Dear Humanities Colleagues

I am very pleased to see that a number of colleagues have appeared on various platforms this week. Our latest list of highlights feature: 

• Prof Tawana Kupe who was appointed to Association of Commonwealth Universities’ Council as a member and a trustee also wrote an article on how “COVID-19 has highlighted the need for universities to constantly and rapidly evolve”
• Roland Henwood (Political Sciences) was interviewed on Pretoria FM discussing the launch of Action SA, the outcome of the ANC NEC meeting, and former President Zuma’s appearance at the Zondo commission, on RSGdiscussing the mass protests against the president of Belarus and the political implications of a 53% unemployment rate in SA and on SAFM with the World View update discussing Brazil’s handling of COVID-19
• Department of Historical & Heritage Studies hosted its first Virtual Awards Ceremony to see a list of achievers please click here. The UP Archives prize was also awarded at this ceremony, to see more information on the winners please click here
• UP Campus Tours and the admirable work of Danolien van den Berg and Steven Moteno (Historical & Heritage Studies) with UP Museums was celebrated in the UP Museums’ 2^nd Newsletter. Also covered in this publication is the art conservation work done by Salome le Roux of the Tangible Heritage Conservation programme.
• Christopher Till (Javett Art Centre) was interviewed on Jenny Crwys-Williams’ KayaFM show discussing the Javett Art Centre and the Mapungubwe gold exhibition
•  Theo van Wyk (School of the Arts) published an article in The Daily Maverick “On ‘corona’, dissonance and politics: It’s all in the pipe organ”
• Nyambeni Matamela (Psychology) published an opinion article stating that “Preventing Suicide has to start with destigmatising the act of seeking support”. The article appeared in the Tukkievaria and on Health24
•  Bronwyn Strydom (UP Archives) wrote the article “’A rapid recovery we wish to them all’ UP Archives looks back at how the Spanish Flu of 1918 affected student life” published on the UP website 

On academic platforms please see:

• Alf Nilsen’s (Sociology) published his latest article titled “Give James Ferguson a Fish” in Development and Change
• Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu (Archaeology & Anthropology) presented at a webinar session that discussed “Managing the Past: Critical review of South African heritage legislation” hosted by PalaeoTalks
• Francois Steyn (Social Work & Criminology) presented a paper on “The meaning of blood: an exploration among crime scene examiners” at the 20th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology
• Lufuno Sadiki’s (Social Work & Criminology) paper entitled “Building bridges between European and African Criminology” was also presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology

I would also like to congratulate Jacomien van Niekerk’s (Afrikaans) and Emeritus Professor Rosemary Gray (English) for being awarded the Thomas Pringle Award for best Literary Article by the English Academy of Southern Africa and Unocebo Bucibo (Archaeology & Anthropology) for being nominated as one of the M&G’s 200 Young South Africans.

Please remember that the following events are scheduled:

• The Unit for Academic Literacy’s competition celebrating World Literacy Day runs from 8-24 September 2020. Please see the details of the competition here and be part of their campaign!
• The Department of Political Sciences is hosting a panel discussion on The Decolonisation of Universities in the era of COVID-19 featuring Prof Tawana Kupe, Prof ‘Funmi Olonisakin (Kings College, London), Prof Kiven James Kewir (African Leadership Centre Nairobi and University of Yaoundé, Cameroon) and Prof Maxi Schoeman. To RSVP please click here.