The Faculty of Law is delighted that its Centre for Rhetoric Studies has received a further five-year University Research Committee accreditation, following its review earlier this year.  

With Distinguished Professor Philippe-Joseph Salazar as Director, and Professor Jaco Barnard-Naudé as Deputy Director, Centre staff continue to develop and share knowledge at a rapid pace. This is reflected in the high research and publication output of the Centre’s academic staff and research affiliates.

Examples of recent output and achievements are highlighted here:

Distinguished Professor Salazar has just published another book (coming out 22 October 2021), titled La Déroute Des Idées – Appel à la Resistance – his 10^th book since 2016.

Professor Jaco Barnard-Naudé recently presented a seminar titled Form and Substance in the Constitutional Court: Whither Contract Law’s Policy After Apartheid?, based on an article recently published in the South African Law Journal published (Volume 138, Issue 3 | Sep 2021).

Dr Klaus Kotzé, Honorary Research Affiliate of the Centre, was commissioned by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation to write an essay on deliberative democracy to mark 25 years of the Constitution. Kotzé presented this paper at a webinar titled Violent political language - an attack on the nation? Realising the Constitution in the face of deligitimising rhetoric, held on 7 September 2021, with  respondents Emeritus Constitutional Court Justice Sachs, Rebecca Sibanda, and Ongama Mtimka. The discussion recording is available here for viewing.

Sisanda Nkoala, one of the Centre's PhD candidates, has had two papers accepted for presentation at this year's 107th NCA convention (18-21 November 2021) in Seattle. Nkoala's doctoral dissertation, nearing completion, is focused on television newscasts, justice and rhetoric in South Africa.

Dr Justin Snell, Honorary Research Affiliate at the Centre, will be presenting a paper titled Commonplaces and Consensus: Enmity and Unity in the Amnesty of 403BCE at the Twenty-Third Biennial Conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric, to be held at Radboud University in the Netherlands, 26-30 July 2022.