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The Faculty of Arts and Design at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), in collaboration with Student Affairs and Extracurricular Development (SAED), the South African Journal of Art History (SAJAH) and the City of Tshwane (CoT), proudly announces the 3rd Annual Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Symposium.
This three-day event, hosted by the Research Niche Area (Artivism as a tool to combat GBV), will focus on Multi-vocality, Interdisciplinary and Creative Expressions in addressing GBV within higher education and society.
Recognising the urgency and importance of addressing GBV within the higher education context, we invite scholars, artivists, researchers and practitioners to contribute to this dynamic gathering, exploring innovative, arts-based approaches to artivism, healing and advocacy.
Symposium 2026 seeks to foreground the unique role that the creative arts – including, but not limited to fine arts, performance, music, literature, design and digital media – can play in addressing GBV. The symposium will examine how these mediums can help shift the dial on entrenched gender inequalities, challenge harmful societal norms and offer transformative strategies for prevention, intervention and healing.
The symposium will provide a platform for multi-vocal perspectives on GBV, recognising the diversity of experience and approaches necessary to confront this complex issue. We aim to create a space for rich interdisciplinary dialogue where academic research, creative practice and lived experience intersect to generate actionable strategies for change.
We encourage submissions from a wide range of disciplines – including but not limited to visual and performing arts, design, gender studies, sociology, psychology and education. We are particularly interested in contributions that reflect collaborative and community-engaged approaches.
Please note that all accepted abstracts will be eligible for publication in a special edition of the South African Journal of Art History after a rigorous peer review process. Interested participants should therefore take note of the deadlines for article submissions.
We invite proposals for academic papers, panel discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and multimedia presentations that engage with the following or related themes:
Please note the programme is subject to change.
What remains in the aftermath of Gender-Based Violence (GBV)?
Remnants is a new dance theatre work created for the 2026 GBVF Symposium by Dr Nicola Haskins, Tshwane University of Technology, and Prof Marié-Heleen Coetzee, University of Pretoria.
Using text and movement, the work enters the silence between what is seen and what is done, and asks how the aftermath of violence continues to be felt and witnessed.
Developed through a collaboration between TUT and UP, Remnants brings dance and drama students into a shared performance process that positions theatre as a space for testimony, critical reflection and collective accountability.
For bookings at the Masker Theatre, University of Pretoria leg of the production, 13 – 14 August at 18:00, contact dramavenues@up.ac.za or complete https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehAZfTaEkF5aA0Wa0MH0I6u9dAuMae2TO9U310PSPmRbs0pg/viewform?usp=publish-editor
What kinds of knowledge, governance and public action are needed to interrupt silence and build more accountable institutions?Meet keynote speaker, Prof Rasigan Maharajh, Professor of Public Affairs at the Tshwane University of Technology, elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and Associate Research Fellow of the Tellus Institute. His career includes research and leadership in science, technology and innovation policy, higher education governance and South Africa’s democratic transition. A widely published scholar and international presenter, Prof Maharajh brings a powerful perspective on public institutions, knowledge systems, democratic transformation and the collective work required to confront GBVF.
A family photograph can be an image, an irreplaceable object and a carrier of memory all at once.
Jessica Lindiwe Draper’s “The Weight of a Photograph” opens an urgent conversation about working ethically with family archives in South African classrooms. What do consent, naming, reproduction, circulation and material care require when a photograph may be the only surviving trace of a person or relationship? Rather than offering easy answers, the presentation calls for a pedagogy attentive to vulnerability, silence, history and the emotional weight held by photographs.
What if housing could help survivors reclaim movement, choice and dignity?
Meet Tlhologello Sesana and Dr Martine Chase, whose presentation, “Adaptive Housing as Spatial Agency in Contexts of Gender-Based Violence,” challenges the assumption that the home is always a place of safety. Drawing on feminist spatial theory and the low-cost NexusMod housing system, the research asks how adaptable, mobile and user-controlled housing can support self-determination when survivors need to leave unsafe spaces. This is architecture reimagined as an instrument of safety, autonomy and spatial dignity.
When a GBVF story stops trending, it does not disappear.
Mabona Machaba examines the digital afterlives of violence: reposts, screenshots, memorial posts, algorithmic resurfacing and the ongoing labour of online mourning. Centring Black feminist perspectives and South African platforms such as Women For Change, the research shows social media operating at once as archive, memorial, activist infrastructure and a site of retraumatisation. This session asks how digital spaces can sustain memory and resistance without repeatedly consuming Black women’s pain.
A tense conversation. A misread message. A rush of emotion – and suddenly the story grows larger than the facts.
Prof Vinessa Naidoo brings a Master Coach’s perspective to “Detach from Drama,” exploring how negative interpretation, cognitive bias and emotional storytelling can intensify conflict. Through real-life coaching scenarios, the session demonstrates how pausing, separating facts from reactions and reframing our narratives can support clearer, more grounded responses in professional and personal life. It is an invitation to choose reflection before escalation.
When jealousy is romanticised, endurance is praised and victim-blaming is normalised, violence can hide inside familiar stories.
Dr Matamela F.B. Makongoza examines the historical and cultural narratives shaping young women’s experiences of intimate partner violence in cohabiting relationships. Grounded in African feminist thought and the stories of young women in the Vhembe District, the research exposes how male authority, silence and social expectations can make abuse appear ordinary. This session invites us to question the stories we inherit – and the harm they continue to enable.
Silence is not always absence; in performance, stillness can become resistance.
Nomvuyo Hlope and Janine Lewis revisit Kwathi Cwaka! (And Then There Was Silence), a site-specific installation in which five women performers used sustained presence, repetition and stillness to make the weight of feminine silence visible. Their paper examines the body as both archive and site of inscription, showing how durational performance can embody trauma, disrupt passive spectatorship and reclaim silence from readings of weakness or passivity. Here, witnessing becomes part of the resistance.
Childhood exposure to domestic violence does not simply disappear when a student reaches postgraduate study.
Sibusisiwe Makhanya shares research on how early trauma can surface during supervision, deadlines, presentations and collaborative work. Participants described difficulty trusting peers and supervisors, sensitivity to criticism, withdrawal and over-pleasing authority figures. Although support services may exist, impersonal or bureaucratic systems can still feel unsafe. The study makes a compelling case for culturally aligned, trauma-sensitive support that helps postgraduate survivors participate, connect and thrive.
What if GBVF prevention began by looking beyond individual incidents and into the cultures, communities and systems that make silence possible?
Join Dr Danyschka Jacobs & Dr Niccoh Diago for their academic paper presentation, “Beyond Awareness, Beyond Silence: Exploring the Cultural and Community Conditions That Sustain Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.” Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and intersectionality, they reframe GBVF as the product of interacting personal, family, community and structural realities. Dr Jacobs brings expertise in addiction care, substance-use research and gender-responsive approaches to prevention, treatment and recovery. Dr Diago brings rights-based social-work scholarship and practice experience in victim empowerment, trauma-informed group work and community-based interventions. Together, they call for coordinated, intersectoral responses that strengthen advocacy, dignity, access to protection and psychosocial support – and point to artivist collaboration, from poetry and theatre to visual art, song and dance, as a way to transform women’s narratives into public understanding and collective action.
No learner should miss school because menstrual products and safe sanitation are out of reach.
Jessica Foli’s mixed-media work “Period Poverty III” confronts the harsh choices faced by many girls in South Africa, including the use of newspapers, rags or socks when menstrual products are unaffordable. The artwork also exposes how secrecy around women’s bodies deepens silence and exclusion. By making period poverty visible, Foli connects menstrual dignity, access to education and the wider struggle against gender-based violence.
Dr Nicola Haskins & Dr Karina Lemmer present “Claiming Orange in Spaces,” an embodied paper performance that uses orange fabric, wool, powder paint, choreographed movement and audience participation to reclaim agency in public and high-risk spaces. Developed in solidarity with the United Nations’ Orange the World campaign, the work asks how colour and collective presence can transform schools, campuses and communities into visible sites of dignity, safety and resistance to GBV.
What remains in the aftermath of gender-based violence?
Remnants is a new dance theatre work created for the 2026 GBVF Symposium by Dr Nicola Haskins, Tshwane University of Technology, and Prof Marié-Heleen Coetzee, University of Pretoria.
Using text and movement, the work enters the silence between what is seen and what is done, and asks how the aftermath of violence continues to be felt and witnessed in the aftermath of violence.
