Writing

Academic Publications

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (SINGLE AUTHOR): BOOKS

Sacks, R. (2023) Congo Style: From Art Nouveau to African Independence, Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11519375

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (SINGLE AUTHOR): BOOK CHAPTERS

Sacks, R. (2023) ‘Behind Johannesburg: Plants and Possible Futures in an Industrialised Hinterland’ In Gupta et al (eds.) Hinterlands,  Planetary Hinterlands: Extraction, Abandonment and Care, Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-24243-4_18

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS: RECENT JOURNAL ARTICLES

Sacks R. and Thumbran, J. (2022) ‘Rethinking Resilience: South Africa and Self Reliance’, In Sacks, R and Thumbran, J. (eds) Social Dynamics, Special Issue: Rethinking Resilience, Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02533952.2022.2054145

Sacks, R. (2020)  ‘Sites of Unfinished Independence in Johannesburg and Kinshasa’, In Murray, N., Pyper, B. and Weintraub, J. (eds.) Critical African Studies Vol. 11, Issue I, Special Edition Secret Affinities, Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2020.1724808

Sacks, R. (2018) ‘Lived Remainders: The contemporary lives of iron hotels in the Congo’, In Douchet, I., Frichot, H. and Smith, C. (eds.) Architectural Theory Review Vol. 22, Issue I, Special Edition Resist, Reclaim, Speculate: Situated Perspectives on Architecture in the City,  Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2018.1418127

Sacks, R. (2016) ‘Anonymous Objects as Exhibition Organisms’, In Bowker, S. and Bremner, C. (eds.) Fusion Journal 09, Anonymous. The Void in Visual Culture, Charles Stuart University, Australia.

OTHER SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS (NON PEER REVIEWED):

Sacks, R. (2023) ‘Review of Green, Lesley, Rock | Water | Life: Ecology and Humanities for a Decolonial South Africa’, In H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57963 

Sacks, R (2023) ‘Ruth Sacks on the Trienal de Luanda’, Artthrob, URL: https://artthrob.co.za/2023/05/04/archive-dive-ruth-sacks-on-the-trienal-de-luanda/

Sacks, R. (2021) ‘Painting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Henri Kalama Interview’, In Oncurating, Issue 49 [online] https://www.on-curating.org/issue-49-reader/painting-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-culture-and-identity.html#.Y4bqhi8RpMA [last accessed: 30/11/22]

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

‘The City Can Speak for Itself’ (2019), In Liebow, E., In Liebow, E., Proceedings of African Futures Conference, Vol 2, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2573-508X.2018.tb00007.x

‘Looking for the Congo in Congo Style’ (2015), Proceedings of the conference: Admired as well as Overlooked Beauty: Architecture and Urbanism of Historicism, Art Nouveau, Early Modern and Traditionalism, Češka, Brno, Czech Republic, pp. 231 – 243.

JOURNAL EDITING

Sacks, R and Thumbran, J. (eds) Social Dynamics, Special Issue: Rethinking Resilience, Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02533952.2022.2054145 

Johannesburg Lasts Collective (eds) (2019), ‘Johannesburg Lasts: Last, Lasting, Lost’, … Ellipses. Journal for Creative Practice, Issue 4. 
https://www.ellipses.org.za/issue/special-issue-joburg-lasts 

Koide, E, De Groof, M. and Sacks, R. (eds) (2018), A Global South Dialogue on African Art and Historical Narratives from DR Congo, Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 7. Issue 1. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/artlas/vol7/iss1/

CONFERENCE PAPERS: SINGLE-AUTHORED

2024: ‘Queen Idia in Motion,’ Lagos Studies Association, University of Lagos, Nigeria

2023: ‘Imagining Africa in the Postcolonial City: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Congo Style,’ African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco. 

2022: ‘The Everyday Materiality of Colonial Buildings’, Lagos Studies Association, University of Lagos [online]

2022: ‘What Can Art Bring to African Studies on a Wounded Planet?’, Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives, Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg, Germany

2021: ‘Between the Botanical Garden and Contemporary Art’, In Whose Place: Confronting Vestiges of the Colonial Landscape in Africa, University of the Witwatersrand [online]

2021: ‘Inner City Planting in Dialogue with the Hinterland’, Hinterlands Workshop, online  

2019: ‘Questioning Resilience’, The Third African Studies Association in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

2018: ‘Loaded Inheritance: African Art and Decolonisation’, African Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, USA

2017: ‘The City Can Speak for Itself’, Africa in the World: Shifting Boundaries and Knowledge Production, African Studies Association, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017: ‘Tracing Art Nouveau in Mbanza Ngungu’, III coupDefouet International Congress, Institut del Paisatge Urbà, Barcelona, Spain 

2017: ‘Designing Congolese Modernism’, 17th ACASA Triennial, Accra, Ghana

2017: ‘Creative Practice in the Nervous University’, Artsearch Symposium, WSOA, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016: ‘New Urban Epistemologies’, Decolonising the University in Africa, University of South Africa, Pretoria (UNISA), South Africa

2014: Fictional hierarchies in the fin de siècle total artwork, Gesamtkunstwerk. A Concept for all Times and Places Conference, University of Lisbon, Portugal

SOLO SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS & BOOK LAUNCHES: 

2024: “Breathing In: Saturation, Conditioning and Power”, Air and Atmospheres seminar series, hosted by WiSER and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS), UCL [online]

2024: Sites of Mattering in Johannesburg, Kinshasa and Lagos, The Africa Institute Faculty Seminar Series, The Africa Institute, Sharjah, UAE    

2023:  “An Evening with Ruth Sacks: In Conversation with Jennifer Wenzel and Anooradha Siddiqi”, University Seminar on Contemporary Africa, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS), Columbia University School of the Arts, New York City, USA 

2023: Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence (Book Launch), Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand [online] (with Sammy Baloji, Emery Kalema and Corinne Kratz)

2023: Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence (Book Launch), CIVA Museum and Archive, Brussels, Belgium (with Bambi Ceuppens, Johan Lagae and Sandrine Colard)

2017: Lived Remainders: The Contemporary Lives of Iron Hotels in the Congo, Wits City Institute Fellows Seminar, Wits University

2016: Anonymous Objects as Exhibition Organisms, WiSER WISH Seminar, Wits University

2016: ‘Style Congo’ in the Post Colony, College Arts Association (CAA), Washington DC, USA; Object Agencies, Médiation passée, présente et future, Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

2014: Looking for the Congo in ‘Congo Style,’ CCAA Seminar, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014: Revisiting ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ via the colonial exhibition, at Bibliothèque Kandinsky Summer University, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2014: Art Nouveau Dreamscapes and the Nightmare of the African Colony, WiSER WISH seminar (Writing from the Global South workshop), Johannesburg, SA

2013: Approaches from the Global South, BIGSAS Seminar at Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany.