Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University, was selected as the recipient of the prestigious prize, with this year marking the 20th anniversary of the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award.  

Prof Gobodo-Madikizela’s selection was based on her proposed project, titled “Aesthetics of Trauma, Poetics of Repair”, and concerns the re-thinking of trauma in new terms, specifically focusing on historical trauma and its transgenerational repercussions. The project will explore how the arts, rather than forgiveness and reconciliation, might be deployed to pursue a reparative and transformative vision. This work will play an important role in shaping rigorous debates on historical trauma and its transgenerational repercussions. Prof Gobodo-Madikizela holds the South African National Research Chair in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma.