Faculty of Humanities
Prof Sandra Klopper, Dean
E-mail address: sandra.klopper@up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
The research projects mounted in the Faculty of
Humanities over the past year attest to the remarkably
rich and diverse interests of academics across a
wide range of disciplines. Studies in both the arts
and social sciences have addressed issues of topical
interest, such as the role of nostalgia in contemporary
South African literature, possible ways of addressing
occupational stress among dentists and the risk of
hearing loss through exposure to vuvuzelas. The
struggles of past generations have also played a
significant role in the research interests of historians
seeking to make sense of power relations on the east
coast of Africa in the 17th century, for example, while
efforts to map the composite text of Psalm 108 throws
light on the possible reasons for cutting up and reusing
earlier Psalms.
The Faculty is also in the process of developing several
interdisciplinary research focus areas. Notable in this
regard is the Human Economy Project, which started
as an international network of scholars in diverse
disciplines, united in the conviction that it is necessary
to analyse economists’ approaches to the economy.
The Human Economy Project provides an accessible
account of current thinking that points to alternatives
to the neo-liberal orthodoxy. It seeks to demonstrate
that economists traditionally ignore the fact that human
actions are complex, with many motivations that cannot
be reduced to narrow economising. This project has
received funding for several postdoctoral fellowships
from UP. The first cohort of seven fellows arrived on
campus in February 2011.
Efforts to extend conversations across different
disciplines in the humanities and social sciences
have played a major role in the expansion of the
Faculty’s Seminar Series, which attracts both local and
international scholars working on a variety of topics.
First initiated in late 2009, this series has attracted
researchers from different continents. In 2010, it also
included a presentation by the editor in chief of the African Studies Quarterly, Prof Hunt Davis, who provided valuable
insights into the editorial policies of journals devoted to promoting research in and on topics of African interest.
Prof Sandra Klopper
|
