Report from University of Cape Town

and have just returned from a month long research visit to the University of Cape Town and the African Centre for Cities. The trip was funded by a STINT grant initiated by and , building on their previous collaborations.

Susanna and Isabel enjoyed a productive time at UCT, learning about different projects at the as well as about efforts at UCT within the environmental humanities. Among others, they met with and , who head UCT's environmental humanities platform and are developing a Master's programme in the environmental humanities that will commence in 2015. They also found common interests with and Marieke Norton, on topics ranging from urban ecology and invasive species to ocean and fisheries research. In addition, they caught up with from Stockholm Resilience Centre, who took part in the PhD course at the Division in June this year and is now doing field research in Cape Town.

Both being ecocritics, Susanna and Isabel especially enjoyed getting to know some South Afrcian environmental literature, fictional as well as academic, by writers such as Rob Nixon (and look forward to the chance to discuss these with Rob when he visits the Division in the spring), Zoe Wicomb, Henrietta Rose-Inn, Nadime Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee.

 As the next step within this exchange we look forward to welcoming scholars from UCT to KTH, more information about this here on the website in the near future.