New appointments
The Faculty would like to welcome the following staff members:

Prof Bart Vinck, Professor and Head, Communication Pathology - also see article
Prof Andries Visagie, Professor, Afrikaans
Prof Sakhela Buhlungu, Professor, Sociology
Dr Frazier McNeill, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology and Archaeology
Dr Dorette Vermeulen, Lecturer, Music, who will be transferred from the Faculty of Education from 1 Feb 2011
Ms Evelyn Nagel, Lecturer, Psychology, transferred from Student Affairs

Best wishes to staff leaving UP's employ
The Faculty's best wishes accompany the following staff members who are leaving, or have already left, the employ of UP:

Resignations
Ms Lettie Kleyn (Afrikaans) who joined the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature at UNISA in January
Ms Donsie Wessels (Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences), and
Mr Lawrence Thotse (Historical and Heritage Studies) who will be leaving UP at the end of January

Retirements
Ms June Theron (Music) and
Dr Maurice Aronstam (Psychology) who retired at the end of December 2010 

Prof Maria Marchetti-Mercer, HOD of Psychology, wrote the following:
I would like to extend my deepest thanks for his life long commitment to the discipline of Psychology. Maurice joined the department in 1975 as a junior lecturer and over the years has made a number of important contributions to the functioning and development of the department.

He has been actively involved in the training of professional psychologists and has supervised a number of Master and PhD students.

Maurice excelled in training students in group processes, psychodiagnostics and gestalt therapy but will be most remembered for his work on the Rorschach. Both locally and internationally Maurice supported the use and further development of the Rorschach and served as director of the South African Rorschach Institute (now the International Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy). The Institute currently provides CPD training on the Rorschach as well as various psychotherapeutic areas which is unique in South Africa. He was also responsible for beginning the South African Rorschach journal which he has edited for a number of years.

We are happy that Maurice will continue to be involved in the training of our Master students even in his retirement and share with them his very valuable knowledge and experience.
We wish Maurice and his wife Marlene a very happy retirement

With gratitude
Many thanks to  Dr Maggi Soer who acted as Head of Communication Pathology for the past 18 months until the appointment of Prof Bart Vinck. We have great appreciation for her succesful leadership.

Condolences
The Faculty extends its deepest sympathies to staff members who had lost loved ones:
Wilma Da Gama (Faculty Management) whose father passed away during December
Prof Jeanne van Eeden (Visual Arts) whose father passed away on 21 January

A tribute: Marijke Elizabeth van Vuuren
2 December 1949 - 11 December 2010

Mrs Marijke van Vuuren, a lecturer in the Department of English, died on 11 December of complications from what should have been a routine back operation.

Marijke was our much-loved colleague and teacher. She was a valued and esteemed member of the Department of English for many years; indeed, almost her entire working life was spent in the service of the University of Pretoria. She cared deeply for the department, for her students and for the teaching of English. She brought a strong ethical dimension to her work, commensurate with the qualities of integrity, compassion and concern for others which marked all her interactions and were the principles according to which she lived her life. In all that she said and did, her gentle wisdom was evident.

She also played a pivotal role in the successful introduction of Journalism at the University of Pretoria, where, amongst others, she taught courses in Media Ethics.

Marijke was completing her doctorate at the time of her death; it would have been submitted for examination this month. Her thesis deals with the ways in which possibilities of forgiveness, reconciliation and grace have been represented in post-apartheid writing. These were issues very close to her heart: for her, research was never simply an academic inquiry, but was always an outgrowth of her profound concern with morality and humaneness.

Her sudden and tragic death has been a devastating blow for us all. Even as we grieve her loss, we shall strive always to preserve the very special Legacy which she has left for us. We honour her contribution and cherish her precious memory.

The staff and students of the Department of English
 
Births
Congratulations to the following staff members:
- Ms Corena Garnas (Faculty Management) and her husband, Jeff, on the birth of their first-born, Zoey Adele, on 10 January


- Ms Nicolize Cass (Communication Pathology) and husband, Johnny, whose son, Liam, was born on 8 December
- Ms Louise Hugo (Communication Pathology) and husband, Stefan, on the birth of their son, Adriaan, on 3 January.

Congratulations and best wishes to:
Ms Talita van der Spuy (Communication Pathology) who married Gerhard le Roux and 
Ms Herna Bauling (Social Work and Criminology) who married John Hall during December.

Birthdays
Congratulations!

16 to 24 January

16 Tania Steyn
17 Prof Kammila Naidoo
17 Linda-Anne Alston
17 Carin Rankin-Fisher
18 Janus Fouche
19 Prof Marinus Schoeman
19 Micheal Mametse
19 Samantha Moolman
19 Martin Slabbert
21 Elize Zybrands
22 Dr Charlene Carbonatto
23 Ronald van der Bergh
23 Samuel Swanepoel
24 Nicola Haskins
24 Patrick Ellis
24 Anna van Zyl