Biography
Robyn Murning is a PhD candidate and lecturer in the Department of History. Her research sits at the intersection of memory studies, post-colonialism, and generation studies, with a regional focus on post-apartheid South Africa.
Her doctoral project – provisionally titled “We feel the agony of apartheid, but we don’t know why: Memory and identity of South Africa’s ‘born free’ generation" – explores how the memory and legacy of apartheid continue to shape the identities of South Africa’s first post-apartheid generation. Drawing on theories of post-colonial memory, cultural trauma, and generationality, her work considers how inherited histories are processed, narrated, and lived by those who did not directly experience them.
Robyn holds a BA in Historical Studies and English Language & Literature from the University of Cape Town, where she graduated with distinction in 2019. She completed her MA in Global History and International Relations at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2022, graduating cum laude.
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- murning@eshcc.eur.nl
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- murning@eshcc.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Robyn Murning & Robbert-Jan Adriaansen (2023) - Paradoxical legacies and unattainable futures: South Africa’s national self-narrative and the haunting of gender-based violence in the post-transitional era - Southern Journal for Contemporary History, 48 (2), 113–139 - doi: 10.38140/sjch.v48i2.7062 - [link]
- Robyn Murning (2025) - The long shadow of apartheid: Memory experiences of South Africa's 'born free' generation (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Robyn Murning (2024) - ‘Multiethnic Belonging, Identity and Memory: Conceptualising ‘Born Free’ Generationality in Post-Apartheid South Africa’ (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Robyn Murning (2024) - The Shadows of Apartheid: The generational identity experiences of South Africa’s ‘born free’ generation (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic