Carolyn Hamilton (historian)

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Carolyn Hamilton
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields anthropologist and historian
Institutions University of Cape Town
Thesis Authoring Shaka: models, metaphors and historiography  (1993)
Website www.apc.uct.ac.za/apc/nrf/professor-carolyn-hamilton

Carolyn Hamilton is a South African anthropologist and historian who is a specialist in the history and uses of archives. She is National Research Foundation of South Africa chair in archive and public culture at the University of Cape Town.

Contents

Career

Hamilton was a professor of anthropology at the University of Witwatersrand. [1] She was a member of the board of the South African History Archive and the inaugural Council of Robben Island. She was a founder member of the Gay and Lesbian Archive. She is a former speech-writer for Nelson Mandela and joined the Nelson Mandela Foundation's board of trustees in 2015. [2] Currently, Hamilton is National Research Foundation of South Africa chair in archive and public culture at the University of Cape Town. [3]

Research

Hamilton's research interests lie in the use of archives following graduate work she did in the 1980s that alerted her to issues relating to the reliability, completeness and objectivity of archival sources in South Africa.[ citation needed ]

Writing

Hamilton's 1998 book, Terrific majesty: The powers of Shaka Zulu and the limits of invention, dealt with the historiography of a particular episode in South African history. [4] She was the editor, with Bernard K. Mbenga and Robert Rossof, of the first volume of The Cambridge History of South Africa (2009). [5]

Selected publications

See also

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References

  1. Terrific Majesty. University of Harvard Press. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  2. Professor Carolyn Hamilton. Nelson Mandela Foundation. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  3. Professor Carolyn Hamilton. Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Archive & Public Culture Research Initiative. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  4. Terrific Majesty. Harvard University Press. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  5. The Cambridge History of South Africa. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 5 March 2016.