Dear Humanities Colleagues

Faculty Achievements!

• Prof Tawana Kupe (Vice-Chancellor) was appointed to the Association of African Universities governing board
• Innocent Pikirayi (Dean’s Office and Anthropology & Archaeology) has been appointed to serve as a Board Member to the Springer series Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology

• Christopher Isike (Political Sciences) was awarded an IAS-UWA Visiting Fellowship to the University of Western Australia to conduct research on Mapping the contributions of the South African Diaspora in Australia to South Africa’s soft power in Africa
• Psyche Student Society (Psychology) and their 10-week podcast series on mental matters (2020) for winning the 2021 Campus Community Project Radio Award. Click here to access the podcasts.

Appearances on Media Platforms

• Prof Tawana Kupe (Vice-Chancellor and English):
  • Delivered his inaugural lecture titled New media, New society: Reimagining media in a disrupted age which was also covered in article on the UP website
  • Published an opinion article on Stereotypes of women are limiting and needs to be changed on News24
• Sandy Africa (Dean’s Office and Political Sciences) was profiled as part of the #WomenofUP series in an article Organisations should create conditions where women are listened to

• Henning Melber (Political Sciences): 
  • Interviewed by the German Goethe Institute to talk about the reconciliation agreement announced by Germany following the negotiations with the Namibian government, and the shortcomings of the negotiations
  • Published an article Myths of middle class dynamism with D+C. (The article is also available in German)

• Christopher Isike (Political Sciences) presented a departmental seminar on the topic Understanding the psychosocial causes of Gender Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa 
• Gerna Wessels (Social Work & Criminology) published an article Third-year Social work students' Ubuntu buddy-support project (MWP 361) Volume 10, the UP Unit for Community Engagement Newsletter, Lentsu La Sechaba

• Roland Henwood (Political Science) was interviewed on:
  • RSG to comment the statements by unions on the Marikana Massacre 9-years later, President Ramaphosa failing to keep his promise to meet the widows of the victims in Marikana, and how the massacre is being used as a tool to deflect guilt during the recent unrest in KZN and Gauteng, President Ramaphosa`s anti-corruption strategy and, athletes using the Olympic Games to gain asylum in other countries
  • SAFM to discuss the French government’s unhappiness over recent COVID travel restrictions announced by the British government and the public feud that a Belarusian Olympic sprinter had with team officials and her possible punishment should she return to Belarus
  • Pretoria FM where he spoke about the claims made by Zweli Mkhize on the Digital Vibes scandal, the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle, and if Ace Magashule is wasting his time by fighting corruption cases against him, the process of appointing a new mayor, the role that the IFP plays in this matter, and the election Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as the new Speaker of Parliament and the EFF`s boycott of the vote
  • Kyknet to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and the background to events seen in recent weeks, the conversation continues here
• Ansie Maritz (Afrikaans) was interviewed by Vryheidstigting to talk about propaganda and freedom

• Tinashe Nymanunda (Historical and Heritage Studies) presented a paper Gold, Currency and Stamps: The Rejected plans for a State and Public Bank in early Colonial Zimbabwe (1896-1907) at the University of Zimbabwe
• Department of Historical & Heritage Studies hosted a virtual seminar based on a 25-minute screening of a documentary about the platinum belt in two towns in Rustenburg, directed by Dr Joseph Mujere and titled Waiting in a Platinum City. Nisa Palekar (Historical & Heritage Studies) was the discussant and she spoke about the connections between History and Film based on this film.
• Anke Nel & Andrea du Toit (Political Sciences) co-authored an article to commemorate World Humanitarian Day World Humanitarian Day- #theHumanRace that is featured on the Faculty’s website.

• Christopher Nshimbi (Political Sciences):
  • Presented a paper Migration governance in Africa: The African Continental Free Trade Area and labour migration in Africa’s development agenda at the 34th International Geographical Congress
  • Published an article titled Why Edgar Lungu and his party lost Zambia’s 2021 elections in The Conversation

•  Thaddeus Metz (Philosophy):
  • Presented a keynote address on the topic An Afro-communal Approach to Healthcare at the Yaoundé Seminar on Ethics, Health, and Public Policy hosted by Catholic University of Central Africa.
  • A paper on Comparing the Meaningfulness of Finite and Infinite Lives at the Royal Institute of Philosophy Annual Conference 2021 on Meaning in Life and the Knowledge of Death hosted by the University of Liverpool.
• Elmien Claassens presented A student-centered approach to online learning during a global pandemic: A Social Work perspective at the Flexible Futures 2021 Higher Education Innovation Conference
• Dudu Molio (MSW (EAP) graduate) and Stephan Geyer (Social Work & Criminology) presented a paper titled Managing risk factors for substance misuse among employees in the waste management sector: Perspectives from an Africa-based public waste management organisation at the international online ADDICTION 2021 Conference

• Dr N Bila (Social Work & Criminology) presented the paper Gendered vulnerability: the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women at UNISA’s College of Law Biotechnology and Medical Law Flagship event
• Hein Willemse (Afrikaans) wrote on the place of girls and women in Afghanistan with reference to landay, a rural nomadic oral poetic genre in Netwerk24

Publications on academic platforms

• Thaddeus Metz (Philosophy) published the following articles:
  • Exactly Why Are Slurs Wrong? in Daimon: Revista Internacional de Filosofía
  • Recent Work in African Political and Legal Philosophy in Philosophy Compass

Scheduled Events

• The Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) is hosting a webinar by Dr Cyril Obi (from the Social Science Research Council, New York) on the topic Violent Capitalocenes and the Question of Development in African Environmentalism. The webinar will take place on 31 August 2021 from 13:00- 14:30. Click here for the invitation and here to attend the event
• Critical Food Studies programme is hosting a webinar on New generation scholars researching food on 31 August 2021, 14:00- 16:00 (SAST). Click here to attend the event or visit their website
• CSA&G will host a virtual launch of a new monograph by Gabriela Pinheiro and Peace Kiguwa on Gender and Germs: Unmasking War Frames in South Africa’s Militarised Response to COVID-19 on 2 September 2021,17:00- 18:00. Click here for the invitation or send an email to Gabriela Pinheiro to receive the access link. Click here to access a copy of the book 
• Nominations for the Humanities Teaching Excellence Award 2021 will close on Friday, 3 September 2021 and submissions should be forwarded to Aretha Roux. Click here for more information 
• #ChooseUP event will be held virtually this year on 4 September 2021
• The Department of Library Services and Faculty of Humanities will host this year’s Mind-Altering Bookswebinar on Tuesday, 7 September 2021 from 10:30- 11:45am. Click here to register
• 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 
• 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

Congratulations to all our colleagues!