Abstract
The Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD)
in partnership with the UJ Library invites you to the launch of
PROFESSOR SHONA HUNTER’s book
POWER, POLITICS AND THE EMOTIONS:
IMPOSSIBLE GOVERNANCE?
ABOUT THE BOOK: Prof. Hunter’s provocative theorisation of relational politics in governance offers a
feminist postcolonial reading of the affective dynamics complicating the already materially and symbolically
contested terrains of policy-making in neoliberal societies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Professor Shona Hunter is an Associate Professor in Sociology and Social Policy
Governance at the University of Leeds, and a Visiting Associate Professor with the Visual Identities in Art and
Design Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg. With a BA Hons in Social Policy (1999), MA in
Social Research with Distinction, 2000 and PhD in Social Policy, 2005, University of Birmingham, Prof Hunter’s
work is interdisciplinary with a background in critical policy studies. Her research interests cover all aspects of
welfare governance, with the recent publication Power, Politics Emotions: Impossible Governance drawing
together ongoing work on the emotions, identities and subjectivities in equalities governance. Prof. Hunter
is academic lead for the ‘White Spaces’ research collaboration, which brings together colleagues from 23
Countries, with core members from Australia, Canada, the USA, South Africa and across Europe using critical
whiteness studies. Related publications include a special issue of the journal Social Politics with colleagues in
Australia and the USA on ‘Reproducing and resisting whiteness in organisations, policies and places’. Aspects
of this White Spaces work are currently being developed as part of the British Academy Grant ‘Challenging
Institutional Whiteness in Postcolonial Times’. Other publications include Equal Opportunities International,
Journal of Psychosocial Studies, Journal of Social Work Practice. She sits on the Editorial Collective of Critical
Social Policy and on the Editorial Board of Sociology.
PANELISTS: Prof. Grace Khunou, Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of
Johannesburg, and Vice Dean of Research in the Faculty of Humanities.
Dr Heidi Grunebaum, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape.
Prof. Desiree Lewis, Associate Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, University of the
Western Cape.
CHAIRPERSON: Prof. Christi van der Westhuizen, Associate Professor at the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS &
Gender, University of Pretoria DATE 06 April 2016 / 16:30 for 17:00
VENUE APK Library Auditorium, 6th Floor, University of Johannesburg
(corner Kingsway and University Road, Auckland Park, Johannesburg)
RSVP By Tuesday, 05 April 2016 to Yvonne Bucwa
at yebucwa@uj.ac.za or 011 559 1063.