Notable South African MP Wilmot James To Join Bard College as Senior Visiting Fellow

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College announces the appointment of Wilmot James, notable South African Member of Parliament and academic, as Senior Visiting Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities at Bard College. James will be in residence at the College from April 2 to 12, 2015, and will offer a series of lectures on topics ranging from evolution, ethical considerations in the use of genetic information, and South African politics and history. He will also work with the Hannah Arendt Center to host a dynamic weeklong working group on current politics in South Africa.

Wilmot James was born in Paarl in 1953. He is a noted South African academic-turned-politician, who currently is an MP for the Democratic Alliance (DA). He serves as the country’s Shadow Minister of Basic Education and is the Federal Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance. James is an Honorary Professor of Sociology (University of Pretoria) and in the Division of Human Genetics (University of Cape Town). He is chairperson of the board of the Africa Genome Education Institute. James has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1982) and a B.A. (Hons) cum laude from the University of the Western Cape (1977). He has held visiting positions at Yale University, Indiana University, American Bar Foundation (Chicago), the California Institute of Technology, and Edinburgh University. He served as chairperson of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and the Immigration Advisory Board of South Africa. He is also a former trustee of the New York–based Ford Foundation.

This event was last updated on 06-18-2014

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