Developed through a collaboration between TUT and UP, Remnants brings dance and drama students into a shared performance process that positions theatre as a space for testimony, critical reflection and collective accountability.
Join Ntomboxolo Yamile & Uvile Memory Samkelisiwe Ximba for their academic paper presentation, “Mentorship as Artivism: Reimagining Mentoring through Girls’ Clubs.” Their paper explores how participatory visual methodologies—including drawing, collage, photovoice and letter writing—can support young women Champion Teachers in addressing gender-based violence through girls’ clubs in schools and communities. Drawing on the project “Engaging Girls and Young Women in Understanding and Catalysing Gender Transformation in and Around Schools,” the presentation reflects on how teachers mentor other teachers to establish and sustain girls’ clubs across rural, urban and township contexts in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The study shows how creative, participatory methods help teachers confront fears around mentorship, recognise themselves as facilitators of change and build relational spaces for co-learning, knowledge sharing and activism. By centring lived experience, creativity and girls’ agency, the paper positions girls’ clubs as an accessible, democratic and sustainable model for challenging harmful norms and strengthening GBV prevention in education spaces.
Artivism must do more than heal; it can also interrogate history, power and the ways we know GBV.
Blessing Karumbidza proposes widening the humanities lenses used in artivism by bringing history, philosophy and religion into conversation with African-centred knowledge systems. His presentation connects intersecting realities, unsettled colonial and patriarchal histories, questions of whose knowledge counts, and sacred resistance. The result is a decolonial framework that positions artivism as critical pedagogy, historical reckoning, spiritual practice and a community-based strategy for transformation.
Sometimes the objects and rooms we know best carry what has been hardest to name.
Danielle Malherbe’s painting series “The Hidden” began with domestic objects and interiors, then opened into an exploration of childhood and adolescent experiences of misogynistic shaming and negation within the home. Through image-making, buried sensations and emotions are brought into view. The work reveals art not as a simple illustration of trauma, but as a powerful process of uncovering, recovery and renewal.
What if GBV recovery in higher education could help survivors reconnect with safety, bodily awareness and agency?
Join Thobile Kaye & Dr Baatile Komane for their collaborative paper, “Reintegrating the Body: Somatic Therapy as a Complementary Approach to Gender-Based Violence Recovery in Higher Education.” Based in the Department of Human Movement and Therapeutic Sciences at Tshwane University of Technology, the presenters examine how GBV trauma among university students is not only psychological but embodied, often showing up as chronic stress, dissociation and somatic distress. Their qualitative, trauma-informed study involved semi-structured interviews with student survivors and counselling staff, as well as observations of pilot somatic therapy sessions using breathwork, grounding and body mapping. The findings suggest that somatic practices can restore safety, bodily awareness and agency, particularly where talk-based support has plateaued. The presentation calls for somatic therapy to be embedded in TUT’s GBV framework, advancing survivor-centred wellbeing, SDG 3, SDG 5 and holistic higher-education transformation.
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What does a home look like when its walls cannot promise safety?
Dr Dalia Saleh Farah examines a South African adaptation of “I Will Marry When I Want” through structural gender-based violence and scenographic practice. A skeletal house façade, miniature domestic objects and an oversized deed-bond scroll make exposure, fragile agency and unequal ownership visible on stage. The presentation shows how performance design can reveal the intimate connections between patriarchal power, material insecurity, domestic precarity and social inequality—turning scenography into a critical artivist intervention.
What if a museum exhibition could become a space where women’s stories are not only displayed, but voiced, performed and felt?
Join Stephanie Jenkins & Uthando Baduza for their collaborative paper exploring how museum spaces can be transformed into sites of testimony, performance and healing. Their case study focuses on the 2025 University of Pretoria Museums exhibition “Bokgabo ba Mašela: Art of Textiles” and the accompanying museum theatre performance “Unwrapped.” Through textile works created by women, including The Keiskamma Guernica and the Mapula and Mogalakwena Story Cloths, the presentation examines how women’s experiences—often ignored by mainstream and institutional narratives—can be recovered through art, curatorship, performance and audience engagement. Jenkins brings research expertise in how performance can activate museum and historical spaces, while Baduza brings curatorial, heritage, public history and arts-education experience across major South African institutions. Together, they show how making, exhibiting, performing and viewing can open pathways for agency, collective memory and healing from personal and shared silences.
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Inclusion cannot live only in policy; it must be felt in everyday campus life.
Thandolwethu Zuma centres the experiences of LGBTQIA+ students navigating identity, stigma and belonging at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College. The research highlights visibility, safety strategies, supportive friendships and intersectional pressures shaped by race, class, gender, culture and religion. It calls on higher education institutions to move beyond symbolic inclusion through gender-neutral facilities, affirming counselling and health services, and meaningful queer student representation in decision-making.
A lullaby can soothe—but it can also lull us into silence.
In “Lull,” Annemi Conradie-Chetty uses fragile muslin and frayed, bleeding embroidery to confront Biblical accounts of sexual violence in which women are silenced and justice is withheld. By stitching these difficult “texts of terror” through materials associated with women, infants and the home, the artworks expose how violence can be woven into sacred traditions, institutions and households. This is craftivism that asks viewers to read slowly, question inherited power and practise critical empathy.
Who gets to define African womanhood—and how can women artists reclaim the image of the female body?
Annemarie Maganya reads the work of emerging South African women artists through the lens of Bosadi: an approach that centres African women’s experiences and their right to speak for themselves. Drawing on artworks from the Sasol New Signatures digital archive, the presentation examines how contemporary artists challenge sexualisation, patriarchal representation, gendered expectations and violence. It is a timely contribution to feminist visual activism and the politics of representation.
What if GBVF prevention in higher education recognised that violence does not begin at the campus gate?
Join Dr Niccoh Diago for his paper, “It Didn’t Start on Campus: An Ecological Case for Rethinking GBVF Prevention in Higher Education.” A Lecturer in Social Work at Stellenbosch University and registered SACSSP social worker, Dr Diago works from a rights-based perspective across GBVF, child protection, social work education, group work and community-based interventions. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and intersectionality, he argues that GBVF is sustained through interacting personal, family, community and structural realities—from childhood exposure to violence, coercive control and economic dependence to victim blaming, fragmented services, harmful masculinities, poverty and institutional failure. His paper calls for prevention that moves beyond awareness and individualised responses towards coordinated, community-engaged and intersectoral action. It also positions artivism—poetry, visual art, theatre, song and dance—as a way to transform lived experience into public understanding, advocacy and change across communities and higher education.
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Henna can be more than adornment—it can become a language of rage, protection, resilience and refusal.
Dr Mayuri Jugmohan explores South African Indian henna art as feminist visual activism. Through works on canvas and the body, including a reimagining of the Goddess Kali and symbols of chains, resurrection and defensive gesture, the research challenges patriarchal expectations of femininity, vulnerability and silence. The session places diasporic visual culture at the centre of new conversations about spirituality, agency and resistance to GBV.
The body remembers the moments when speaking up felt unsafe.
Dr Tessie H. H. Herbst explores how patriarchal systems shape women’s embodied experiences of visibility, voice and leadership. “The Body Learned to Stay Small” examines patterns such as silence, hypervigilance, perfectionism and emotional suppression, while inviting participants to discover practices that support grounded presence, resilience and renewed voice. Through storytelling, somatic reflection and arts-based exercises, this session asks what becomes possible when women no longer have to minimise themselves to lead.
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What would change if humanitarian GBV prevention engaged men not only as risks, but as partners in transforming harmful gender norms?
Meet Julien Ngum Che, PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Buea, Founder and CEO of the Organization for the Empowerment of the Marginalized (ORGEM), and a 2025–2026 Mawazo Fellow and AWARD Climate Action Fellow. Her paper, “Beyond the Bystander: Engaging Men in Transforming Harmful Gender Norms to Prevent Gender-Based Violence in Conflict-Affected Anglophone Cameroon,” draws on qualitative research across six internally displaced persons communities in Tiko Sub-Division. Through interviews, focus groups and key informant insights, she examines how conflict-induced displacement, livelihood disruption and militarisation reshape masculine identities, often intensifying control, dominance and provision pressures that fuel GBV. At the same time, the study identifies men modelling gender-equitable alternatives. Julien argues that effective humanitarian GBV interventions must move beyond treating men only as perpetrators or bystanders, and instead address structural stressors, positive masculinities and community accountability—placing displaced women’s and men’s voices at the centre of prevention, legal protection and sustainable transformation.
