Each week during the 2010 fall semester, the College of Arts and Sciences is showing the new documentary by Connie Field, "Have You Heard from Johannesburg?" This is part of the year long Kentucky and South Africa Initiative: "Different Lands, Common Ground". Each week's film installment is accompanied by a guest speaker. This week's speaker was Ikenna Uzuebugnam, a new professor in the Gatton College for Business and Economics. His research focuses on social entrepreneurship.

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences is embarking on a year long exploration of the culture and history of South Africa and its connections with Kentucky. The Kentucky and South Africa Initiative, titled "Different Lands, Common Ground," will engage our community in a crucial global conversation and spark an ongoing exchange of ideas.

Each week during the 2010 fall semester, the College of Arts and Sciences is showing the new documentary by Connie Field, "Have You Heard from Johannesburg?" This is part of the year long Kentucky and South Africa Initiative: "Different Lands, Common Ground." Each week's film installment is accompanied by a guest speaker. This week's speaker was Marybeth Gasman, a prominent speaker from the University of Pennsylvania who studies historically black colleges and universities in America and Africa.

Connie Field is the director of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg?" In this podcast, Field discusses the years of work that she put into making the seven-part documentary. The film is a focal point of the Kentucky and South Africa Initiative: "Different Lands, Common Ground."

Ahmed Kathrada, anti-apartheid activist and cell-mate of Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, speaks at the opening of an exhibition in Lafferty Hall about life in South Africa under apartheid. 

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South Africa has received quite a bit of international press this year as the host nation of the 2010 World Cup. Although the festivities surrounding the exciting sports events are over, the College of Arts & Sciences is launching a new South African initiative which will allow students to learn more about this fascinating country over the course of the 2010-11 academic year. Students also have the opportunity to enroll in a class that breaks out of the traditional 3-credit hour, semester-long offerings.

On April 13, 2011, Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada, the South African politician, former political prisoner, and anti-apartheid activist, spoke at UK as part of the unveiling of the traveling Kathrada Exhibit currently being hosted at the University of Kentucky. The exhibit, which documents Kathy’s life as an activist for non-racialism and democracy and also includes a replica of the prison cell in which Kathy spent 26 years of his life, was on display in the Webb Gallery of Lafferty Hall until May 31st, 2011.