Abridged Résumé

Dr Denis Venter obtained BA (Hons) and MA degrees in political science from the University of Pretoria, and a DLitt et Phil degree in political science from the University of South Africa, Pretoria. He lectured in the Department of Political Science and International Politics at the University of Pretoria (1970-75), and was Assistant Director and Editor of International Affairs Bulletin at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in Johannesburg (1976-77). Between 1978 and 1999 he held the positions of Chief Researcher in Politics and International Relations, Head: Academic Programmes and, finally, Executive Director at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria. Also, during this time, he was the founder-editor (1981-90) of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, a member of the management committee (1993-95) of the Consortium of Human Sciences Societies of Southern Africa (CoHSSSA), the founder and first President (1991-95) of the African Studies Association of South Africa (ASASA), and held visiting professor and research fellowships at African studies centres in Bordeaux (France, 1991 and 1994), Leiden (The Netherlands, 1996), and Mumbai (India, 1998).

He was a Council Member of the South African Political Studies Association (SAPSA) from 1983 to 1989, served on the National Executive Council of SAIIA from 1971 to 1995 and was, for many years, a member of the African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK), of the Royal African Society (RAS), and of the African Studies Association (ASA) in the US. He is an Associate Consultant to S.K.B. Asante International Consultancy Services, Accra, Ghana; a Lister Member of the African Civilian Standby Roster for Humanitarian and Peace-Building Missions (AFDEM), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; and the holder of a Certificate on Election Observation from the Pretoria Good Governance Academy, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria.

Since July 1999 he runs a political and economic risk analysis unit, Africa Consultancy & Research (Africore), as well as Africore Editing Services, a unit that does editing work for mainly academic clients. For a decade (1995-2005) he served as Vice-Chairman of the International African Institute (IAI) based in London. From August 2010 to June 2011 he was the Nelson Mandela Chair Professor in the Centre for African Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and also served (2010-2013) as Co-Editor of Africa Review (the academic journal of the African Studies Association of India -- ASA India) and Consulting Editor of Diaspora Studies (the academic journal of the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives -- ODI), both based in New Delhi. In August 2012 he was appointed Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and Governance at the University of Johannesburg, and since March 2013 he is also a Research Associate in the Department of Political Studies and Governance, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. From 2013 to 2016, he was involved with what was initially Higher Education South Africa (HESA), now Universities South Africa (USAf), serving as editing consultant for their in-house, quarterly electronic and ad hoc, printed publications. Since September 2014 he has been working as a classifier at the Film and Publication Board (FPB) in Centurion, and in 2016 he was appointed to the Academic Council, Higher Certificate Administration at the Centurion Academy, Centurion.

Dr Venter edits post-graduate dissertations, doctoral theses, and articles for publication in academic journals. To mention just two:

In addition, he has done editing and translation work on film scripts and production notes for a film studio, as well as the re-writing and editing of a full-length book text.

In a career spanning more than four decades, Dr Venter had the opportunity to fine-tune and hone his analytical skills. He also developed good facilitation and people-management skills, being employed in senior institutional management and programme-management positions. In many academically-orientated professional societies and community-based associations he served at the governing level (board, council, executive committee). As a researcher, he worked mainly in the fields of political science and international relations and built up a high level of expertise in African area studies, in the process developing excellent report-writing and editing skills. He has written numerous scholarly articles and book contributions, the more important ones since 2000 being: