Humanities Hubs are centres of knowledge with a focus on heritage. They offer ways to use existing resources to engage communities in creating or reproducing new ways of knowing. Humanities Hubs is primarily a research-based programme; it aims to catalyse and open new avenues for scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and to assist in and promote the HSS more generally, linking with the broader public, outside of universities. Liliesleaf is the Institute’s flagship Humanities Hub, funding having been awarded to the Liliesleaf Trust in March 2015 to establish a pilot programme. The hub’s theme is “Memory and History”; it is envisaged that by remembering and making sense of the past, we come to terms with our present and can imagine and construct our future
To date other hubs have been identified, including:
- Migrant Workers’ Hub (Lwandle Museum, Western Cape): Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum is located near the City of Cape Town, in the Helderberg Basin. The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum is devoted to the history of migrant labour, single sex hostels and the control of black workers during the apartheid era.
- Theatre Humanities Hub (Market Theatre Foundation, Gauteng): Market Theatre – The Market Theatre was founded in 1976. The Market Theatre, which is managed by the Market Theatre Foundation (MTF) is renowned for producing most of the top actress and actresses. Market Theatre is famous for producing many of the anti-apartheid plays.
- Ex-Political Prisoners Project (Robben Island Museum, Western Cape): Robben Island Museum is in Table Bay and has been used as political prison by the apartheid government. UNESCO declared Robben Island in the Western Cape a World Heritage Site in 1999. Robben Island was declared a World Heritage Site because the buildings on the island are a reminder of its sad oppression history.
- African Languages Literary Heritage Hub (Rhodes University, Eastern Cape): It is suggested that the numbering ( such as the third way at the beginning of this sentence should be removed. It should like : The institute takes pride in creating value by hosting the South Africa BRICS Think Tank (SABTT)
- Factory of Art Humanities Hub (University of the Western Cape): The Factory of the Art/Centre for Humanities Research is supported by the University of the Western Cape. The Factory of the Arts is the hub for cultural productions and creative disciplines, among them photography, performance, painting, music, and filmmaking etc.
- Origins Hub (Wits Origins Centre, Gauteng): Wits Origins Centre was officially opened in 2006. Located at the Wits University, the hub is dedicated to exploring and celebrating the history of modern humankind. The hub offers visitors an opportunity to view some of the richest visual heritage found in South Africa and to learn about its history and meaning.
- Land and Intellectual Heritage Hub (Hunterstoun Centre, University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape): The University of Fort Hare Hunterstoun Centre is a unique African space for research, creativity and reflection. It is a retreat, a place to study, hub for community outreach and a space for the exchange of ideas.