‘Post’-Violence Subjectivities in the Global South
POSTGRADUATE COLLOQUIUM
hosted by AVReQ
GG Cillie Building (Faculty of Education), Stellenbosch University
9-10 September 2025

We extend a heartfelt welcome to all presenters, attendees and collaborators joining us for the 2025 AVReQ Postgraduate Colloquium. On behalf of the AVReQ Postgraduate cohort and our director, Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, we are deeply honoured to host this gathering of scholars, artists and thinkers whose work engages with the complex legacies of violence and the possibilities of repair. Over the next two days, we look forward to a rich and generative exchange that reflects the spirit of interdisciplinary inquiry and critical engagement that grounds our collective work. It is our hope that this colloquium will not only offer space for rigorous academic dialogue, but also foster moments of connection, reflection and shared purpose. May this convening be a site of intellectual generosity and transformative conversation as we explore the many ways in which histories of violence continue to reverberate through bodies, memories and geographies. Welcome.

This colloquium emerges from the current research initiatives of postgraduate scholars affiliated with AVReQ, grounded in the Centre’s broader commitment to the objectives of the South African Research Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma. It is an interdisciplinary and intersectional platform for critical engagement with the enduring impacts of socio-historical violence and its manifestations in contemporary contexts. Anchored in a deep interrogation of transgenerational trauma, the colloquium seeks to foster dialogue that transcends disciplinary boundaries, inviting reflections on the ways in which inherited traumas continue to shape lived experiences, memory, and identity. Through this convening, we aim to pose and pursue critical questions around how we bear witness to the continuities of violence, how they are embodied and narrated, and what it means to engage with these legacies in both scholarly and praxis-based ways. The colloquium invites contributions that consider the intersections of history, memory, affect, and justice in addressing the ongoing reverberations of violence across generations.