Dear Humanities Colleagues

Faculty Achievements!

• Congratulations to the Library for winning the #Give70for70 Exclusive Books competition. Thanks to the support our Faculty’s staff and students gave this drive, the Book Nook will soon have 70 new titles for us to enjoy!  

Appearances on Media Platforms

• Debby Bonnin (Sociology) presented a paper titled ‘’Reflections on Women and Political Violence in KwaZulu-Natal’’ at the virtual colloquium S’obashaya Ngamatye: Women and 60 years of the armed struggle in South Africa. The colloquium was organised by the Political and International Studies Department (Rhodes University), Centre for Women and Gender Studies (Nelson Mandela University)Historical Studies Department (University of Cape Town) and was broadcast on DSTV Channel 408
• Esedra Krüger (Speech-Language Pathology) was interviewed by the Blissful Cleft Foundation to talk about speech therapy and babies with cleft lips and palates for the Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness Month in July.
• Maggi Loubster (School of the Arts):
  • Presented a paper at the Cultural Heritage session titled ‘’Use of Handheld XRF to Identify Foundries used by the Sculptor Anton van Wouw (1862-1945)’’ at the Denver X-ray Conference
  • Interviewed on "Die Michelangelos is smerig, stuur die goggas in" on RSG
• Isabelle McGinn (School of the Arts) and Jordan Saltzman published an article titled ‘’LIKE A SIGNAL THROUGH THE YEARS: Digitising the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre collection’’. The article describes the internship our students did at the end of 2020 at the Centre.
• Mabafokeng Hoene (School of the Arts) presented her dissertation titled ‘’Decolonizing African Museums: Reimagining the Curation and Conservation of Sacred/Spiritual African Artefacts in Museum Collections’’ at the Moving the Centre Conference organised by the University of Glasgow. 
• Roland Henwood (Political Science) was interviewed on:
  • RSG where he spoke about the latest fight between the US and Russia over cyberattacks against US companies; if Jacob Zuma`s defence strategy could cause more tensions; and, the criticisms of Australia`s First Minister, Scot Morrison, and the slow rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine
  • PretoriaFM he discussed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address announcing amendments to the COVID-19 lockdown level as well as the civil unrest seen in Gauteng and KZN;  the special rules related to travel for senior politicians that has been published in the State Gazette and the limitations of these special rules; the ANC MKMVA`s involvement with the civil unrest in Gauteng and KZN and the allegations that ANC members are behind this unrest; and, former Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke’s recommendations that the local government elections be postponed to no later than February 2022 
  • Kyknet to debate the quality of political oversight in South Africa, COVID-19, and the Zondo Commission
  • SAfm to talk about the record-breaking floods across Germany and Belgium 
• Refilwe Ramagoshi (African Languages) was interviewed by PowerFM every Wednesday between July and August to talk about the importance of mother-tongue education: Setswana. Click here to listen to the podcast, here, and here.
• Willie Burger (Afrikaans) wrote the review article “Anna M Louw. Fassinerende, veelkantige skrywer: ’n resensie” for Litnet
• Hein Willemse (Afrikaans) wrote:
  • An essay titled Kuba: ’n tyd vir nuwe idees? on Litnet
  • The articles “What het regtig in Julie gebeur?” and “Stadig met lof vir taxibedryf” for Netwerk24 
• Abdi Samatar (Political Sciences) wrote an opinion piece ‘’A letter from Mogadishu: The unrest in SA should be a wake-up call’’ on News24
• Benda Hofmeyr featured on:
  • "Spreekkamer" on Kyknet and discussed the role and importance of having a personal philosophy today
  • Presented a paper title ‘’Whence the Western Superiority Complex? Revisiting 'the Other Question'’’ at the International Philosophical Conference on The Desuperiorization of Philosophy and the Foundation of Superaltern Studies
• Lloyd Brown (Political Sciences) commemorated International Friendship Day with the article “Spending Friendship Day Alone…”. It was also featured on IOL platform and in community newspapers in the Western Cape, which can be accessed here, here, and here.
• Palesa Mbonde (Political Sciences) wrote an article titled ‘’Psychology alumni fly the UP flag high’’ for the Faculty’s website
• Francois Gilles de Pelichy (Political Sciences) published an opinion piece on News24 on The Call for a New Social Contract for Indigenous People
• Sinead Page (School of the Arts) published an article titled ‘’Open doors - The Department of Visual Arts goes beyond education’’ in the postgraduate  Alternate Horizons Platform 
• UPCT (Historical & Heritage Studies) celebrated women of UP with a virtual tour on Women's Day.
• Anke Nel & Andrea du Toit (Political Sciences) co-authored an article titled ‘’Nelson Mandela Day — an opportunity to make a difference together’’ on the Faculty’s website
• Five postgraduate students (Political Sciences) wrote tributes to commemorate Women’s Day on our Faculty website. Their tributes celebrated their role models, women who play an exceptional role in society. 
• Jonathan Chimakonam Okeke (Philosophy) published a blog article in commemoration of Women’s Day, titled "How Should I Raise my Mànàrị? Ruminations of an Agonized Father" (dedicated to the girl-child in Africa) 

