Prof. Siona O’Connell

Professor Siona O'ConnelSl (PhD) from the University of Pretoria is an African Studies scholar, social justice activist and practitioner specialising in Memory Studies and Restorative Justice in South Africa. She is widely respected for her research examining the effects of race-based land dispossession and holding the past to account in search of freedom.

Through her work, O'Connell has directed and produced 12 documentary films that bridge scholarship with activism. Her co-edited book, 'Hanging on a Wire', won the 2018 National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) award for best non-fiction edited volume.

O'Connell's distinguished appointments include Trilateral Reconnections Project Fellow and BIARI alumnus at Brown University, NEH Distinguished Visiting Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University (2018-19) and Visiting Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark (2021-22). She currently chairs the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Humanities Standing Committee.
Through her documentary work, O'Connell addresses displacement, traumatic pasts and social justice: themes that, while rooted in South African contexts, carry global implications. Through both her scholarship and filmmaking, she bridges academic research with public engagement on critical questions of memory and redress.