David Coplan

David Coplan. (19**-) Academic, author and musician.

Biography

Born David Bellin Coplan in the USA, he has a B.A (Hons) from Williams College 1970; M.A. University of Ghana, 1974; M.A. Indiana University, 1976; Ph.D. Indiana University 1980.

He first arrived in South Africa in the early 1970s.

Career

He has carried out fieldwork in Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa, Ghana, and the United States. Since 1998*? Professor and Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also held visiting appointments at institutions as diverse as University of Basel, École des Hautes Études Sciences Sociales (Paris), Rice University, NYU, DePauw University, and the University of Cape Town. He acted as the Chief Researcher for the “Mobilising Culture and Heritage for Nation Building” in South Africa’s Arts and Culture Department and worked as an ethnographic research consultant for University of Pennsylvania Museum and International Library of African Music. Has received awards and grants from Fulbright-Hayes, SSRC, NEH, ACLS, Human Sciences Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Arts Council of South Africa, and the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust.

He is also the author of In the Time of Cannibals: Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants, and editor of Lyrics of the Basotho Migrants.

Profile in The Conversation[1]

"David B. Coplan is Professor and Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also held visiting appointments at institutions as diverse as University of Basel, École des Hautes Études Sciences Sociales (Paris), Rice University, NYU, DePauw University, and the University of Cape Town. He acted as the Chief Researcher for the “Mobilising Culture and Heritage for Nation Building” in South Africa’s Arts and Culture Department and worked as an ethnographic research consultant for University of Pennsylvania Museum and International Library of African Music.Professor Coplan has received awards and grants from Fulbright-Hayes, SSRC, NEH, ACLS, Human Sciences Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Arts Council of South Africa, and the Ernst Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. His research interests include African ethnology, history and theory of anthropology, performing arts, urban anthropology, culture change, social organization and border studies."

Today he is Professor Emeritus, Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Author of In Township Tonight!: South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre!, a seminal ethnomusicological work and the first comprehensive study of South African black performance. First published by Longman (London and New York, 1985), with a second and expanded edition published by the University of Chicago Press (Chicago, 2008).