Dear Humanities Colleagues

I would like to add my gratitude to that of the Vice Chancellor and thank each of you for all your hard work during this period. Despite the busy period, I would also like to recognise the work our colleagues have published this past week. 

 • Prof Tawana Kupe’s Mandela Day 2020 article “COVID-19 has jolted us into an acute awareness of our innate humanity and the need to care for one another” was posted on the UP website

 • Prof Norman Duncan’s article “Higher Education Post-COVID-19: ‘Online learning must remain a key component of teaching systems’” appeared in the Mail & Guardian and on the UP website

 • Alf Nilsen (Sociology) was interviewed on SAFm about “Hindu pilgrims being allowed to visit the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath during a pandemic”, and he, together with Karl von Holdt, posted “BRICS and COVID: Rising Powers in a Time of Pandemic” an introductory article to a series of short critical reviews on the politics and political economy of COVID-19 in The Wire

 • Tharina Guse (Psychology) contributed to the piece “Beheer gevoelens van angs, moedeloosheid oor virus so“ that appeared in The Beeld

 • Heather Thuynsma and Francois Gilles de Pelichy (Political Sciences) “Trust in political parties is being tested as Covid-19 infection rates surge” was published on News24 and the UP website

Colleagues have also published on academic platforms, including:

 • Sean Maliehe (Historical & Heritage Studies) and Esther Makhetha published the article “‘A concealed economy’: Artisanal diamond mining in Butha-Buthe district, Lesotho” in the journal The Extractive Industries and Society

 • Alf Nilsen (Sociology) published “Subaltern Politics in the World’s Largest democracy” in The Routledge Handbook of Transformative Global Studies and he was also interviewed for a piece on “The COVID-19 Crisis: A Moment of Truth for Inequality” for the International Affairs Forum’s The Post-Pandemic World publication

Please remember that the:

 • Flexible Futures 2020 Virtual Conference will be hosted online by the University of Pretoria on 4 August 2020 and will feature Dr Tony Bates as a keynote speaker

 • Javett UP will host an online event with Belgian-based researcher and art practitioner Gabi Ngcobo on Curation, Museum, and Art: Art of Monstrous Men on 14 August 2020 at 11:00.