AVReQ hosted its 2023 Orientation Week from 6 to 10 February to welcome new Masters students and post-doctoral candidates to the centre. As part of our welcome week, a series of engaging sessions and seminars were held, which granted the new cohorts the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the AVReQ community. The new cohorts were also informed about programmes and resources that both the centre and the broader university have to offer.
A key theme present throughout our orientation week was the importance of understanding the history and contemporary legacy of Stellenbosch University and the ways in which the institution’s changing ethos could be traced, both spatially and intellectually. As part of the effort to unpack Stellenbosch University’s layered past, sessions such as the “Visual Redress Tour”, which included a walking tour as well as a reflection session with Professor Aslam Fataar and Dr Leslie van Rooi, facilitated insightful discussions pertaining to historical injustices, transformation, and transition. Moreover, the week’s events were further bolstered by the centre’s first public seminar for 2023, presented by Professor Anthony Collins. In the seminar titled ‘The Sound of Children Screaming Has Been Removed: Conundrums of Silence and Violence,” Professor Collins explored issues relating to representations of violence and discussed whether traumatising events could be depicted without inciting further trauma and violence.