Publications on academic platforms

• Antoinette Lombard (Social Work & Criminology) contributed to the book “Wildfires’’ published by the COPE Foundation
• Tadiwa Chikengezha and Vusi Thebe (Anthropology & Archaeology) published an article titled ‘’Living on the Periphery and Challenges of Mobility: a Tale of Transport‑Induced Social Exclusion in Southlea Park, Harare, Zimbabwe’’ in Urban Forum
• Benda Hofmeyr published the following:
  • A chapter on "The Strange Face and Form of the Stranger in Levinas", in the book The Stranger in Early Modern and Modern Jewish Tradition which was edited by C Barlett
  • The chapter ‘’An Untimely Meditation on a Time Out of Sync’’ in the book Decolonising the Neoliberal University: Law, Psychoanalysis and the Politics of Student Protest edited by J. Barnard-Naude 
  • An article titled ‘’The Relation Between Work and Thumos. A Critical Interrogation of the Motivation behind Knowledge Work Compulsion’’ in Filosofija Sociologija
• Jarred Martin (Psychology) published the article ‘’Exploring the affective atmospheres of the threat of sexual violence in minibus taxis: the experiences of women commuters in South Africa’’ in Mobilities
• Brooks Marmon (Historical & Heritage Studies) published the article ‘’Operation Refugee: the Congo Crisis and the end of humanitarian imperialism in Southern Rhodesia, 1960’’ in Cold War History
• Cobus van Staden & Yu Shan Wu (Political Sciences) published an occasional paper titled ‘’Vaccine Diplomacy and Beyond: New Trends in Chinese Image-Building in Africa’’ for the South African Institute of International Affairs
• Jonathan Chimakonam Okeke and Uchenna Ogbonnaya (Philosophy) published the chapter "Environmental Thinking in African Philosophy: A Defence of Biocentrism using the notion of Nma Ndu" in Global Epistemologies and Philosophies of Science Edited By David Ludwig , Inkeri Koskinen , Zinhle Mncube , Luana Poliseli , Luis Reyes-Galindo.

Scheduled Events 

• Prof Tawana Kupe’s Inaugural Lecture will be held virtually on 19 August 2021 from 18h00-19h00, you can RSVP here
• Call for Papers for the virtual conference on Critical Food Studies: South Africa and Beyond 17 -19 November 2021. To submit an abstract please click here or visit this website
• CSA&G invites you to attend:
  • A seminar on Tuesday, 17 August 2021 from 15:00 – 16:30 CAT addressing Gender-Based Violence in the Eastern Cape: Reflections on Community Education and Mobilisation. Arranged with SONKE Gender Justice, you can RSVP to Gabriela Pinheiro at [email protected] and  receive the link.
  • An online launch of a new Exclusion, objectification, exploitation: gender, sexuality and climate change information services by Dina Lupin Townsend on Thursday, 19 August 2021 from 16:00 to 17:00. You can RSVP to Gabriela Pinheiro at [email protected] and receive the link.
• #ChooseUP event will be held virtually this year on 4 September 2021
• 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.

My congratulations to all our colleagues!