Dear Humanities Colleagues

Faculty Achievements!

• Bibi Burger (Afrikaans) has been selected as a STIAS Iso Lomso Fellowship for her project The whiteness of Afrikaans literary feminism. 

Appearances on Media Platforms

• Roland Henwood (Political Science) has given several interviews on:
  • RSG about the implications of the recent by-election results, how political parties will campaign ahead of the local government elections (interview continues here and here), about the Syrian elections and Joe Biden’s Administration's decision to probe origins of coronavirus
  • SAFM on the actions taken by Belarus to ground a Ryanair flight
  • Pretoria FM about the potential impact of the recent by-elections, the results of these by-elections and the growth of the Patriotic Alliance and the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle
  • He was also interviewed by Brian Sokutu for articles that appeared in The Citizen on whether Mkhize is ready to defect yet and if the doctor is out?
• Maggi Loubser (School of the Arts) delivered the following lectures:
  • “Why conservation should be a part of any heritage management programme” at the virtual UTP-University of Pretoria: Seminars on Culture and Culture Management
  • “Critical elements of effective conservation management in museums operating in Africa & UP MA Programme in Tangible Heritage Conservation” together with Davison Chirwa at the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage The Directors’ Forum
• Nhlanhla Mnisi (African Languages) hosted a virtual seminar on Translating Citizen Science Tools: Potential, Challenges and Future Directions
• Oscar Eybers (Unit for Academic Literacy) presented the paper Intersections of Decolonial and Global Citizenship Principles in Academic Literacy Curricula at the 21^st International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities & Nations
• Henning Melber (Political Sciences) and Reinhart Kossler published the article Namibian genocide: why Germany’s bid to make amends isn’t enough In The Conversation (article is also available in French). He also spoke about this topic on Smile 90.4FM. 
• Jarred Martin (Psychology) presented a paper on The slowtime of intimacy and the interim act of slowtime in gay men’s anal fisting, at the British Psychological Society’s Psychology of Sexualities Section Annual Conference
• Christopher Isike (Political Sciences) was interviewed on:
  • Newzroom Africa on the Significance of the Pan-African Parliament 
  • Shafiq Morton on Voice of the Cape (91.3 FM) about the botched Pan-African Parliament elections
• Hein Willemse (Afrikaans) commented on the German governments recent decision to recognise the mass killing of Hereros and Namas in his column on Netwerk24
• Anke Nel (Political Science) published an opinion piece on World Environment Day that appeared on News24
• Bibi Burger (Afrikaans) published a book review on Dol Heuning by S.J. Naudè for Letterkunde
• Benda Hofmeyr spoke to Dr Eugene Viljoen on Wat het met ons gebeur sedert die begin van die pandemie for the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns
• Thaddeus Metz (Philosophy) presented at:
  • Roundtable on Pedagogy: Research and Practice in Philosophy of Religion as part of the Closing Session of the 9th International Conference on Contemporary Philosophy of Religion hosted by Iranian Association for Philosophy of Religion
  • Three Conceptions of Harmony in the Global South as part of the South-South Intellectual Meeting hosted by the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
• Edwin Smith (Historical & Heritage Studies) has published the book review Bigger than Sharpville: Story of South Africa’s worst apartheid-era massacre retold in the Mail & Guardian
• Leon Mwamba Tshimpaka (Political Sciences) presented the paper Civil Society and the African Continental Free Trade Area: Spectators or actors in African integration? at the Canadian Association of African Studies Conference
• Chris Nshimbi (Political Sciences) presented the paper Of ‘pieces of cake’ and ‘elephants in the room’: Migration in Africa’s continental integration project at the Canadian Association of African Studies Conference
• Christopher Isike (Political Sciences) delivered a keynote: Covid-19 and the decline of the social state in Nigeria’s federal democracy at the 33rd National Conference of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA).
• Christopher Isike (Political Sciences) with Noran Atteya (doctoral candidate) presented a paper titled Islamic Feminism and Peace Building: A Way Forward for Women’s Participation? in Panel 7of the Womandla Online Seminar Series on Feminism and Social Movements in the Global South
• Vusi Thebe (Archaeology & Anthropology) presented his Inaugural Lecture on the topic Former Migrant Labour Societies and Questions of Transformation in Contemporary Southern Africa

Publications on academic platforms

• Precious Baison (Sociology) published the article ‘Recruitment’ and job-seeking mechanisms for Zimbabwean women care workers in the domestic services sector in South Africa’ in the African Human Mobility Review
• Christopher Nshimbi (Political Sciences) published the chapter Towards a Single African Economic Space: Informal Cross-border trade and the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area in the book Regionalism, Security and Development in Africa
• Jarred Martin (Psychology) together with Charles Van Wijk published the article Promoting psychological adaptation among navy sailors in the journal Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies. 
• Nerina Bosman (Afrikaans) and Elsabé Taljard (African languages) published an article A Cross-Linguistic Study of BLOOD Metaphors in Afrikaans and Northern Sotho in Language Matters
• Tim Forssman (Anthropology & Archaeology) published the paper An archaeological contribution to the Kalahari Debate from the middle Limpopo Valley, southern Africa in the Journal of Archaeological Research
• Rory du Plessis (School of the Arts) has published: 
  • The book chapter ‘Tells his Story Quite Rationally and Collectedly’: Examining the Casebooks of the Grahamstown Lunatic Asylum, 1890-1910, for Cases of Delusion Where Patients Voiced their Life Stories in the book Voices in the History of Madness
  • The article Post-Apartheid Same-Sex Sexualities: Restless Identities in Literary and Visual Culture in Communicatio
• Alf Gunvald Nilsen (Sociology) published and article India’s pandemic: spectacle, social murder and authoritarian politics in a lockdown nation in Globalizations
• Thaddeus Metz published a number of articles and book chapters recently:
  • A Relational Theory of Mental Illness – Lacking Identity and Solidarity with Others in Synthesis Philosophica
  • What Does an African Ethic of Social Cohesion Entail for Social Distancing? in Developing World Bioethics
  • The Need for Others in Public Policy: An African Approach in The African Political Philosophy of Need
  • African Reasons Why AI Should Not Maximize Utility in African Values, Ethics, and Technology 
  • Life Worth Living in Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research
• Tilman Dedering (Historical and Heritage Studies) published South Africa’s Secret Chemical Weapons Project, 1933-1945 for The International History Review

Scheduled Events

1. UP Archives is running the Recollecting COVID-19 – 365 days under lockdown competition. Entries can be submitted to UP Archives with your name, student / personnel number, degree / faculty / support service department and contact details. 

2. Department of Sociology is hosting a seminar on the topic Non-trans/cisgender men’s desires for gestational pregnancy and/or parenthood: Postdoctoral research-in-progress to be presented by Jabulile Mavuso on 17 June 2021 between 11:00-12:30. Click here to join the seminar.

3. UP Campus Tours is inviting everyone to book a tour to experience the campus as you have never known it before. You can view the advert here or email [email protected]m.

4. Tangible Heritage Conservation programme (School of the Arts) will host the Global Consortium for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage’s annual meeting between 28-29 October 2021.

5. You are invited to participate in an academic research study conducted by Nochundré Parker, a masters student from the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Pretoria. Please click here to complete the survey. 

My congratulations to all our colleagues!