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Klopper joins executive team
10 February 2012
Professor Sandra Klopper, of the University of Pretoria, took office as the new deputy vice-chancellor on 1 January 2012, taking over the position held in an acting capacity by Associate Professor Nan Yeld.
Klopper's portfolio includes providing leadership in the areas of teaching and learning, and academic planning; and she has executive oversight of UCT Libraries and Information & Communication Technology Services. She has joined the vice-chancellor, Dr Max Price, and deputy vice-chancellors Professors Thandabantu Nhlapo, Crain Soudien and Danie Visser in making up the executive team.
Klopper will use the title of Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and brings strong academic, management and leadership experience to her new role. She was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria (UP).
She received her honours degree in art history (cum laude) in 1978 from the University of the Witwatersrand, where she returned later to write her PhD thesis, tracing the socio-political histories of various traditionalist art forms from present-day northern KwaZulu-Natal.
She also has an MA in art and social reform from the University of East Anglia, UK. She lectured in art history at Wits from 1981 to 1988.
In 1989 she joined UCT as a lecturer specialising in African art, and was promoted first to senior lecturer, then to associate professor, before accepting an appointment at Stellenbosch University (SU) as head of visual arts in June 2001. She became vice dean of arts (drama, fine arts and music) at Stellenbosch in January 2006, and accepted an additional appointment as acting head of the music department in mid-2006.
Klopper helped spearhead curriculum development at UCT, SU and UP. She chaired the teaching and learning committee at the humanities faculty at UP. She has served on the Senate Library Committees of both UP and SU. At SU she developed strategies for securing senior academic appointments from the so-called designated groups, and oversaw a major refurbishment of the visual arts department's building and facilities.
Klopper has played an active role in various community projects and initiatives and is an accomplished academic. She has written extensively on the traditionalist art of southern African communities, including the expressive culture of migrant labourers and their families; African fashion, textiles and beadwork; various aspects of contemporary South African youth culture; and the work of several contemporary South African artists. She has published three books in collaboration with photographer Peter Magubane, and has served on the editorial boards of African Arts (UCLA) and NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Cornell).
"Klopper's international ties are also strong - an important quality at UCT, where internationalisation and diversity form part of our strategic goals," said Price.
