Michelle Friedman

Michelle Friedman has spent much of her adult life involved with the study and teaching of History. She has taught History at secondary school level, and has lectured at the University of the Witwatersrand in the Academic Development Programme in History as well as in History Methodology for post-graduate Education students. 

She has completed a Masters Degree in History – the topic of her dissertation was “A History of Africans in Pretoria from 1850 to 1923”.

As well as teaching, Michelle has worked in a number of areas in terms of materials development. She has written a number of History textbooks for the new History curriculum in South Africa as well have as books on the History of Johannesburg and FOSATU, an important trade union federation in South Africa in the 1980s.

She has had a long association with the Apartheid Museum for whom she has curated a number of exhibitions, including  Separate but Equal: Brown vs Board and Segregation in the United States and Our Triumph and Our Tears: Women’s struggles in 20th century South Africa. She has also developed a range of educational material for the museum.

Michelle is involved in training previously disadvantaged History teachers, and has facilitated a number of training workshops sponsored by the Apartheid Museum and the South African History Archive.

She has also been the Internal Moderator for the Independent Examination Board for a number of years.