In April 2026, Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) hosted Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Film, a series of public talks and classroom engagements featuring Xoliswa Sithole, a South African Peabody and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award-winning filmmaker. The series was part of IPCH’s international programming, which fosters global exchange with leading practitioners whose work advances the preservation and understanding of cultural heritage across disciplines.
Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Film
Xoliswa Sithole with students at the Yale Afro-American Cultural Center.
Xoliswa Sithole with students at the Yale Afro-American Cultural Center.
At a screening and discussion of her film exploring South African women’s protest movements, Standing On Their Shoulders, held at the Yale Afro-American Cultural Center, Sithole demonstrated how film can illuminate underrepresented narratives and include the voices that are often excluded from dominant historical records.
Pierson College
Xoliswa Sithole and Crystal Feimster at Pierson College.
Sithole’s public talks at Yale extended to a tea at Pierson College hosted by Crystal Feimster, Head of Pierson College, Associate Professor in the Departments of Black Studies, History, and the Programs of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The tea offered students and faculty an opportunity to engage more personally with Sithole, learning more about her background, artistic journey, and the experiences that shape her work.
In addition, Sithole participated in:
- Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) Film Advisor Office Hours hosted by Susan Youssef, CCAM Film Advisor.
- A Yale Film and Media Studies Class led by Thomas Allen Harris, Professor of Black Studies and Film and Media Studies.
- A panel discussion at the Yale Student Film Festival.
This program is part of IPCH’s broader mission: to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the preservation of cultural heritage and connect global leaders with the Yale community. The talks highlighted the urgency of preserving intangible heritage through accessible and impactful mediums like film. In doing so, Sithole reinforced a key insight at the heart of IPCH’s work: that preserving cultural heritage is not only about safeguarding objects, but also about documenting the narratives and voices that give those objects meaning.
The event was made possible through campus-wide collaboration, with support from The Yale Afro-American Cultural Center, Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Yale Office of Career Strategy, Yale Council on African Studies, Pierson College, Yale Women’s Center, Yale Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale African Students Association, and Yale Student Film Festival.
