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Education and Career
Professor Karen Leigh Harris holds a doctorate in history and is one of the first South African historians to focus on the history of the overseas Chinese in this region. She lectures in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at the university of Pretoria where she holds the position of full professor and is also the University Archivist. She has published articles and chapters on a range of topics related to the history of the Chinese in South Africa as well as completed comparative work with Holland, Australia and the United States of America.
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Honors
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Publications
(Select list specifically on the Chinese in South Africa – book contributions, articles,
theses, papers and posters)
Book contributions
- “Gandhi, the Chinese and Passive Resistance” in J Brown and H Prozesky (eds) Gandhi and South Africa: Principles and Politics, (Natal University Press and St Martin's Press, Pietermaritzburg and USA, 1996)
- “Integration or Segregation: The Dutch and South African Chinese Compared” with Frank Pieke of Oxford University in E Sinn (ed) Last Half Century of Overseas Chinese, 1945-1995 (University of Hong Kong Press, 1997)
- “Chinese Immigration to Australia and South Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Legislative Control” with Jan Ryan of Edith Cowan University in E Sinn (ed) Last Half Century of Overseas Chinese, 1945-1995 (University of Hong Kong Press, 1997)
- “The formidable unwelcome competitor: Overseas Chinese merchants in South Africa” in Z. Guoto (ed) History and Perspective: Ethnic Chinese at the turn of the centuries (Fujian people Press, Fujian, 1998) Also translated into Chinese.
- “The Chinese in South Africa: An interstitial community” in L. Wang and G. Wang (eds), The Chinese Diaspora: Selected Essays (Times Academic Press, Singapore, 1998)
- “The Chinese in South Africa” in L Pan (ed) Encyclopaedia of the Chinese Overseas (Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore, 1998) Also translated into French.
- “Closeted culture: The Chinese in South Africa in T. Ang See (ed.) Intercultural Relations, Cultural Transformation and Identity: The Ethnic Chinese, (Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran Inc., Manila, 2000)
- “Confucian Education: A case study of the South African Chinese”, in B. Yeoh, M.W. Charney & T. Chee Kiong (eds) Chinese Migrants and Education, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 2002.)
(forthcoming)
- “Yellow gold, black gold: The Chinese and African labourers on the South African mines” in R. Richardson (ed), Blacks and Asians in time and space, (Duke University Press), (forthcoming).
- “Chinese in South Africa” in I. Skoggard (ed.), Encyclopedia of Diaspora, (Human Relations Area Files, Yale University, Kluwer Plenum Academic Publishers), (forthcoming).
- “Scattered and silent sources: Researching the overseas Chinese in South Africa”,
C.B. Tan, C. Storey and J. Zimmerman (eds), Research and documentation of the
Chinese Overseas, (The Chinese University Press) (forthcoming).
- “A century of not belonging – The Chinese in South Africa” with Darryl Accone in K.E. Kuah Pearce and A. Davidson (eds) Power of Memories: Negotiating Belonginess in the Chinese Diaspora, Hong Kong University Press, (forthcoming).
Ph D theses
- A history of the Chinese in South Africa to 1912. (D Litt et Phil, University of South Africa, 1998)
Articles
- Historia vol 31, no 2 (1986): “The origins and early years of a multi-cultural Reef labour society”.
- Historia vol 35, no 2 (1990): “Early trade unionism on the gold mines in South Africa and Australia: A comparison”.
- Contree vol 35 (1994): “Rand Capitalists and Chinese Resistance”.
- Kleio no XXVI (1994): “The Chinese in South Africa: A preliminary overview to 1910”.
- ISSCO Bulletin vol 12 no 1 (1994): “Commentary on overseas Chinese studies in South Africa”.
- South African Historical Journal vol 33 (1995): “Chinese Merchants on the Rand, c.1850-1910”.
- South African Historical Journal vol 36 (1997): “The South African Chinese: A community record of a neglected minority”.
