Lindie Koorts is a historian and biographer, who is fascinated by the ability of individuals to shape their environment. I completed my MA in Historical Studies (cum laude) at the University of Johannesburg in 2005, and received my DPhil in History from the University of Stellenbosch in 2010. My postgraduate research focused on DF Malan, the first of the apartheid prime ministers. As part of my studies, I spent a year at the University of Groningen’s Institute for Biography.
In 2014, I published a biography of Malan, in both English and Afrikaans, entitled DF Malan and the Rise of Afrikaner Nationalism and DF Malan en die opkoms van Afrikaner-nasionalisme. It was the first full-length biography of an apartheid prime minister to be published after 1994. The two books were shortlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award and the KykNET-Rapport Prys vir Nie-Fiksie respectively. This exposure gave me access to a wider, non-academic readership. I am a strong believer in public engagement, and making history accessible to a wider audience. For this reason, I regularly participate in public debates, and I write a bi-weekly column for the Afrikaans daily newspapers.
I am currently a Senior Lecturer in the University of the Free State’s International Studies Group, which is a specialist history unit. My research focuses on Paul Kruger’s Transvaal, and in particular the relationship between capital and the state in a society undergoing rapid modernisation, all within the context of globalisation.