The Making of a Nationalist Science at Stellenbosch University, 1935-2019

Presenter: Dr. Anell Stacey Daries, Respondent: Dr. Handri Walters

This presentation offers a nuanced dissection of the rise and development of physical education, later reimagined as sport science, as a department and as an academic discipline at Stellenbosch University from its inception in 1937 to 2019. Located within a complex institutional history, this research foregrounds the extent to which the university’s ethos of conservativism and traditionalist values influenced departmental shifts over the course of eight decades. At its core, the presentation examines the extent to which the university played a crucial role in the politics of nation-building across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

ANELL STACEY DARIES

Anell Stacey Daries graduated with a PhD in history at Stellenbosch University. Her broad research explores the origins, trajectories and social implications of sciences to do with the human body. Her doctoral research is titled “The History of Physical Education at Stellenbosch University, 1937-2019” and examines the history of scientific and academic practices in physical education at the institution. Apart from her ongoing research interest, Dr Daries has experience as a lecturer, academic facilitator and mentor. As her teaching philosophy foregrounds a student-centred ethos, Dr Daries seeks to facilitate innovative ways of student engagement which foregrounds the student in the knowledge-building process.

HANDRI WALTERS

Handri Walters graduated with a PhD in social anthropology at the University of Stellenbosch. Her research focuses on race and racial categorization within a broader history of racial science and the interstices between knowledge production, politics and ideology. In this regard her research has delved into the institutional history of Stellenbosch University as related to Afrikaner nationalism, the institutional production of knowledge, and the conceptualization of Afrikaners and its others. Recent iterations of her research include the spectre of race as currently manifesting in scientific study – including, but not limited to, the field of population genetics.

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