Meghan Judge
Meghan Judge is a Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa where she coordinates an MSc in Science Communication. She is the Research Programmer at the Origins Centre Museum, and practices as an independent artist and a curator. Her interests lie at the intersections between the social and the natural world and a constantly reconfiguring relationality here. She explores power and narrative construction by working with multiple mediums and media including elemental, sonic, filmic and text. She holds a PhD in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand where she was a fellow in the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South project at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), and was a fellow at the SA Research Chair in Science Communication.
2023-present. Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, associated with the Origins Centre. Convenor of MSc Science Communication.
2022 - 2023. Fellow at SARCHi Chair in Science Communication, School of Journalism, University of Stellenbosch.
2019 – 2022. PhD in Fine Arts. Awarded the PhD through Wits School of the Arts and WiSER
2016 – 2018. Master of Arts, by dissertation (by distinction) through the Wits School of the Arts.
Exhibitions
2021. Static Drift. Solo exhibition, Wits Art Museum.
Ongoing: Various group shows, projects and lectures. Multiple shows, community, collaborative and solo projects, pedagogical courses, talks and art or research residencies, predominantly across Southern Africa and Western Indian Ocean, but including an international focus.
Recently: IASPIS – International Artist Studio Programme resident at the Mirror Institution, Sweden (2023); Feon'ala collective exhibition at La Teinturerie, Antananarivo, Madagascar (2023); Fiber Space exhibition at SudNoord in Stockholm and associated residency and exhibition through the Gamleby Foto Grant and the Ninevites in Gamleby, Sweden (2022/3); Heterodyne Relations / Gaia Intrudes for SeNSA, Cape Town, South Africa (2023); Mosaic Interactive (2019), East Kentucky, West Virginia, East Tennessee and Big Ears Music Festival; Desert (2018), William Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Festivals
2023 Smålands Triennalen, Sweden. Performance.
2021 Tunbridge Wells Puppetry Festival, United Kingdom and online. Film screening.
2020 Manipulate Festival, Scotland and online. Film screening.
2019/2020 Spier Light Art Festival: Harp Space, public arts interactive sound sculpture (2019); The Lonely Sailor Weather Report, outdoor film screening (2020). Cape Town, South Africa.
2019 National Arts Festival of South Africa. South Africa. Film screening.
2019 Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival Film screening. Johannesburg, South Africa.
2018 Porlwi festival of Light. Site-specific, socially engaged film projection. Port Louis, Mauritius.
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Festival d’Art Urbain. Various art projects and workshops. Antananarivo (2014, 2015, 2016); Mahajanga (2017); Antsiranana (2018), Madagascar.
Curating
2023 Sensing Sonics is an ongoing curated gathering for sonic inquiry paired with a creative activity. The session works with the quantum phenomenon of radical pairs where seemingly unrelated parts flash in relation. They explore the material/immaterialities of sound itself. The programming is open ended, shaping around desires.
2020. SIRA: Rust. Designed and curated a virtual residency during the initial lockdowns of the SARS-Co2 pandemic. It was designed to centre domestic set-ups that artist-parents find themselves in during this time so that they are not pushed further to the margins. This also worked for non-parent artists who were stuck at home.
2020/2019. Virtual Winds. Designed the Virtual Winds residency and curated the first iteration called Hetsika (thereafter taken up by other curators) that brings artists around the African islands and mainland together in contact with Malagasy artists and South African artists through La Teinturerie, a contemporary arts centre in Antananarivo. Thereafter managing other curators invited through the ANAE residency network. Virtual Winds lets each curator set up a game that allows artists to engage playfully yet critically with and through each other's work. It disrupts the language, border and cultural divides left by colonialism that inhibits greater arts connectivity.
2014. International Civil Society Week with CIVIUS, curating art for public engagements through art, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Publications in peer-reviewed journals/books
Judge, Meghan and Iqani, Mehita. Affective Encounters: Storying in South African Ecological Communication co-editing special issue for Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, Taylor & Francis (forthcoming 2024).
Judge, Meghan. On edge and off centre: a Feral Atlas review. (forthcoming special issue, ed. I Hofmeyr, S Jaapie). Kronos, Southern African Histories (2024).
Hydrofeminist Thinking With Oceans: Political and Scholarly Possibilities, ed T Schafer, V Bozalek, N Romano. Afterward: Between Spin and Drift, or overviews and undercurrents. Judge, Meghan (202-208) 2023, Routledge press.
Judge, Meghan. Noisy Surfaces: the art of vulnerability in human-ocean relations. (1-6). DeArte Journal, Tailor and Francis (2023).
Judge, Meghan. Escaping Seascape at the Shoreline in Toamasina in Madagascar. (70-84). South African Journal of Art History (2022).