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GBVF Symposium - Day 1
Student voices take centre stage
Our 3rd annual Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Symposium started today, with a student-directed programme. The day highlighted the role of the Division of Student Affairs and Extracurricular Development (SAED) in higher education through artivism and social transformation.
The aim was to advocate for action plans and to strengthen strategies that go beyond awareness-raising campaigns, including GBVF curricula in higher education.
Department of Visual Communication, Commercial Photography students: Simon Nkuna and Banele Nkosi
GBVF Symposium - Day 2
A live theatrical performance took centre stage at the Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) 3rd Annual Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Symposium on 6 August, demonstrating the power of art as a tool for activism, reflection and social change.
PHOTOS: Nation Mangwane and Clement Mothiba
Remnant Performance
Please credit: Thabo Dlamini, Siyabonga Shembe & Thabokuhle Dlamini
GBVF Symposium - Day 3
Photographer: Siyabonga Shembe
Video by Thabo Dlamini
THEMES
Art for Recovery and Renewal: Examining how creative practices serve pathways for survivors to process trauma, foster healing and reclaim agency.
Cross-Sector Creative Alliances: Highlighting collaborative projects between artists, educators, health professionals and activists that address GBV from multiple perspectives.
Challenging Gendered Power through Art: Exploring how performance and visual arts confront entrenched gender norms and reimagine equitable relations.
Higher Education and GBV: Addressing challenges within educational institutions through creative, educational and policy interventions.
Art as Reflection of Social Norms: Exploring how art illuminates and challenges cultural structures sustaining GBV.
Campus-Based Interventions: Exploring the role of higher education institutions in confronting GBV through arts-based initiatives, pedagogy and policy.
Campus-Based Interventions: Exploring the role of higher education institutions in confronting GBV through arts-based initiatives, pedagogy and policy.
Intersecting Realities: Examining social and cultural dimensions of GBV through sociological and community-based perspectives.
Intersecting Realities: Examining social and cultural dimensions of GBV through sociological and community-based perspectives.
Spatial Justice and Creative Design: Exploring how architectural practices can challenge gendered power structures and foster environments of dignity, safety and belonging.
Unsettling Histories: Exploring historical narratives and artistic responses that expose or redress the legacy of gendered violence.
Knowing GBV: Exploring philosophical approaches to knowledge, perception and truth in artistic engagements with GBV.
Sacred Resistance: Analysing how faith, ritual, and spirituality inform creative responses to GBV.
Embodied Somatic Ecologies: Exploring how the body, memory and environment interconnect in performance practices that confront GBV and cultivate resilience.
IMPORTANT DATES OF SYMPOSIUM
30 June 2026
Submission of Abstract
29 May 2026
Notification of Acceptance of Abstract
30 June 2026
Final Submission of Materials for Publicity and Programme
3 August 2026
Presentation Submission
5 - 7 August 2026
Symposium Dates
IMPORTANT DATES FOR PUBLICATION IN SAJAH
NB. Those interested in publishing in the SAJAH special edition are to submit their completed articles (approximately 4 000 – 7 000 words) by 31 July 2026 in accordance with the specified guidelines provided to be peer reviewed.
30 June 2026
31 July 2026
August - September 2026
Submission of Articles
Notification of Acceptance of Abstract
Completed article submission
Peer review of completed article
29 May 2026
Publication
October- December 2026
REGISTRATION
R3000.00
R3 500.00
Early Bird Registration (until 31 May 2026)
Full Registration (from 1 June – 30 June 2026)
R3 500.00
R1 500.00
Daily Registration
Registered Students (proof of registration to be submitted)
All participants/delegates must register.
Registration will be confirmed once payment is confirmed, not later than 30 June 2026.
BANKING DETAILS
BANK: ABSA
BRANCH: Quagga Shopping Centre
BRANCH CODE: 32 32 45
ACCOUNT HOLDER: Tshwane University of Technology
ACCOUNT TYPE: Cheque
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 004 00 000 03
SWIFT CODE: ABSAZAJJCPT
REFERENCE: Please quote F711 followed by delegate surname and initials
TO REQUEST AN INVOICE TO SECURE PAYMENT
Please contact Busi Mashaba at MashabaBM@tut.ac.za
PROOF OF PAYMENT
Please forward proof of payment to Busi Mashaba at MashabaBM@tut.ac.za
ACCOMMODATION & TRANSPORT OPTIONS
137@MURRAY STREET GUESTHOUSE
They are happy to offer the below discounted rates:
R950.00
Single room with breakfast
Sharing room with breakfast - 2 guests sharing
R1150.00
Dinner is available @ R275.00 – buffet excluding drinks and we also have an a la carte menu available to order from.
BOOKINGS
DAILY TRANSPORT BETWEEN HOTEL AND CONFERENCE VENUE:
Complimentary shuttle service.
SOUTHERN SUN (Bed & Breakfast)
We have extended a favourable rate offer at the following hotels in Pretoria:
R1495.00
Southern Sun Pretoria (single occupancy)
Southern Sun Pretoria (double occupancy)
R1695.00
R1595.00
Garden Court Hatfield (single occupancy)
R1845.00
Garden Court Hatfield (double occupancy)
R905.00
StayEasy Pretoria (single occupancy)
R1075.00
StayEasy Pretoria (double occupancy)
DAILY TRANSPORT BETWEEN HOTEL AND CONFERENCE VENUE:
City of Tshwane (CoT) dedicated GBVF Symposium bus service (Please advise us if you secured your booking in one of the above hotels and clearly indicate which hotel, so we can communicate transport arrangements from the hotel).
MORE ABOUT YOUR HOST
The Faculty of Arts & Design boasts five departments, namely Fashion Design, Fine & Studio Arts, Interior Design, Performing Arts and Visual Communication which offer the following twelve programmes: Fashion Design & Technology; Fine & Applied Arts; Jewellery Design and Manufacture; Interior Design; Higher Certificate in Music; Dance; Music (Jazz & Opera); Theatre Arts & Design with a Technical Theatre & Design or Theatre Arts & Performance elective; Commercial Photography; Integrated Communication Design and Motion Picture Production. Our programmes equip students with the knowledge and creativity needed to build meaningful careers and to generate new opportunities as future employers in global contexts.
All programmes have career-focused progression possibilities – from Higher Certificate and Diplomas at entry-level, to Advanced Diplomas, Postgraduate Diplomas, Master’s and Doctoral degrees. The Higher Certificate offers basic practical skills and knowledge in a particular discipline, while our Diploma programmes lay solid foundations for you to enter the world of work confidently and competently. The Advanced Diplomas give you a deeper understanding of a specific area of specialisation in your discipline. The Postgraduate Diplomas prepare you for the professional world, academia and provide entry to a Master’s degree and later Doctoral studies.
Entrepreneurship, Critical Thinking, Decolonisation and the Africanisation of education in the creative industries are key and central aims of our programmes. Localised and context-specific knowledge systems are embedded in every programme and provide this purposeful focus on visual art, design, dance, film, music, photography, theatre and performance. It is worth noting that TUT programmes aim to keep abreast with international trends and global influences, thereby ensuring success.
MEET OUR PARTNERS
Student Affairs and Extracurricular Development.
Student Affairs and Extracurricular Development (SAED) partnered with the Research Niche Area Artivism as a tool to combat Gender-Based Violence(s), Faculty of Arts and Design, to present the third Annual GBVF symposium. This pivotal initiative addresses one of South Africa’s most pressing social crises. From a Student Affairs perspective in higher education, this event underscores the critical role of universities in fostering safe, inclusive environments and driving transformative change to eradicate GBV&F.
Higher education institutions are microcosms of society, where students from diverse backgrounds converge to learn, grow, and shape their futures. However, GBV&F remains a pervasive issue on campuses, undermining students’ safety, mental health, and academic success. By hosting this symposium, SAED and the Faculty of Arts and Design create a platform for dialogue, awareness, and action, empowering students, staff, and faculty to confront and dismantle the systemic roots of GBV&F. This collaboration harnesses the creative and intellectual strengths of the arts and design disciplines to challenge harmful norms, amplify marginalized voices, and reimagine solutions through innovative, interdisciplinary approaches.
