Project examines ideals of freedom in contemporary South Africa

Professor Graham Mort (centre) heads up a project which inspires South African writing communities to explore ideals of freedom. He is also helping to develop the creative writing programmes at UWC. A Lancaster University Professor is at the helm of a new project which aims to inspire a South African writing community to explore the ideals of freedom. Professor Graham Mort, a lecturer in the English and Creative Writing Department, is currently visiting the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa, on a Leverhulme International Fellowship. He is also working with the Creative Writing programme there to develop a range of postgraduate creative writing courses. Professor Mort's 'Taking Liberties' writing project, which explores personal, social and political liberty through creative writing practice, had its origins in Uganda in 2001 and has continued through subsequent writing and radio projects in Africa and Kurdistan. "At its heart is the relationship between the political concept of liberty and our sense of personal freedom," explains Professor Mort.