Vuyiswa Lupuwana is a lecturer in the department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town affiliated with the Historical Archaeology Research Group (HARG). She received her PhD from the University of Cape Town in 2021. Her research interests broadly span the last 500 years of interaction, colonialism and resistance in Southern Africa.

Lupuwana’s most recent work has focused on the interaction between indigenous communities and colonial communities in the 18thand 19thcentury northern Cape frontier. Her research questions are mainly situated around the processes of change and continuity, identity formation and disavowal and resistance.

Having majored in film and media production, her research has interrogated the use of documentary film, photography and the creative arts as research tools within archaeology. Her documentary, Prestwich Street, is a measure of the potential of integrating creative methodologies in the field of archaeology. This project additionally spurred her interest in public and community archaeologies and her involvement in the Wild-foods Co-Create Project in the Cederberg.

The project spanned a total of three years (2017-2019) of community-led research and Lupuwana will continue to work under this research banner, with the objective of producing a documentary and short films with the communities in the Cederberg.

Archaeology Dept, Beattie Building, Room 3.18
Fax: +27 (0)21 650 2352
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zTbbwWsAAAAJ&hl=en

Courses lectured

• AGE4000W - Archaeology Honours
• AGE1005L - Towards a Decolonised Science in South Africa

Course Convener

• AGE3012S - Global Diasporas & the Archaeology of the Historical Past

Publications

Lupuwana, V.T and Naidoo, N. (2020). The archaeology of remembering:  ColonialSpectersand the Processes of Repackaging the Materiality of Violence, Displacement, and Disenfranchisement in Nitschke, J & Lorenzon, M (eds) 2020, Postcolonialism, Heritage, and the Built Environment: New Approaches to Architecture in Archaeology. Springer, Cham

Lupuwana, V.T., 2020. Living on the Margins: An Archaeology of Karoo rural dwelling. Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town

Lupuwana, V. and HALL, S., 2019. WOMEN, HOUSES AND LIMINALITY: A STUDY ON THE REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN THE 19TH CENTURY ROCK ENGRAVINGS AT GROOTFONTEIN FARM, NORTHERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 74(211)

Lupuwana, V.T., 2017. Material realities, belief and aspiration in the later 19th century rock engravings of the Williston District of the Karoo (Masters dissertation, University of Cape Town)

Lupuwana, V.T., 2014. Prestwich Street. Documentary (Director and Cinematographer)