Scholar in Residence
Professor Peter Vale, the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics at Rhodes University, was Scholar in Residence from 12 to 14 June 2006 at St Andrew’s College and the Diocesan School for Girls. He is a school parent and highly acknowledged academic in Grahamstown and South Africa. His special interests include South African political economy in a regional context, and international relations.
Professor Vale received his tertiary education at the University of the Witwatersrand (where he read Afrikaans, Economic History and Politics, and also took an Honours Degree in International Relations), and at Leicester University, in the UK, where he read for the MA (in European Politics) and graduated with a PhD. After some years as a financial journalist, he was successively Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (1977-78), and Director of Research at the South Africa Institute of International Affairs (1980-83). He has lectured at the University of Witwatersrand (1978-1980), and has twice been a Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town (1983 and 2001-2), and has held the same position at the University of Stellenbosch (1995-1990).
He was Director of Rhodes University’s Institute of Social and Economic Research between 1984 and 1989. He was Senior Professor in the School of Government at the University of Western Cape and served as Acting Vice-Rector and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs (1998-2001), as Professor of Southern African Studies (1990-1998), and as Professor of Social Theory in the Faculty of Arts (2001-2).
Between 1996 and 1997, Professor Vale occupied the UNESCO Africa Chair at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; has been the Visiting Scholar at the Christian Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway and also at the Free University Berlin. In 2002, he was Fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University. He serves on academic Editorial Boards in places as far apart as Bangladesh, Portugal, the Argentine; he also enjoys an appointment on the Advisory Board of the influential European Journal of International Studies. He is an elected member both of the Royal Society of South Africa and Academy of Science of South Africa. In December 2004, he was awarded the International Medal of the University of Utrecht and a year later received the Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award from Rhodes University.
He has published over 200 academic articles – these include reports, contributions to academic journals and chapters in books – and he has also co-edited three books. In addition to this formal academic work, has also been a prolific contributor to public debate – with many contributions to newspapers and other media at home and abroad. He will be delivering a public lecture on Tuesday 13 June at 19h00 in the Schonland Lecture Theatre, entitled ‘What are we to make of Globalisation?’. During his visit to the two schools he will attend classes and lead discussions, some topics include ‘SA’s Regional Roles’, ‘SA 1976 – 1994’ and ‘TRC/Apartheid’.
He interacted with pupils and led 16 classes during his visit. His special interests include the South African political economy in a regional context and international relations so pupils enjoyed hearing about fascinating topics and were inspired by thought provoking discussions. Prof Vale delivered classes with themes on; ‘South Africa’s Regional Roles’, ‘The Cold War’, ‘SA 1976 – 1994’, ‘SA’s political economy’ and ‘TRC/Apartheid’.
A public lecture he delivered on 13 June entitled ‘What are we to make of Globalisation?’ was the highlight of the programme.
Missing Helen8th May 2012
"Missing Helen" will be St Andrew's College and DSG's Dance 2012 Production. Updates on the preparation and production will be posted here.
Ireland Debating Tour4th May 2012
13 College Debaters participated in the St Andrew's Ireland Model United Nations competition in Dublin.
