Zanele Muholi | Autoportraits: Speaking to Politics of Self

The Center for African Studies, Producing Knowledge In and of Africa, the Cantor Arts Center, and Stanford Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University present an artist talk by Zanele Muholi.

Muholi will reflect on their own practice of auto portraiture, examining questions of visibility, access, privilege, and power in the creation of images. They will also extend their discussion to thinking about these issues in the context of the production of knowledge in the university. To whom, and for whom, is knowledge being produced, and who owns and benefits from it?

Muholi is a South African visual activist and photographer. For over a decade they have documented black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people’s lives in various townships in South Africa. Responding to the continuing discrimination and violence faced by the LGBTI community, in 2006 Muholi embarked on an ongoing project, Faces and Phases, in which they depict black lesbian and transgender individuals. Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is "to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond." These arresting portraits are part of Muholi’s contribution towards a more democratic and representative South African homosexual history. Through this positive imagery, Muholi hopes to offset the stigma and negativity attached to queer identity in African society.

Space for this program is limited; advance registration is recommended. Those who have registered will have priority for seating.

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About the Series

Knowledge Production in Africa is a contested topic. Recent calls have been made—both within the academy and without—to “decolonize” the production and circulation of knowledge about Africa, and to think about the artistic and cultural aspects of this “production.” This involves attention to institutional power dynamics within universities and corporations and efforts to reconceptualize modes of knowledge production beyond the Western academic framework. Our proposed workshop will draw together scholars and practitioners within the social sciences, humanities, arts and the sciences to investigate these pressing concerns. We will focus on three key themes: 1) How might we create robust dialogue between “intellectual” versus “cultural” production of knowledge in Africa? 2) How does knowledge production about Africa manifest both in different and in convergent ways within African scholarship and praxis? 3) What are the ethical implications and responsibilities of researching and presenting on Africa in the Euro-American academy?