We are excited to officially announce David Reiersgord’s promotion to Center Director of IES Abroad Cape Town. David has been acting as our interim Center Director and has been part of the IES Abroad family holding multiple positions, and we are excited to bring his expertise to this important role at IES Abroad Cape Town.
Before stepping into his new position, David was the Academic Manager for IES Abroad Cape Town for nearly four years managing the academics portfolio for IES Abroad at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which includes standard, short, and customized programs. In addition, he worked closely with semester students and academic advising, UCT's international office (IAPO), IES Abroad Chicago, managed a team of university/independent faculty, as well as oversaw and coordinated new syllabus and academic program development, and other academic-related projects.
David also has experience as a lecturer. He has taught in the English and Linguistics Departments at the University of Stellenbosch, as part of the Extended Degree Programme, and worked as the Assistant Director of AIFS –Stellenbosch, with American exchange students.
His research interests are in South African politics, fiction, narrative form, narrative temporalities, non-human histories and the relationship between the individual and the nation. He writes political commentary in South Africa’s online publication Daily Maverick, and reviews books in South Africa’s print newspaper Business Day. In January 2022, David had a peer-reviewed essay published in the Journal of South African and American Studies titled “Contradictory Excessiveness: Abandoned Trolleys in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” which explores how abandoned trolleys connect wealth and waste, and link together communities that have been and still are separated by history, race, and class.
David also participated in a “Fireside Chat with Fascinating Faculty,” part of the IES Abroad Global Leadership SerIES, in honor of Nelson Mandela Day, discussing Mandela's influence through the lens of some of our courses in taught at the Cape Town Center.
He holds a Master of Arts in English Literature from Stellenbosch University, where his thesis focused on metaphors of narrative in South African author Marlene van Niekerk’s novels Triomf (1995) and Agaat (2004).
We are looking forward to hosting students in Cape Town in Summer 2022, and we are excited that David will be there to welcome students to our Center.
Join us in congratulating David and view our programs in Cape Town.
