Department of History
Prospective students
Current students
About the department
Research
Lifelong Learning
Dr Rachel Johnson
Visiting Lecturer
Contact details
Email: R.E.Johnson@bristol.ac.uk
Research Interests
My research to date has been grounded in the contemporary political and cultural history of South Africa. This research combines interests in gender theory and the symbolic aspects of politics with a focus upon the ‘history making’ practices of social movements, human rights groups and government institutions.
My PhD thesis (completed 2010) examined the position of young black women within student and youth, anti-apartheid politics in South Africa from 1976 onwards.
From 2009-2011 I was a Research Associate on a major Leverhulme Trust funded research programme titled Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliaments (GCRP). The GCRP programme conducted research in the UK, Indian and South African Parliaments with a focus upon the performance of ceremony and ritual as sites for the construction, reproduction and contestation of institutional norms, including gender norms.
Teaching
- Cold War History (1st year Special Topic)
- War Crimes (2nd year Special Field)
Selected Publications
‘“The Girl About Town”: discussions of modernity and female youth in Drum magazine, 1951- 1970’, Social Dynamics, Vol. 35, No.1, (March 2009), pp.36- 50.
Forthcoming:
‘Researching Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliaments’, Co-authored with Faith Armitage, Carole Spary and Rosa Malley, Feminist Review, [Forthcoming April 2012].
‘Disrupting the South African Parliament: Performances of Political Marginalisation, 1990-2010’, Special Issue on ‘Disruptive Democracy’, Democratization, [Forthcoming June 2013].
‘Haunted by the Somatic Norm: South African Parliamentary Debates on Abortion in 1975 and 1996’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society [Forthcoming 2013].
A History of Silences: Liberating Gender History from the Anti-Apartheid Struggle in South Africa. [Monograph based upon PhD thesis].
Other:
‘Archive Yourselves!’ Blog contribution to monthly blog spot, Comparative History of Political Engagement in Western and African Societies Research Network: http://www.historyofpoliticalengagement.dept.shef.ac.uk [posted 3rd April 2011].