Cape Town - UCT has announced that it will host author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who will deliver the vice-chancellor’s Open Lecture.
UCT Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng announced on Friday that “internationally acclaimed author and renowned feminist” Adichie is scheduled to address the next VC’s Open Lecture virtually on Wednesday, July 28.
“We are excited to have Adichie as the next speaker for the VC’s Open Lecture, which will be our second for this year.
“We are looking forward to this exciting lecture where Adichie’s eloquence and perspective as a writer and public speaker will inspire all of us to look beyond stereotypes and social norms to recognise our common humanity,” said Phakeng.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Open Lecture series was established to enable anyone in the community, whether they are connected to the university or not, to have the benefit of hearing first-hand from academics, researchers and innovators who have distinguished themselves in their areas of expertise.
The topic for her lecture is in the process of being finalised and will be communicated in due course.
In 2003, Adichie released her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus”, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.
Her other award-winning books include “Half of a Yellow Sun”, which won the Orange Prize; and “Americanah”, a 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award winner.
“Dear Ijeawele: A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions“, was published in March 2017, and ”Notes on Grief“ was published earlier this year.
Adichie has delivered two landmark TED talks, with the first being “The Danger of a Single Story” in 2009.
Her 2012 TEDxEuston talk, “We Should All Be Feminists”, started a worldwide conversation about feminism and was published as a book in 2014.
Recently, Adichie came under fire for an essay on her official website titled “It Is Obscene” published in June. In the three-part essay, Adichie addressed two unnamed authors she took under her wing, who later criticised her for “transphobic comments” made in a 2017 interview where she said “trans women are trans women”.
She was widely criticised by members of the LGBTQI+ community for the comment, with it labelled as transphobic and her feminism described as “lacking intersectionality”.
Her full biography and academic achievements can be read here.