E. H. Carr Memorial Lecture, Prof. Peter Vale, ‘If IR lives in the street, what is it doing in the classroom?'

The DDMI was pleased to announce the E. H. Carr Memorial Lecture for 2013. Peter Vale, Professor of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg, and Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics Emeritus at Rhodes University, spoke on ‘If International Relations lives in the street, what is it doing in the classroom?’ The lecture took place on Thursday 14 March in the Old Hall, Old College, Aberystwyth University.

Description of talk: The lecture brushes against the disciplinary grain by arguing that International Relations (IR) dismisses the Global South. It does this by positioning western knowing as the only gate-way to the international. Using the Sociology of Knowledge as a point of conceptual entry, the lecture draws from a wide repertoire of understandings of the social world.  Three platforms are used to illustrate the central argument. The first provides a genealogy of the development of the discipline in South Africa. This suggests that the country is still to develop a voice which is independent of IR’s imperial roots.  The second argues that knowledge which is positioned outside of the formal canon provides a deeper understanding of what constitutes the International, and so better understands the position of the Global South. And a third platform looks towards the patterns of exile and exclusion that follow the very founding of states. 

Peter Vale is Professor of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University. He Chairs the Academy Advisory Board of STIAS (The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study). Between 2008 and 2011, he led the first inquiry into the state of the Humanities in South Africa.

His research interests included social thought, intellectual traditions in South Africa, critical theory, the future of universities, and the origins of the study of International Relations in South Africa.

Among a range of visiting appointments, he has been UNESCO Professor of African Studies at Utrecht University, Fellow at the International Centre for Advanced Studies, New York University, and Professor of Politics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is also Visiting Professor in the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University.

Peter Vale’s awards: include the International Medal of the University of Utrecht and the Senior Research Award of Rhodes University. His 2003 book, Security and Politics in South Africa: the regional dimension was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award at Rhodes University. Peter Vale has been a prolific contributor to public debate in South Africa and elsewhere. Currently, he writes on Higher Education for the Johannesburg-based national weekly Mail & Guardian and contributes a monthly column to the Daily Dispatch which is published in the city of East London.