LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Laredo South African Archive

John Laredo (1932-2000) was a South African-born academic, who undertook anthropological fieldwork among Zulu-speaking Nguni in the Shongweni, Ndwedwe and Inanda areas. He acted against the apartheid regime, as a result of which he was jailed and the subject of a banning order. This meant he could not publish or submit his thesis in South Africa. Laredo moved to England in 1969 on his release from prison, and in 1972 joined the teaching staff at the University of Bradford, where he remained until his retirement. The Laredo South African Archive includes his field research, his thesis, material relating to his academic career and also forms a resource for the study of South African history.

Joel Martin Halpern Balkan Archive

Dr Joel M. Halpern, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, has researched and published widely on the cultural anthropology of the Balkan region. He is perhaps best known for his studies of the effects of modernisation on family and everyday life in the Serbian village Oraŝac, based on material collected by Dr Halpern and his wife Barbara Kerewsky Halpern, during field work in 1953-4 and subsequent visits. The Joel Martin Halpern Balkan Archive consists of photocopies of their field notes. This is supplemented by the many photographs Dr Halpern took of Yugoslavia during his research, made available to the Library in digitised form on CDs. Besides documenting the diverse scenery of the region, the photographs vividly illustrate the lives and customs of the people, their agriculture, homes and festivals.