gold: Opium and Law-Making on the Witwatersrand, 1904-1910听 Journal of African History, 57.3: 391-403.
Drug-Dealing Doctors and Unstable Subjects: Opium, Medicine and Authority in the Cape Colony, 1907-1910听 South African Historical Journal. 68.3: 342-365.
Sputnik from Below: Space Science and Public Culture in Cold War Southern Africa Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. 18.5: 687-708.
International and national collaborations
Prof Jim Mills, Centre for the History of Health and Healthcare, 欧美福利100000 of Strathclyde, UK: 鈥淪A-UK/MH:听 Wellcome Trust, 2021-2024.
Dr Maziyar Giabi, Wellcome Senior Lecturer in Medical Humanities and Director, Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies, 欧美福利100000 of Exeter, UK: 鈥淒rugs In and Beyond the Colony鈥�.
Prof Oluwafemi Adeagbo, Community and Behavioural Health, 欧美福利100000 of Iowa, USA: Global Health teaching collaborations, 2024.
Prof Claire Clark, School of Behavioural Science, Dept of Medicine, 欧美福利100000 of Kentucky, Lexingon: 鈥淧oints鈥�
Dist Prof Paul Gootenberg, History, Stoneybrook 欧美福利100000 of New York, USA: 鈥淐ities of Drugs鈥� (with Andrew MacDonald, Wits 欧美福利100000), 2023.
Prof Goolam Vahed, History, 欧美福利100000 of KwaZulu-Natal: 鈥淪mall Ocean鈥� Project, at Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study, October 2020.
Prof Julie Parle (then History, 欧美福利100000 of KwaZulu-Natal) and Prof Rebecca Hodes, (then History, 欧美福利100000 of Cape Town), 鈥楶harmaceutical Modernities鈥�, 2018-2019.