Julian Smith

Julian Smith (19**-). Academic and theatre historian.

Biography

Studied at the University of the Western Cape, became a lecturer in the Afrikaans department there, then Registrar. In 2000 he was appointed vice-rector of the University of Stellenbosch and Professor in the Department of Drama.

With a close personal relationship to Adam Small and the performing arts in the Cape Flats, he was intimately involved with the movement of so-called “coloured” writers to identify with black conciousness movement and sought to assess the contribution of black writers to Afrikaans literature. He was one of the Organisers of the seminal conference on Black Writers in Afrikaans held at the University of the Western Cape in 198* and his doctoral thesis focussed on and analysed the role of black writers and the many theatre companies active in the theatre of the Cape Flats. A shorter version of the study was published in 1990 entitled Toneel en Poltiek and remains one of the few really significant documents in this field.