The day

One day, in person. Eight papers at ±30 minutes each — unhurried, uninterrupted, with no questions from the floor — set in four juxtapositions — a permit beside a novel, a loom beside a face — with waiting staged between them and a hearing at the close. Aimed finish ±17:00. The date is set: Monday 9 November 2026, in the Lecture Hall of the Department of Journalism. Please reply by Friday 30 October — on this site, or by e-mail to the Graduate School at graduateschool@sun.ac.za. Times stay provisional — fittingly.

See the whole day walked through, in pictures →

The running order is the argument. The day moves from waiting imposed by the state, to those who wait for the absent, to waiting beyond the human scale, and ends by putting its own title on trial: is deferral, after all, denial? All eight presenters are on the Assembly slate; the devices between the papers — door, ticket, form, queue, canteen, hearing, chair — are explained on Participatory.

There is no question time. No question is asked from the floor and none is answered on the day. Every question is filed — on a numbered slip at the desk, or directly on the debate wall — and waits there for the presenter’s answer. No question is refused.

  1. Prologue · The doorThe advertised start passes. Notice: will begin shortly. Chairs provided. Each person draws a numbered ticket and takes the position they registered for — those who wait, those who wait with them, the officials. Presenters draw tickets too. (±10 min)
  2. Opening frameConvenor: waiting imposed and waiting chosen — and what the room has just felt. (±10 min)
  3. Juxtaposition I · A permit beside a novelWaiting imposed by the state — and the home that is always still on the way.
  4. I · Waiting in administrative & immigration lawJune Luna — the Home Affairs file that is never refused and never granted. (±30 min)
  5. II · Racing against time / waiting en routeDr Bo Lyu — Ha Jin’s Waiting; Wang Jibing’s delivery rider, a man not made to wait but forbidden to. (±30 min)
  6. Interlude · The ticketThere is no question time — here or anywhere in the day. Questions for the presenters are written on a numbered slip, handed in at the desk, marked RECEIVED, and posted to the debate wall, where they wait for an answer. No question is refused. None is answered today. (±15 min)
  7. Tea · The formMorning tea is not free. An Application to Be Heard is filed at a slow desk staffed by the officials. Some forms are marked DEFERRED — refreshment delayed without reasons. What eventually arrives is unlabelled: mysterious food, no menu. Dietary needs declared at registration are honoured without breaking the theatre’s silence for others. (±25 min)
  8. Juxtaposition II · A loom beside a faceThose who stay behind — waiting for someone neither returned nor declared lost.
  9. III · I wait for “Noman”Dr Louise-Mari Muller — Homer’s Penelope and the heroism of staying behind: the waiting woman, read with Ndebele and Eybers. (±30 min)
  10. IV · Waiting to be namedDr Elysia Greenway — forensic facial depiction, human identification and the time between. Content note: the paper concerns unidentified human remains and the families who search for them; no graphic images are shown. (±30 min)
  11. Interlude · The silent queueTen minutes before a door marked OFFICE. No phones, no talk — the silence also belongs to the paper just heard. The door opens on an empty room. Short debrief. (±10 min)
  12. Lunch · The canteen of deferralLunch opens late by design. Trays are issued by lot, not by queue position. Dishes have no names — only numbers. One table is set and never served. Seconds are promised “shortly”. Allergen and religious dietary requirements, declared at registration, are met with labelled alternatives. (±60 min)
  13. Juxtaposition III · A wind farm beside a galaxyWaiting beyond the human scale — where those who wait cannot file a form.
  14. V · The infrastructure does not waitDr Stephanie Borchardt — managed incompleteness and ecological harm in South Africa’s renewable energy frontier: knowledge waits for the infrastructure. (±30 min)
  15. VI · Wait in the Universe; Wait and chances in lifeProf. Yin-Zhe Ma — light-travel delay, the early universe; when “too long to wait” is written into physics. Later he uses a mathematical model to explain why most of the time in a life is waiting, and what one does to prepare for the chances. (±30 min)
  16. Interlude · The registerA clerk reads out the register of questions received so far: their numbers and their status — not the questions, not the answers. Every status is PENDING. More slips may be filed. (±10 min)
  17. Tea · The wrong clockAfternoon tea is announced for a time that slips. A clock is visible and wrong. Morning tickets are called again; the forms marked DEFERRED at the first tea are served first — without explanation. (±20 min)
  18. Juxtaposition IV · A broken bowl beside a love deferredWaiting chosen, and what it costs — patience as self-denial, and love put off.
  19. VII · To wait or not to wait?Jaco du Plooy — ‘patience’ as a form of self-denial in Jeanne Benameur’s La patience des traces (2022): waiting chosen, and turned against the self. (±30 min)
  20. VIII · Love deferredProf. Catherine Du Toit — Henri-Pierre Roché’s second novel: the impact of deferral on nascent love, through parallel juxtaposition. (±30 min)
  21. Pause · The adjournmentThe room is reset as a hearing: three benches for the three positions, a row for the witnesses, one chair left empty. Nobody is told how long this will take. (±10 min)
  22. The hearing · “Deferral is denial”The Assembly puts its own title on trial: the motion — that deferral is denial — is put to the room. The three positions are heard in turn: those who wait, those who wait with them, and last the officials — who may answer only in the passive voice. This is not question time either: positions make statements, nobody is cross-examined. The eight presenters sit as witnesses, not judges. The facilitator reserves judgment; none is delivered. (±35 min)
  23. Closing · The chairHow the day ends with the empty seat is the closing argument. (±15 min)
  24. Epilogue · The pending wallOne card each: ‘I am still waiting for ______.’ The reserved judgment is pinned beside them; the day’s questions are already on the debate wall, waiting. Pinning, reading, lingering. Day ends ±17:00.

Participating means you agree to a role and to a participatory day. Documentary filming is optional — see the registration form. No-camera markers are honoured on the day.

Monday 9 November 2026 · Lecture Hall, Department of Journalism. In person only · aimed finish ±17:00.