2 FACULTY OF HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2021 INTRODUCTION Executive Dean: Prof Kammila Naidoo The Faculty of Humanities began 2021 with renewed optimism that engaged teaching and research would be possible despite a second year of lockdown and the persistence of COVID-19. Staff and tutors rallied together to create innovative and effective interventions and become more accessible to students who were in a second year of remote learning. The drive for teaching excellence led to the Faculty of Humanities producing two Vice-Chancellor Teaching and Learning award winners, one in the category for established scholars and the other for early career academics. Overall, the Faculty of Humanities produced more scholarly research than in previous years, and substantial resources were invested in research support and development. As regards the public intellectual work of staff in 2021, academics continued to be central to debates on COVID-19 and socioeconomic issues, the meaning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the relevance of decolonising the curriculum, and on addressing ways in which the various disciplines could generate significant ‘impact’. Our academics were very active in the global and local media, with many public talks gaining prominence. The Faculty continued to build African and other international partnerships and co-hosted many exciting virtual events. A record number of anti-GBV events were held with community-based organisations and international partners. Our premier event, the Helen Joseph Memorial Lecture, was presented in 2021 by Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng who spoke on the topic of ‘Undressing Freedom: Force, impunity and hubris as a response to disaster’. The overview that follows will show the Faculty’s various successes, its sustainability, and plans for the future. The underlying operations continued to grow in ways that align with the University’s Strategic Objectives and with the broader intellectual mission of the Faculty and University. This stated, there are problems to take account of, and they will be highlighted as challenges to overcome in the years ahead. RESEARCH Vice Dean Research: Prof Brendon Barnes The Faculty of Humanities did exceptionally well in terms of the research outputs. Despite being mostly online, staff members were active in research promotion activities including webinars, online writing retreats, skills development, and conference presentations. At the time of writing, the faculty had produced 484 research output units, which is the highest number of outputs ever captured by the Humanities. Our publications received 3 478 (annual) citations in Scopus, often in top international journals. The Humanities also has 46 NRF rated researchers, up from 41 NRF rated researchers in 2020. The faculty launched a much-publicised Distinguished 4IR Webinar Series that highlighted our work on 4IR and the Humanities. Importantly, the faculty raised R49 million in external funding. Humanities staff won 18 prestigious awards in 2021. These include, but are not limited to, Prof Leila Patel, ASSAf Science for Society Gold Medal; Prof Adrian Van Breda, Lifetime Achievement Award, ASASWEI (Social Work); Dr Nonny Vilakazi, Franco-African ‘Tremplin’ Research Excellence Award of the French Academy of Sciences; Prof Ashwin Desai (Humanities and Social Sciences), National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) Award – Best Non-Fiction Monograph; and Prof Shanade Barnabas: Future Professor Programme (DHET). The following staff received UJ Vice Chancellor awards: Dr Gcobani Qambela (Young Teacher Award), Professor Maritha Pritchard (Distinguished Teacher Excellence Award), and Professor Alex Broadbent (Distinguished Book of the Year Award). Our postgraduate students did very well in 2021. We graduated 335 Honours, 144 Masters and 33 Doctoral graduates in 2021. Importantly, postgraduate students were active in the scholarly activities of the faculty. Students published 31 research output units in 2021, many of which were in highly respected journals. Our students actively attended webinars, and we received 654 inbound students while 2 162 students attended outbound virtual events. Our Post-Doctoral Research
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjU1NDYx