26 January 2026

Monday 26 January 9.15 am
This lecture challenges the assumption that empathy is always beneficial in healthcare. Drawing on a real-life story of a burnt-out HIV clinician and a striking question from a medical student – ‘Is not caring always a bad thing?’ – the lecture explores how excessive emotional identification with patients may actually contribute to moral suffering, burnout and compromised care. Using insights from neuroscience, including the work of Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki, we will distinguish between empathy – the sharing of another’s pain – and compassion, a pro-social, action-oriented response grounded in warmth and care.

This lecture will explore some of the challenges in land reform from a judicial perspective. It will do so by seeking to understand common themes and patterns in litigation that comes to the Land Court in these areas. For example, in recent years there has been a high prevalence of eviction cases, emanating especially from the Western Cape, and cases concerning removal of cattle from farms. Conversely there is a low prevalence of cases dealing with restitution and awards of land to labour tenants. What do these say land reform?

26th-28th January

Monday 26–Friday 30 January 9.30 am–12.30 pm
VENUE Classroom 3A, Centlivres Building, University Avenue, Upper Campus
Maximum number of participants 20

What images await us and how do we transform them? How do we make an image and why? The journey from an idea, a dream, a place or person (remembered or observed) to making an image, and then looking at what we have made, is revealing.
In this interactive, practical image-making course we will discuss ways of making images using formal and playful approaches to find what engages us. These will include paintings, drawings or mixed media.

Monday 26–Friday 30 January 10.00 am–12.00 pm
Maximum number of participants 20

This course will introduce participants to the fundamental principles of writing fiction, from conception to execution, and allow them to discover the process of creative fiction and how it works best. It will include discussion, advice and time given for writing. Every participant will receive feedback. The course will cover the elements of story and how to develop a compelling narrative and characters, immersing the reader in dramatic scenes, using point of view to create a strong voice for character, and detail to make the prose exceptional.

Monday 26–Wednesday 28 January 11.15

Isaac Newton created modern science in the seventeenth century. Late in the nineteenth century the atom was discovered to have a structure which was difficult to understand. Thus, it was necessary to create and understand quantum mechanics. The first person to understand this problem was the Dane Neils Bohr. There were many great thinkers to follow, and Robert Oppenheimer was one of the finest. Chosen to lead the development of the most horrible weapon imaginable, Richard Feynmann opened many new doors and introduced a structure to help understand quantum mechanics.

Monday 26–Tuesday 27 January 11.15 am

When, exactly, did the Renaissance begin? Some believe that changes in thinking and artistic styles first appeared at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while others date these events a century later. Perhaps there were already ‘Renaissance-like’ manifestations in Europe during the Middle Ages – that thousand-year period of relative ignorance and superstition that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. But why did the Renaissance even begin, and why in Italy? Answers to these questions will be explored in these lectures, illustrated with beautiful images and glorious music.

Monday 26–Wednesday 28 January 11.15am

We assume there is a distinct dichotomy between animals and humans. This may be an illusion. We are far more animal and part of nature than we are likely to admit. The purpose of this course is to re-think the place we occupy in nature. The course will discuss the topic at various levels. It will start with the origin and definitions of life and the evolution of plants and animals. Following this will be the evolution of primates and Homo sapiens, finally leading up to the evolution of consciousness.

Tutu is remembered by most as the ebullient, smiling Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, but he was so much more: as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches he mobilised and led its powerful witness against the apartheid regime. At a time when Mandela and others were in prison or exile, Tutu stood in the gap, becoming our most prominent voice in the struggle for liberation. This lecture will remind us of critical moments in Desmond Tutu’s life and explore the spiritual roots of his courageous witness.

Monday 26–Wednesday 28 January 3.00 pm

This course, richly illustrated with clips, will focus on adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Emma. We will explore how these films and television serials have either given deft expression to the complexities of their source material, or have subsumed those complexities into the generic conventions of romantic comedy. Comment will be made on the particular challenges faced by those who have attempted adaptations of Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Persuasion. The course will be shaped around ‘the sense of an ending’.

The Truth About Cape Slavery argues that modern South Africa was established on the foundation of chattel slavery. According to Mellet slavery formed the cornerstone of infrastructure and economic development in South Africa. He claims that the system of indentured labour, as well as the migrant labour system, was nothing but a continuation of slavery in a new form. This then moved to become the cornerstone of the Cape’s agricultural economy and the Boer Republics. His book is a work of ‘restorative memory’, without which restorative justice is not possible.

Monday 26 – Wednesday 28 January 3.00 pm

This course will explore the origins, evolution and enduring worldwide influence of Art Deco as the major design movement of the twentieth and now also the twenty-first century. First, the transition from Art Nouveau to Art Deco is illustrated, after which we focus on the central period of its development from 1910 to 1939. The spirit and splendour of Art Deco permeated every aspect of life and its enduring legacy is still with us today – as will become apparent in this course.

In this lecture-performance Ramon Alexander will explore themes that inspire his music –
musicians and music from the Cape, his personal relationships with legendary Cape jazz figures such as Robbie Jansen, Ibrahim Khalil Shihab and Mac McKenzie, and, finally, his personal identity and imagination.

In this lecture we will discuss the biodiversity of Newlands Forest, the rare and threatened plant species, the benefits to society of the forest, and the major threats the forest faces. Two threats will be addressed: invasive alien plant species and illegal bark harvesting. We will explore the reasons for and impact of bark harvesting in Newlands Forest and investigate the invasive species that threaten the forest, how they threaten it, where they come from.

Monday 26–Tuesday 27 January 5.00
Step into the world of medical device innovation, where innovative technology meets real-life needs. This course will reveal how the human-centred approach shapes effective, meaningful healthcare solutions.
The first lecture discusses how successful devices begin with a deep understanding of people. The second lecture brings theory to life via vivid case studies. Hear inspiring accounts of products created to empower the user, such as a novel wrist splint, an ultrasonic sensor attachment for canes for the blind, a 3D printed prosthetic and an innovative sleep apnoea diagnostic and treatment device.

This performance is part of the Daily Maverick series of lectures.

Every day, when the sun gently peeks over the horizon, we wake up to a South Africa that sometimes feels like a chapter in a tragi-comic graphic novel.

There’s a man in Gauteng drilling for water right into the Gautrain tunnel. There's a minister announcing that we should be calm, that the country is ‘stable and safe’ despite a coup, violence, crime and terrorism. Nothing to see here ... just walk on.

Pretoria-born investigative journalist Marianne Thamm is back on stage with a new piece of ‘performance journalism’.