23 • Dr Bhaso Ndzendze is the Coordinator for the Quality of Democracy in the SAAPS, Prof Annie Chikwanha is the Regional Convener: Southern Africa for AAPS. • Sven Botha served as Council Member in the SAAPS until June 2021. • Professor Suzy Graham was promoted to ViceDean: Teaching and Learning. • Professor Anna-Mart van Wyk, successfully obtained funding for a nuclear studies programme with funds provided by the government of the UK. • Our Departmental Secretary, Mrs Rae Israel, completed a Higher Certificate in Project Management at the University of Johannesburg. Student activity, opportunities and upward mobility Our students are our main constituency. As such, we have placed emphasis on their upward mobility and broader exposure. Despite the challenges of the lockdown modus operandi, our students have gained experience, produced publications and continued their advanced studies. Some highlights for this year include the following. An overall 6 of our students attended conference. Of these 3 were attended internationally, in one of the first outbound travels by students in the Faculty of Humanities. Nomzamo Gondwe, Neo Letswalo and Johannes Sekgololo (all MA students) flew to Nairobi, Kenya for a 3-day conference in September and presented on Digital Policy in a conference organised by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). A total of 8 public intellectual engagements have been conducted by our students, including 1 radio interview (Zimkhitha Manyana, PhD candidate, on PowerFM on a September coup d’état in Guinea), 1 prominent podcast (Ayabulala Dlakavu, PhD candidate, on a Sunday Times podcast), 3 seminar invitations (Lesego Mosweu on ‘Women in Academia’, Sandile Moloi on the launch of The New Apartheid, and Ayabulela Dlakavu on the launch of Prisoners of the Past). Some 4 opinion articles were also penned by our students and printed in high circulation newspapers, including 2 by Johannes Sekgololo (on e-learning and on ANC politics, both in the Mail & Guardian), 1 by Nomzamo Gondwe (on digital currency, in the African Policy Research Institute in Berlin), 1 by Vusi Gumbi (on coalition politics in the West African country of Gambia, in the Independent), and 1 by Neo Letswalo (on the township economy, in The Star). A total R150, 000 in funds was obtained in competitive bursaries for thematic research on China-Africa relations for a total of 4 students supervised by Dr Ndzendze. Four of our students have also obtained contract and permanent positions in industry as research assistants, reporters and researchers. The fields include 2 think tanks, 1 social advocacy and 1 legislative monitoring organisation. We have also successfully recruited 5 new visiting research fellows or senior research associates from among our department’s prolific PhD students and PhD graduates. Two students, one at PhD and another at MA, were also recruited to serve as contract (Sandile Moloi) and assistant lecturers (Sven Botha) respectively. A number of our students have published in accredited outlets (2 journals, 2 book chapters), with half being in the MA cohort and the other half in the PhD cohort. In order to encourage more publication, we have launched the DPIR Working Paper Series (WPS [see https://www.uj.ac.za/ faculties/humanities/dpir/Pages/Research.aspx]). Through this series, students present their papers to a monthly session of our Postgraduate Support Forum (PSF) in the presence of their peers and at least 1 cognate journal editor (in the field of specialisation), and thereafter publish their paper as a working paper which undergoes further peer review. This is subsequently taken down or sufficiently revised to be submitted to a journal or call for chapters. So far 2 out of the four papers presented have been accepted for publication. Other highlights include the successful Computer Programming Bootcamp which was attended by 40 participants over four days (9-12 August 2021), 2 editorial roles in journals for 1 MA and 1 PhD student, and 1 book co-authored by one of our MA students (Neo Letswalo), titled The Township Economic Mistakes. Looking towards 2022 Increased student publication, 2 new research hubs, higher throughput, and enhanced mentorship In 2022, we will consolidate the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and integrate them into our teaching and learning programme. We will engage more in-depth tutor training and teacher assistance so that we retain what has worked best in 2020 and 2021, in order to be agile and ‘pandemic-ready’ as and when required. The year 2022 will also see greater student publications and conferencing, both internally and externally. The departmental Postgraduate Support Forum has been a great vehicle for this.
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