RN (Robyn) Murning

Biography

Robyn Murning is a PhD candidate and lecturer in the Department of History. Her research sits at the intersection of memory studies, post-conflict trauma, and generational identity, 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 History and English Language & Literature from the University of Cape Town in 2019, where she graduated with distinction. She completed her MA in Global History and International Relations at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2022, graduating cum laude.