Colin Bundy

South African historian and academic administrator

Colin James Bundy (born 4 October 1944) is a South African historian, former principal^[1] of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former director of SOAS University of London.^[2] Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantially revised understanding of South African history. In particular, he wrote on South Africa's rural past from a predominantly Marxist perspective, but also deploying Africanist and underdevelopment theories.^[3] Since the mid-1990s, however, Bundy has held a series of posts in university administration. Bundy is also a trustee of the Canon Collins Educational & Legal Assistance Trust.

Education

He received his secondary education at Graeme College, Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province.

Bundy was educated at the University of Natal (B.A.) and the University of the Witwatersrand (B.A. (Hons)). He was then a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford (1968–70) and a Beit Senior Research Scholar at St Antony's (1970–72), graduating as an M.Phil. and D.Phil. of the University of Oxford with a thesis entitled African Peasants and Economic Change in South Africa, 1870–1913, with Particular Reference to the Cape (Thesis). University of Oxford. 1976.

Career

Bundy was director and principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2001–06);^[4] deputy vice-chancellor of the University of London (2003–06); vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (1997-2001); and director of the Institute for Historical Research (1992–94) and vice-rector (1994-97), University of the Western Cape.

He returned to Oxford as a research fellow at Queen Elizabeth House (1979–80) and in the Department for External Studies (1980–84), subsequently being elected an honorary fellow of Kellogg College. From 2006 until 2008 he was warden of Green College, Oxford, becoming the first principal of Green Templeton College on 1 October 2008, when Green College merged with Templeton College. He retired from this position on 1 October 2010.^[5]

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1149/14) with Colin Bundy in 2010 for its Oral History of Oral History collection held by the British Library.^[6]

He is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.^[7]

Publications

His publications include:

"Land and Liberation: The South African National Liberation Movements and the Agrarian Question, 1920s-1960s". Review of African Political Economy. 11 (129): 14–29. 1984. doi:10.1080/03056248408703565. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
History, revolution, and South Africa. University of Cape Town. 1987. ISBN 9780799211047.
Remaking the Past: New Perspectives in South African History (Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 1987)
Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics & Popular Movements in the Transkei & Eastern Cape, 1890-1930. University of California Press. 1987. ISBN 978-0-520-05780-7. (with William Beinart)
The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry. James Currey Publishers. 1988. ISBN 978-0-85255-047-2.
The History of the South African Communist Party. University of Cape Town, Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies. 1991. ISBN 978-0-7992-1334-8.

References

^ "University of Oxford: Appointments". Archived from the original on 23 June 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ MacLeod, Donald (21 April 2005). "Soas head resigns after five years". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
^ Colin Bundy (1991). "Marxism in South Africa:Context, Themes and Challenges". Transformation. 16: 56–66.
^ "SOAS Honorary Fellows". SOAS. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
^ Oxford, University of. "Notices, Oxford University Gazette". www.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
^ National Life Stories, 'Bundy, Colin (1 of 4) National Life Stories Collection: Oral History of Oral History', The British Library Board, 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2017
^ "St Edmund's College - University of Cambridge". www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 September 2018.

External links

Guardian profile, 2004
Talk by Bundy on Globalisation and universities, 1999
Talk by Bundy on education in South Africa, 2003
Article by Bundy on truth and reconciliation in South Africa, 1999
Two-part video of Professor Bundy discussing the implications of the collapse of the Soviet Union on the prospects for global Marxist revolution
- Part 1 on YouTube
- Part 2 on YouTube

Academic offices
Preceded by Robert Charlton	Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand 1997 — 2001	Succeeded by Norma Reid Birley
New title	Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford 2008 — 2010	Succeeded by Sir David Watson