Sol Plaatje University (SPU), through its Faculty of Education, will host the 40th Annual Conference of the South African Society for History Teaching (SASHT) from 30 September to 2 October 2026 in Kimberley.
The conference will be held under the theme, “Teaching, Learning, and Remembering the 1976 Soweto Uprising 50 Years.” It will bring together history educators, researchers, curriculum specialists, heritage practitioners, schoolteachers and postgraduate students to engage critically with one of the most defining moments in South Africa’s educational and political history.
Taking place 50 years after the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the conference will create an important space for reflection on the enduring significance of youth activism, language, education, memory and resistance in contemporary South African society. It will also explore how the teaching and interpretation of history continue to shape democratic citizenship, identity and social consciousness.
Hosting the conference in Kimberley adds particular historical significance to these conversations. Deeply embedded in South Africa’s historical landscape, the city carries complex histories of diamond mining, colonial dispossession, African resistance and intellectual activism. It is also home to Sol Plaatje University, named after Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, journalist, linguist, intellectual, activist and founding member of the organisation that later became the African National Congress.
Against this backdrop, the conference invites participants to engage with critical questions around whose histories are remembered, whose languages are centred, and how knowledge is produced, interpreted and taught within educational spaces.
The programme is expected to feature a range of academic and professional engagements, including paper presentations, symposia, workshops and poster sessions. Delegates will also have an opportunity to experience Kimberley’s rich heritage and the unique cultural character of the Northern Cape.
The conference reflects SPU’s ongoing commitment to advancing socially responsive scholarship, critical dialogue and research that engages meaningfully with South Africa’s historical and contemporary realities. It further reinforces the University’s role as a space for intellectual engagement that contributes to national and global conversations on education, history and transformation.
For more information, including the call for abstracts, submission guidelines and registration details, click here for detailed information.
For conference-related enquiries, Prof Raymond Nkwenti Fru, Head of the Local Organising Committee, may be contacted at raymond.fru@spu.ac.za.
