Martin Hall (born in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

) is a British-South African academic and educationalist who has written extensively on South African history, culture and higher education policy. He is a former Vice Chancellor of the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

and is currently serving as the acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC): Transformation at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

Early life

Hall studied at Chichester High School For Boys, one of the two state schools in the United Kingdom at the time that prepared students for

Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to d ...

admission. He was the first in his family to complete university. He completed his bachelor's degree in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1974.

Early career

He worked firstly in

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked as an enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest mountains in Southern Africa. It has an area of over and has a populatio ...

in the area of archaeological excavation and then in London for the Southwark Archaeological Rescue Unit. He moved to South Africa in 1975 where he worked for five years as an ethnoarchaeologist in the Natal Museum in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

. He completed his doctoral studies at Cambridge in 1980 and moved to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

in the same year. He then became Chief Professional Officer for the Department of Archaeology at the South African Museum.

University of Cape Town

He joined the

Department of Archaeology in 1983 and was promoted from Associate Professor to Professor of Historical Archaeology, becoming in due course the head of department. In 1983 he became Director of the Centre for African Studies He was Director of the Multimedia Education Group from 1997–2001 at UCT. In 1998, he was appointed as a Fellow of the University of Cape Town, and the following year became the inaugural Dean of the Higher Education Development Unit, charged with coordinating support for students from underprivileged backgrounds. In 1999 he was appointed as President of the World Archaeological Congress and also served as General Secretary of the South African Archaeological Society. In 2002 he was promoted to deputy vice-chancellor and held this position for six years with responsibilities for strategic, academic and budget planning. He stepped down from this position at the end of August 2008 to take up a position at the Graduate School of Business. He is a fellow of the

Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...

. He is part of Flooved advisory board. He was appointed as the acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC): Transformation at the

after Loretta Ferris decided not to stand for another term.

University of Salford

Short-listed for the position of Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Ahmherst, Hall was however unsuccessful. He was to be appointed a few months later, in October 2008, as the next vice-chancellor. He arrived at Salford in April 2009 as vice-chancellor designate and officially took up the post on 1 August 2009. Hall stated in June 2013 that Salford had had "too aggressive an industrial-relations stance in previous years."

Personal life

Hall holds joint British and South African citizenship. His wife, Professor Brenda Cooper, is an academic specialising in post-colonial and African literature. They have three children.

References

Publications

*Hall, Martin 2000. "Archaeology and the Modern World: Colonial Transcripts in South Africa and the Chesapeake“ London: Routledge *Hall, Martin 2009. "Nothing is different but everything’s changed". In The Next Twenty Five Years? Affirmative Action and Higher Education in the United States and South Africa. *Edited by Martin Hall, Marvin Krislov and David L. Featherman. University of Michigan Press. *Hall, Martin 2009. "New knowledge and the university". ''Anthropology Southern Africa'', 32 (1 and 2): 69–86. *Hall, Martin. 1987. ''Farmers, Kings, and Traders: The People of Southern Africa,'' ''200-1860''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Martin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academics of the University of Salford British expatriates in South Africa South African archaeologists South African educational theorists University of Cape Town academics Vice-Chancellors of the University of Salford Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa Alumni of the University of Cambridge People from Guildford