Department of History
The Department of History at Fort Hare University has got both the advantage of proximity to, and ‘on-site monopoly’ of, the Liberation archives. This experience which has been reinforced to a great extent by the fact that this region is a home to many of the liberation heroes, cannot but extend the vision of the department all the more. The department’s vision and aim is thus to produce history graduates and scholars who will be distinguishable by their specialist expertise in specific fields, and thus be able to disseminate general historical knowledge, and specifically, a total history of the Eastern Cape within the context of South African History.
The History Department’s mission is informed by its submission to teaching, researching, academic development and improvement of its instructors’ qualifications and skills to help them produce graduates of quality. The Department has thus identified its mission in the commitment to teach history as a critical and intellectually demanding human science, and also in the contribution that is buttressed by its historical methodology to the ideal of constructive social and political transformation.
The research interests of academics in the Department vary as is reflected in the following areas: Women in the Liberation Struggle; Traditional leadership studies in the context of Eastern Cape; Museum and Heritage Studies; South African Liberation Struggle.