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The JIAS group outside Maropeng, the visitor’s centre at the Cradle of Humankind.On 18 May, seven 2018 JIAS Writing Fellows visited the Cradle of Humankind, the World Heritage Site north west of Johannesburg in Gauteng province.

On 17–20 April 2018, a JIAS team, including some of our 2018 Writing Fellows, participated in the Polokwane Literary Fair in Limpopo. The Fair is a flagship project of the Department of Cultural Services of the Polokwane Municipality, in the provincial capital of Limpopo. JIAS has participated in this event every year since 2016.

Important changes in leadership have taken place at the University of Johannesburg and Nanyang Technological University Singapore, which have jointly established JIAS.

THE International Woman has published a lengthy interview with the acclaimed South African writer Zukiswa Wanner, a 2018 JIAS Writing Fellow.

JIAS staffed a booth at Science Forum South Africa 2017, held at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria on 7 – 8 December 2017.

JIAS has announced the names of its third intake of Writing Fellows for its four-month Writing Term that will run from February to May 2018. Selected from more than 300 applicants, the Writing Fellows include authors, journalists, and scholars in various disciplines from Africa and Asia.

Professor David Schulman, one of the greatest living Indologists,visited JIAS in early September. He was a cures of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa, Wits University, and JIAS.

JIAS has contracted Africartoons to exhibit ‘30 Years of Stacey Stent’ in the JIAS Cartoon Room.

UBIAS (University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study) has called for applications to participate in the third UBIAS Intercontinental Academia (ICA) on ‘Laws: Rigidity and Dynamics’, to be held at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore in March 2018, and the University of Birmingham in March 2019.

A BOOK written by David B Coplan, professor of social anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand and a 2016 JIAS Writing Fellow, was launched in Johannesburg on Sunday 11 June 2017.

LINKAGES between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and JIAS were explored at an event at NTU in Singapore on Wednesday 12 April 2016.

A comprehensive report on the colloquium entitled ‘Why The Brain Matters’ hosted by JIAS in the latter half of 2016 has been completed and is available to the public.

The Brain Matters Seminar Series emanating from the JIAS Colloquium on ‘Why The Brain Matters’ was launched at the School of Public Health of the University of the Witwatersrand on 23 March 2017.

The JIAS Writing Fellows for 2017 will present a seminar series that will run from April to June. The seminars are open to members of the public. All the seminars will be held at the JIAS campus at 1 Tolip Street, Westdene, on Wednesday mornings from 9h00 to 12h00.

Ronit Frenkel, Associate Professor of English at UJ, has jointed JIAS as Deputy Director. She will primarily be responsible for managing its academic programmes.

The UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNEBURG and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore have agreed to extend their collaboration on the JIAS initiative for another five years. The initial agreement establishing JIAS was signed in 2015.

Participants in the JIAS Colloquium on ‘Why The Brain Matters’ have launched a follow-up in the form of an interdisciplinary seminar series entitled ‘Brain Matter Seminars: the past, present and future of neuroscience in southern Africa’.

An interdisciplinary three-day conference entitled ‘The Prelude to Decolonisation: The Turning of the Tide’ will be held at JIAS from 30 August to 1 September 2017.

On Wednesday 5 October 2016, Prof Frans Verstraten, a participant in the three-month JIAS colloquium entitled ‘Why The Brain Matters’, will deliver an evening talk at St John’s College in Houghton, Johannesburg.

ON Monday 12 September, Prof Balázs Gulyás of Nanyang Technological University will deliver a public lecture entitled ‘The Brain-Mind Problem: Grand Challenges in Exploring the Human Brain’ at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

On 21 September, JIAS, the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, the Centre of Excellence for the Paleosciences, and the Royal Society of South Africa will hold a one-day seminar on ‘The Origins of the Brain – From Mammal-like Reptiles to Humans’. A limited number of seats are available. Those interesting in attending are requested to book by Friday 16 September. The full invitation appears below.

THE IMPACT of neoliberalism on the humanities and the teaching of feminism at South African universities were explored at a seminar held at JIAS on 2 March 2016.

JIAS has selected its first intake of 11 Writing Fellows for its initial writing term ...

PROF Peter Vale, director of JIAS, and Prof John Higgins of the University of Cape Town acted as guest editors of the February 2016 edition of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education (15:1), entitled ‘State of Urgency: The Humanities in South Africa’, which has gone online.

In early December, Jan Vasbinder and Prof Alexander Zehnder from the NTU visited JIAS to discuss and help plan the JIAS programme for 2016 / 7. From left to right are Prof Peter Vale, Director of JIAS; Jan Vasbinder; Estelle Prinsloo, research assistant; and Prof Zehnder.