The event provides a space for students to engage with survivors, activists, policymakers, and scholars, fostering a deeper understanding of GBV&F’s impact and the intersectionality of gender, race, and socioeconomic factors. Through workshops, panel discussions, and creative exhibitions, the symposium encourages critical reflection and equips students with tools to advocate for change within and beyond the campus. Student Affairs plays a vital role in this process by facilitating holistic student development, promoting gender equity, and embedding values of respect and accountability in campus culture.
Moreover, the symposium aligns with higher education’s mandate to produce socially responsible graduates who can lead efforts to eradicate GBV&F in their communities. By integrating arts and design, the event leverages storytelling, visual media, and performance to humanize the issue, making it relatable and urgent. This approach not only raises awareness but also inspires collective action, encouraging students to become agents of change.
Ultimately, this symposium is a crucial step toward creating safer campuses and a society free from GBV&F. It reinforces the role of Student Affairs in cultivating environments where students thrive, empowered to challenge injustice and build a future rooted in equality and dignity.
South African Journal of Art and Architecture
South African Journal of Art History
An accredited journal for the Visual Arts and Architecture
Sponsored by the Art Historical Work Group of South Africa
A JOURNAL FOR THE VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
The South African Journal of Art History is an accredited, peer reviewed journal that publishes scholarly articles on the following subjects:
Art and architectural history
Art and architectural theory
Aesthetics and philosophy of art
Visual culture
Art and the environment
Film and photography
History of craft
History of design
city of tshwane
The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (as partner)
The City of Tshwane (CoT) Metropolitan Municipality is classified as a Category A municipality situated in the Gauteng Province that moves progressively towards the social and economic upliftment of local communities and ensures universal access to essential services that are affordable to all. Key strategic priorities are to enhance City safety, security and emergency services and be a caring City that supports the vulnerable and provides social relief.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Accepted applications to attend the 3rd GBV Symposium are, in every case, subject to these terms and conditions:
Payment terms: Payment is due in full upon completing and returning this registration form. We advise early registration and payment by bank transfer/payment to avoid disappointment. Admission to the symposium will be refused if payment has not been received.
Delegate substitution: Provided the fee has been paid in full within the time-frame as per our terms and conditions, substitutions at no extra charge can be made up to 15 working days before the start of the symposium. Send notification for any such changes in writing for the attention of the Symposium Committee at ArtivismGBV@tut.ac.za
Subject: 3rd GBV Symposium Substitute
Delegates cancellation: Must be received in writing and must be addressed to the Symposium Committee at ArtivismGBV@tut.ac.za
Subject line: 3rd GBV Symposium Cancellation.
Cancellation received 30 working days before the symposium start date entitles the cancelling delegate to a 50% credit on the amount. Any cancellation received less than 30 working days before the symposium does not entitle the cancelling delegate to any refund, and the full fee must be paid.
Non-attendance without written cancellation is treated as a cancellation with no entitlement to any refund. However, the full fee must be paid where payment has not been made yet.
Speaker changes: Occasionally, it is necessary for reasons beyond our control to alter the programme's content and timing or the speakers.
Views of speakers: Views of speakers/artists at the symposium are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Tshwane University of Technology or its employees.
Photographs/video recordings: Please note photographs and video footage will be taken throughout the symposium. These will be used by TUT for marketing and publicity in our publications and on our website, social media and/or possible in 3rd party publications.
INDEMNITY:
The Faculty of Arts and Design, Tshwane University of Technology and partners, are absolved from and indemnified against any loss or damages as a result of substitution, alteration or cancellation/postponement of the symposium arising from any cause whatsoever, including, without limitations, any fortuitous event, Act of God, unforeseen occurrence or any other event that renders performance of the symposium impracticable or impossible.
The Tshwane University of Technology or staff will not be liable for any injuries, damages or loss of any nature to the visitors or loss of any property or articles.
Warranty of authority: The signatory warrants that he/she has the authority to sign this application and agrees to be personally liable to the Faculty of Arts and Design, Tshwane University of Technology, for payments falling due pursuant thereto should such warranty be breached.
Personal information: By completing this form, you give the University consent to process your personal information. The University undertakes to process your personal information for the purpose of this Symposium and in line with the requirements of the Protection of Personal Information Act No. 4 of 2013.
