The Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship extends our congratulations to Professor Peter Vale, who the Royal Society of South Africa awarded the 2025 Marloth Medal. Professor Vale is a senior research fellow at the Centre at the University of Pretoria. 

The citation from the Society reads: "In a five-decade career, he has significantly contributed to Political Science, International Relations, Social Theory and African Studies. He has been one of the leading scholars on peoples-centred approaches to security, especially in southern Africa. He was one of the early voices calling for decolonisation of International Relations, and his works on decolonisation have engineered a significant shift in disciplinary thinking. His contribution, however, reaches beyond ideas – he is a pioneer institution builder, the most recent of which is the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study."

Responding to this award, Professor Vale commented: 

I am honoured to receive the Marloth Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa. This recognition is a personal milestone, sure, but scholarship, like life, is lived in the community. So, the award recognises the collective efforts of the many outstanding scholars, students, and institutions I have worked with in this country and beyond its borders.

Career Overview

Professor Vale read for a Bachelor of Arts and an honours degree in international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. After starting his career in financial journalism, he moved into academia. He joined the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in 1973 and later worked as a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the United Kingdom (1978-1979). He then completed his Master of Arts in comparative politics at Leicester University, United Kingdom, followed by a PhD from the same institution in 1981. In addition to being the founding director of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), Professor Vale was the acting Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape, the Director of Research at SAIIA, the Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University, and the Co-Director (with Rob Davies) of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape. He has served as UNESCO Professor of African Studies at Utrecht University, Professor of Politics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a member of the Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, and a Fellow of the World Academy for Arts and Science. He was elected to the African Academy of Science in 2015. Professor Vale has also published extensively throughout his career and is the author or co-author of numerous books, booklets, academic chapters, journal articles, and other popular media articles. His most recent publication is "State Capture in South Africa: How and Why It Happened" (Wits University Press, 2023), which he co-edited with Mbongiseni Buthelezi. These appointments, achievements and accolades are a snapshot of countless more accomplishments in a career spanning 62 years. 

At the University of Pretoria and the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, Professor Vale has continued to further scholarship in political science and international relations, as evident in the publication of several co-authored and edited volumes since 2019, his energetic participation in the public debate in South Africa and abroad, and his engagement in and contributions to various seminars and public discussions at the Centre over the years. 

The Royal Society of South Africa

The Royal Society of South Africa is the country's premier multi-disciplinary scientific organisation, founded in 1908. The Society's mission is to foster a national culture of science excellence, to provide a public face to South African science, and to recognise and reward eminent scientists displaying excellence in research and scholarship. The Marloth Medal is awarded annually as part of the latter component of the Society's mission, with the first medal conferred in 2018. 

The Marloth Medal was instituted to emphasise and celebrate the contributions of chemist and botanist Professor Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth (1855-1931) and his son, Dr Raimund Hilmar Marloth. Both men were Fellows of the Society, and their generous contributions to the Society have ensured its longevity. In selecting the recipient, the Society identifies "an individual deemed to have had a highly distinguished career and to have made a significant contribution to advancing his or her discipline through writings, service to science, nurturing younger professionals and fostering the public understanding of science". 

At the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, Professor Vale is one of three research fellows nominated and elected as Fellows of the RSSAf, along with Professor Robin Crewe and Professor Charles van Onselen.