- South African Historical Journal vol 40 (1999): “Accepting the group, but not the area: The South African Chinese and the Group Areas Act”
- New Contree vol 46 (November 1999) “The Chinese in South Africa: A Historical Study of a Cultural Minority”
- Historia vol 47 no 1 (May 2002) ‘“Whiteness”, “Blackness”, “Neitherness”: The South African Chinese:
A study in identity politics’
- South African Journal of Cultural History (May 2003) “Early encounters between China and Africa: myth
or moment”.
- South African Historical Journal vol 50 (November 2004) “Private and Confidential: The Chinese mine labourers and ‘unnatural crime’”.
Papers
- “Early trade unionism on the gold mines in South Africa and Australia: A comparison”. The Conference of the Historical Association of South Africa, Johannesburg, 1990.
- “Early trade unionism on the gold mines in South Africa and Australia”. Unisa history departmental seminar, 1990.
- “The Chinese in South Africa to 1910: A preliminary overview”. Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 1992.
- “The Chinese in South Africa to 1910: A preliminary overview”. Institute of Asian Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992.
- “The Chinese in South Africa: An interstitial community”. International Conference on Overseas Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA, 1992.
- “Gandhi, the Chinese and Passive Resistance”. International Conference on Gandhi and his significance - Centenary Celebrations, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1993.
- “The South African Chinese: An economic threat”. International Symposium on Ethnic Chinese Economy, University of Shantou, People's Republic of China, 1993.
- “The status of the overseas Chinese in the Netherlands and South Africa: A comparative perspective” with Frank Pieke. Comparative Perspectives Conference: Last Half Century of Overseas Chinese, (1945-1994), University of Hong Kong, 1994.
- “Chinese Immigration to Australia and South Africa: A Comparative Analysis of legislative control” with Jan Ryan. Comparative Perspectives Conference: Last Half Century of Overseas Chinese (1945-1994), University of Hong Kong, 1994.
- “Accepting the group, but not the area: The South African Chinese and the Group Areas Act”. The Sixteenth Biennial Conference of the South African Historical Society, Pretoria, 1997.
- “‘Closeted culture’: The Chinese in South Africa”. International Conference on Ethnic Chinese, International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas, Anteneo de Manila University, Philippines, 1998.
- “The Chinese in South Africa: A Historical Study of a Cultural Minority”. University of Pretoria Department of History seminar, 1999.
- “Confucian Education: A case study of the South African Chinese”, International Conference Immigrant Societies and Modern Education, National University of Singapore, September 2000.
- ‘“Whiteness”, “Blackness”, “Neitherness”: The South African Chinese since 1885’, Wits History
Workshop and Wiser Conference, The Burden of Race? ‘“Whiteness” and “Blackness” in Modern South
Africa, July 2001.
- “Yellow gold, black gold: The Chinese and African labourers on the South African mines”, African American Studies Program, Boston University, Blacks and Asians in time and space, April 2002.
- “Early encounters between China and Africa: myth or moment”, South African Historical Association, Heritage creation and research: The restructuring of historical studies in southern Africa, Rand Afrikaans University, June 2002.
- “Scattered and silent sources: Researching the overseas Chinese in South Africa”, Second International
Conference of Institutes and libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies, Transnational Networks: Challenges in research and documentation of the Chinese overseas, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ohio University, Hong Kong, March 2003.
- “Private and Confidential: The Chinese mine labourers and unnatural crime”, Fourth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society, Sex and Secrecy Conference, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, June 2003.
- “Encouraged and excluded: The Chinese a century ago”, Biennial Conference of the Historical Association of South Africa, Centenary Conference, University of Stellebosch, April 2004.
- “Not a Chinaman’s chance: Chinese labour in South Africa and elsewhere”, Ninth Biennial Conference of the Chinese Association of Australia, La Trobe University, Bendigo, June 2005.
Poster
“Not a Chinaman’s chance: Perceptions of Chinese labour in South Africa and the United States of America”, Twentieth International Congress of Historical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, July 2005.
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