Welcome Back Humanities Colleagues!

 

The past year has been difficult one for everyone and our heartfelt condolences go to those colleagues who have lost loved ones. I do expect 2021 will have its own challenges but I am confident that together we will make it through this period and have another successful year. 

 

Congratulations Colleagues! 

 

I would like to start by recognising the distinguishing achievements of:

 

 • Faheema Mahomed Asmail (Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology) for being selected as one of three UP candidates to join the DHET’s Future Professors Programme this year

 • Mmatshilo Motsei (Sociology) for being awarded an honorary doctorate in community psychology by the University of Zululand. You can read more about it in on the Tukkievaria

 • Several of our colleagues have also been nominated for the NIHSS 2021 HSS Awards:

 • Mpume Zondi (African Languages) for the Best Non-fiction Monograph for her book Bahlabelelelani! Why Do They Sing? Gender and Power in Contemporary Women’s Songs

 • Detlev Krige (Archaeology & Anthropology) for his Digital Humanities work titled Activated: The Social Life of Waste/Art

 • Karli Brittz (School of the Arts) for her Digital Humanities work titled Insta-dog: Computing Instagram’s companion Species

 

Appearances on Media Platforms

 

 • Prof Tawana Kupe published an opinion piece on The Age of Disruption: Lessons from the US for South Africa on News24 and on the UP Website  

 • Sandy Africa (Political Sciences) was interviewed on PowerFM discussing how the intelligence community can detect and avoid terrorist attacks and on the intelligence failures in the US and Mozambique

 • Roland Henwood (Political Sciences) has had several interviews on:

 • RSG, he discussed Morocco and its ties to the USA as well as its new map, the Brexit agreement between the EU and UK, comments made by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Chinese journalist who was jailed for critiquing the COVID-19 outbreak is Wuhan, President Ramaphosa’s performance goals for his cabinet, and commented on Beijing’s tariffs on Australian Hops

 • SAFM he commented on the coronavirus restrictions put in place by the Netherlands, the women and children that have been repatriated to Germany and Finland from Syria, and the journalist who was jailed in China’s recent crackdown

 • Pretoria FM he highlighted some key political events in 2020

 • RadioPretoria he discussed the Coronavirus Command Council meetings

 • Kyknet he outlined the implications of the violent attacks on the US Capitol building that resulted in the deaths of 5 people

 • Tim Forssman (Archaeology & Anthropology) was interviewed by High School History Recap about Archaeology and Early South African History and on unpacking stereotypes of southern African hunter-gatherers through archaeology and decolonising perspectives

 • Henning Melber (Political Sciences) wrote an article for The Conversation titled Namibia: elections, Swapo in crisis?

 • Jonathan Okeke’s (Philosophy) interview on African Philosophy and the 2020 UNESCO World Philosophy Daywas published on The Conversation

 • Maggi Loubser (School of the Arts) published an article in The Geode, the Minsa Newsletter titled “Representative Sampling – Why and How. A look at the need and the available resources”

 • Charne Lavery (English) co-wrote an article on the Indian Ocean as an archive for approaching the history of the world for The Conversation

 • Debjyoti Ghosh (Sociology) published an editorial, “Theme for a dream in 2021” for Vartagensex on food insecurity for transgender people during the pandemic. He also moderated a programme on transgender rights in South Asia

 • Pineteh Angu (Unit of Academic Literacy) presented a paper, “Living on the fringes of life and death: Somali migrants, risky entrepreneurship and xenophobia in Cape Town, South Africa” at a virtual conference hosted by the University of Helsinki, Finland 

 

Publications on academic platforms:

 

 • Chris Nshimbi co-edited the book, “Expanding Boundaries: Borders, Mobilities and the Future of Europe-Africa Relations” recently published by Routledge: London

 • Cas Prinsloo (Javett-UP) has published an article, “In the footsteps of famous family forebears to a respected polymath through moral courage” in the South African Journal of Science

 • A book review by Iris Guillemard on Tim Forssman’s (Archaeology) book, “Foragers in the middle Limpopo Valley: trade, place-making, and social complexity” has been published in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

 

Scheduled Events:

 

The UP Library has recently acquired the following newspapers from Newsbank and is hosting an information session and demonstration of this service. The demonstration will take place on the 8 February 2021 at 14:30. To attend this virtual demonstration, please click here to register. For further enquiries, please contact Michelle Leon from Newsbank at [email protected].