Scholarly podcast
The Academic Citizen (2022). Blue. Season 6, episode 4. SARCHi SciCom.
The WiSER Podcast (2020). Episode 10, Oceanic Humanities Research Collective: Below the Waterline. Fellows included in this podcast are M Mohulatsi, M Judge, C Joseph, R Poinasamy.
Non-academic publishing
Judge, Meghan and Khan, Zayaan. Static Seed (2024), A Row of Trees journal, Sonic Arts Research Unit, Oxford Brooks.
Judge, Meghan (2023). part-wave. Poetic film. screenings at Mirror Institution and POOL.
Judge, Meghan (2023). In this mucus you ponder seeds. Poetic story. TBA21 Ocean Archive commission.
Kalanoro (2023). Film. Antananarivo, Madagascar. Artist credits.
Matshikiza, Lindiwe (2021) One Take Grace. Animation credits. Award-winning documentary.
Judge, Meghan for The Long Minute, Centre for the Less Good Idea, Bronwyn Lace (2020). Behind the Scenes. Short film.
Khanyile, Sifiso (2020). A New Country. Artist credits. Award winning feature length documentary.
Is’Art/La Teinturerie (2018). Festival d’Art Urbain Antananarivo 2014- 2017. Art book. Artist mention.
Visual Art Network of South Africa (2012). 2010 Reasons To Live In A Small Town: Projects. Artbook (print). Artist feature.
de Bell, Fiona (2010). Cascoland Mafikeng 2010: Activation of an underused stadium, 2010. Artbook (print). Art feature.
Clippings
Fisher, Mark (2021). The Guardian. Manipulate festival review. Theatre experiments on a different stage. Online. Artist mention and art review.
Wozniak, Lilith (2021). Exeunt Magazine. Review: Manipulate Festival. Online. Art review.
Solina Drnovšek, Klara (2021). EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform. Floating Far and Wide on Imaginary Waves. Online. Artist mention and art review.
Morron, Nico (2021). The Wee Review. The Lonely Sailor Weather Report. Online. Artist mention and art review.
Gričiutė, Andrėja (2021). EU Contemporary Puppetry and Critical Platform. Maybe that’s Odysseus? Online. Artist mention and art review.
Msimanga, Nondumiso (2020). The Critter. Virtual Blackout is a reminder to Play Our Way into the Future. Online. Artist mention and art review.
Organised symposiums
2025. Symposium / Ideas Forum titled Research That Listens: Diversifying Research for Deeper Reach for Public Voices, University College of London and Wits University fellow exchange programme for communicating Research.
2023. Colloquium committee for Science Communication Colloquium Series organised with Prof. Mehita Iqani, Dr. CM Joubert, Dr. FB Van Schalkwyk, and Mr. FM Mabogoane. Stellenbosch University.
2022. Eco-Comms symposium with Dr. M Judge, Dr. C Meyer and Mr. F Mabogoane and prof. M Iqani at the South African Research Chair in Science Communication, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Presentations for conferences/symposiums/colloquiums and panels
March 2025. Talk, conclusion and general discussion. Blue Heritage, Blue Economy. French Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa.
November 2024. Talk. The Re-Presentation and Interpretation of Rock Art at Origins Centre Museum: transforming archives into living spaces for collective reflection and stewardship. COSMO Art. University Toulouse Tean Jaures, France.
December 2024. Talk. Science Communication and Archaeology. SAASC, University of the Witwatersrand.
August 2024. Talk and screening: Un/Knowns at the South African Shoreline. The Flowing Image: The Ocean on Screen. Southampton University, United Kingdom (hybrid)
June 2024. Presentation. Decentring the Centre: Locating Origins through Relational Objects. IFAS Reimagining Heritage, Archives and Museums: Today/Tomorrow, Johannesburg, South Africa.
April 2024. Organised a Panel titled: Science Slippages and Literature Leaks: Imaginal education in Higher Education. The Three Societies on Literature and Science, Southampton University, United Kingdom. I was then invited as a panellist to talk in the closing discussions on the conference.
September 2023. Presentation: Interlude of Intrusions. Woman’s Work in Artistic Practice, in panel Traces We Leave Upon the Earth.
November 2023. Paper: Impossible Hiss. Sound Matters. South African Research Chair in Science Communication. Western Cape, South Africa.
August 2023. Paper: Swaying in unknowability: submerged listening with haunted kelp forests. In panel Green and Blue Transitions: Thinking with the Ocean and Marine Sciences Trans-Disciplinarily and Trans-gressively at ASLE UKI: Transitions. Liverpool University, United Kingdom (hybrid).
August 2023. Paper: Listening to the Spine of the Agulhas Current at Waterways: an international conference on human relations with the sea, Gqeberha, South Africa
May 2023. Talk: (Re)Orientations and Narrative Construction in Climates of Power. Lunchtime Talks at the School of Journalism, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
April 2023. Chaired: Dr Charne Lavery’s presentation at the Science Communication Colloquium 08 titled Vertical Indian Ocean: Postcolonial Cultural Studies, Climate Change and Deep Sea Science. Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
April 2023. Paper: A Spectral Encounter with Vastness and Self Noise along the Weathering Spine of the Agulhas Current. British Science and Literature and Science 17th Annual Conference, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland (hybrid).
March 2023. The Weight of Vastness in the Agulhas Current. Haunted Shores 2023: Aquatic Surfaces and Depths (Scotland, hybrid)
February 2023. Southampton University, United Kingdom. Presented talk Static Ocean
November 2022. Eco_Media Symposium, RMIT Melbourne, Australia. Presenting creative research Silence, silencing and noisy perceptions while listening through apparatuses for knowing the ocean.
October 2022. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL) symposium toward a special issue titled Thinking with Ocean/s for Reconceptualising Scholarship in Higher Education (to be published in Sept 2023). Presented paper Drifting in an Underground Hole Below the Higher Institution: lessons from unmastering an art exhibition. Simonstown, South Africa.
2022. South African Journal in Art History. Presented Pitted Holes: human-ocean relations at the shoreline in Toamasina, Madagascar. University of the Freestate, Bloemfontein (paper presented digitally).
2022. Eco-Comms. Elemental media and sensing data. CREST, Stellenbosch University
2022. United Nations Environment Programme: Winter/Summer school on Oceans, Art and Defenders. Oceanic Sonic Interlude. Online (presented virtually).
2022. Adventures in Posthumanism doctoral research conference. Presented Under the Waterline. Presented artworks. Plymouth University (paper presented digitally).
2021. Hydro Feminisms and Wild Engagements with Ocean/s: towards a justice-to-come in South African contexts. Presented a creative conference overview titled What bubbles Up. University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa, August 2021.
2021. Virtual Hugs. Presented Re-turning to Compositions that Together Apart. Internal Conference in the Wits School of the Arts. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 2020 [paper presented digitally due to the Covid 10 Pandemic].
2021 Art Research Africa Colloquium. Compositions that Together Apart. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2020 [paper presented digitally due to the Covid 10 Pandemic].
2019 Collaborations, panel at CHR Factory of the Arts. Collaboratively presented on The Lonely Sailor Weather Report. Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape
2018 Holding Water: Johannesburg Oceans. A Praxis that Rusts. Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2017 Mobility of Artists in Times of Growing Barriers. Artists as organisers and back again: Keleketla!. Subramania Bharati Lecture Theatre of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius, April 2017.
Grants and awards
2024 Erasmus Grant, France.
2023 Mirror Institution IASPIS (international Artist Studio Programme in Sweden) artist in Residence, Oland, Sweden.
2022/3. Awarded a South African Research Chair in Science Communication postdoctoral fellowship, at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Awarded based on scholarly interest, artistic publication and creative project proposed working with marine scientists and sound art.
2022. Gamleby Foto Grant awarded for residency in Gamleby, Sweden.
2021. PhD Mid Cycle Publication Grant. Grant awarded toward the production of a peer-reviewed article to be submitted before the completion of the PhD cycle. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2019. PhD Mellon Fellow at WiSER. Oceanic Humanities for the Global South fellow award, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Grant awarded based on the quality of my academic record and interest in developing a project in arts and the Southern Ocean.
2018. Pro Helvetia ANT Mobility Grant. I worked through ANAE to bring two artists from Madagascar to collaborate in William Kentridge’s Less Good Idea Season 3. Madagascar and Johannesburg, South Africa.
2018. Oppenheimer Memorial Trust award for Postgraduate Study. Awarded towards the completion of my MA Dissertation titled Gong Fu and the Art of Duplication: toward social repositories in subaltern history
2017. Pro Helvetia ANT Mobility Grant. A research grant for artists to pursue their creative practice within Southern Africa. I was researching the development of a film that looked into social history, which spanned from China through trade systems to Madagascar via conversations with a woman in Antananarivo. Antananarivo, Madagascar.
2011. Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA). Awarded to develop an artist-as-researcher position for Naledi Rural within VANSA’s socially engaged project titled Twenty Ten Reasons to live in a Small Town in the Naledi Rural region of the Freestate, South Africa.
2010. Cascoland funding. Socially engaged participatory art project titled Hi Tonkana during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Mabato Stadium and Operation Blanket, Mahikeng, South Africa.
