The SARChI SciCom is supporting a project, led by Prof Charne Lavery from the University of Pretoria, aiming to set up a permanent Artists and Writers Programme (AWP) for the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP). The AWP aims to prove the relevance and necessity of integrating the humanities, social sciences, and creative arts into the national research programme on Antarctica, by securing berths for creatives on the SA Agulhas II’s annual research voyages to the Antarctic and Subantarctic islands. Our collaboration has taken two forms.

Firstly, we decided to theme our 2024 FicSci workshop on Antarctica, which brought together a dozen creative writers with an Antarctic scientist, with the outcome being an edited collection of original writings inspired by sea ice. Secondly, the SARChI has been supporting the pilot roll-out of the AWP by linking FicSci writers with the opportunity to be writers or artists in residence on the SA Agulhas II, and offering support in the production of creative outputs from residencies. In April-May 2025, Mehita Iqani was lucky to be able to stand in as a last-minute replacement for the artist in residence on the Marion Takeover Voyage, when the selected writer (a participant from FicSci 03) could not go. She is currently working on publishing a chapbook of poetry, a short story collection, and a podcast series as outputs from the residency.

Principal Investigator: Prof Mehita Iqani and Prof Charne Lavery