Faculty of Humanities
Prof S Klopper, Dean
E-mail address: sandra.klopper@up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
The humanities and social sciences are unified by a common interest in the concept of the human. As such, these disciplines contribute significantly to research focused on different modes of communication, be it in the arts and in various literary genres, or through political and other forms of discourse.
This concern with communication is evident in many of the research projects undertaken in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria during the course of 2009, ranging from work done in Ancient Languages and Philosophy to various activities in Communication Pathology.
Some of the other recent research activities in the faculty demonstrate that however diverse the disciplines of the humanities and social science might be, they all grapple with a number of interrelated issues, in particular the complex terrains of cognition, the construction of cultural and other identities, and the changing realities of social and political relations, whether in historical or contemporary settings. Often it is the shifting relations between these variables that raise key questions for researchers working on topics in cognate disciplines such as history, sociology, and political sciences. Increasingly, the problems facing researchers in humanities and the social sciences also raise important questions regarding the ever-changing landscape of interpersonal relations, including relations of power, and the victimisation of vulnerable individuals and communities. These relations are reflected in, for example, the work currently being done in the faculty on the gendered experiences of different groups of people and the often pressing social and political challenges confronting today’s youth.
The University of Pretoria has the largest humanities faculty in the country. It comprises 18 academic departments, two teaching units and a number of specialised research centres.
Students can choose from a wide range of opportunities in fine arts, languages, basic social sciences and applied social sciences at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The faculty is committed to sustaining critical intellectual enquiry.
The past year was one of transition for the faculty. The appointment a new dean on 1 October 2008 paved the way for a comprehensive survey and status quo report of the faculty by a project team appointed by the executive. As an outcome of this report, academic departments have been retained and the three schools (Social Sciences, Languages and Arts) have been abolished. The faculty has embarked on a number of new initiatives, including some aimed at strengthening research. This includes a project that will contribute to an international collaborative research programme and alternative economic institution. The faculty has a particular interest in fostering dialogue on such issues between researchers from countries in the global south. The faculty is currently engaging potential donors with a view to establishing an international centre for mediation and conciliation.
In keeping with the range of disciplines offered in the faculty, its research thrust is both complex and diverse. Focus areas lie in the three core clusters: the arts, languages and social sciences. The faculty’s research output has increased in both quality and quantity.
In 2009, faculty members published 145 articles in accredited journals and contributed to 34 books as authors, co-authors or by making other contributions. Numerous papers were delivered at local and international conferences. The faculty boasts 26 researchers with NRF-ratings. Its researchers are active on various other levels. They serve on the editorial boards of accredited journals and act as referees of research articles. They also invest in postgraduate students and publish extensively in highly rated journals.
During the period under review, Prof Andries Wessels of the Department of English published the first international article on the poetry of the Jewish-Afrikaans poet, Olga Kirsch, in the influential American Journal of Jewish Literary Studies. While Jewish South African writers like Dan Jacobson and Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer are internationally known, Kirsch’s work has remained unknown outside South Africa. Prof Wessels proposes that Kirsch’s voice, which articulates her unstable position between being an outsider in terms of Calvinist Christian belief and the mainstream political sensibilities of the community, yet an insider in terms of language, sympathy and understanding, approaches what Homi Bhabha called the third space of enunciation where two cultures intersect, and where identity is fluid, constructed and reconstructed.
Prof Lize Kriel of the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies concluded her research of the past decade on colonial writings about the Bahananwa of present-day Limpopo with the publication of The ‘Malaboch’ Books: Kgalusi in the ‘Civilization of the written word.’ The study looks into the making of historical knowledge through written texts and publications. Reviewers have described the book as “important as a case study of how to apply the insights historians have derived from the ‘literary turn’ in their discipline”, as “an incisive and masterful historical and literary analysis”, and as “an interesting and fresh excursion into intellectual history”.
Prof Maxi Schoeman, Prof Janis Grobbelaar and Dr Charles Puttergill of the Department of Political Sciences and Sociology conducted a joint survey on the voting behaviour of the youth. This formed part of a long-term pilot project to chart the voting behaviour and political preferences of the youth at the University during an election year. The research findings appear to confirm that the perceptions of the youth on matters of voting mirror general trends evident in the broader society.
Prof Sandra Klopper
Dean: Humanities
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