32 FACULTY OF HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2021 • Pier Paolo Frassinelli awarded the Italian Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MIUR) Qualification, Full Professor, English and Anglo-American Languages, Literatures and Cultures – from April 2021 (duration: 9 years) • Shanade Barnabas was accepted into and completed UJ’s Research Leadership Programme this year. • Shanade Barnabas received an NRF research excellence award in the category early career/ emerging researcher. • Sifiso Mnisi was awarded a 5-month JIAS residential fellowship. • Elna Rossouw was awarded her PhD from the University of Stellenbosch, assessors lauded her submission, so much so that no corrections were required. • Sarah Chiumbu and Gilbert Motsaathebe jointly produced two edited books this year. • Mariekie Burger and Gilbert Motsaathebe continue to serve on the Communicare editorial board. • Keyan Tomaselli continues as editor of Journal of African Cinemas and Critical Arts. • Antoinette Hoffman successfully coordinated the tutors once again, with two tutors (Nathan Govender and Siyabonga Nkosi) winning awards under the categories, ‘Most innovative tutor during the Covid-19 Pandemic’ and ‘Best Tutor’. • Departmental administrator Thembi Gumbi has successfully completed her first year of studies in the degree BA in Communication Sciences through UNISA. • In honour of Professor PierPaolo Frassinelli the annual postgraduate bootcamp has been renamed the PierPaolo Frassinelli Postgraduate Bootcamp • Jane Duncan, Shanade Barnabas, Sarah Chiumbu and Nicole Stremlau served on a School task team to forward the proposed School of Communication Centre for Data and Digital Communication. The Centre has now been approved. • Pier Paolo and Varona received R25 000 for copyediting their co-edited forthcoming book: The Question of Agency in African Studies, Eds. P.P. Frassinelli. A Pezzano, D. Pioppi, V. Sathiyah. Naples: L’Orientale University Press. • Jane Duncan awarded R500 000 by the Open Society Foundation for ongoing work on surveillance in South Africa. Seminar highlights Thirteen seminars were given and/or hosted by members of staff. Themes included heritage and memorialization, surveillance, social media and democracy, media policy, critique of the 4th Industrial Revolution, hate speech and the moderation of online content, and technology and governance to name a few. The Staff Research Round Table, in its second year of existence, hosted two sessions in the year with presentations on two key themes. The first was decolonization (x2 presentations) and the second was the 4th Industrial Revolution (x3 presentations). The Staff Research Round Table is helping to grow a culture of research in the School. Publication highlights On the publications front,2 permanent lecturing staff have produced five journal articles, 14 book chapters and four books. Two of the four books were produced by the publishing team of profs Sarah Chiumbu and Gilbert Motsaathebe. The PDRF contribution was seven journal articles, one media interview, eight book chapters, and seven conference presentations. One postdoctoral fellow, Allen Munoriyarwa, was particularly successful with four journal articles, six book chapters, four conference presentations and participation in four funded research projects. Distinguished Professor Keyan Tomaselli produced one edited book, three book chapters and 6.5 journal articles. Media and public engagements There have been a total of 41 media interviews and other public commentaries, with Prof Jane Duncan leading the charge with 26 out of the 41 media engagements. Her radio interviews were on Cape Talk, 702, SAfm and the BBC. Topics of discussion of the different media engagements included fieldwork during the pandemic, media surveillance and shedding light on a little known indigenous woman. Articles were published in The Conversation, Times Higher Education, The Daily Maverick and News 24 among others. Keyan Tomaselli produces 11 non-academic publications including articles in the Daily Maverick and ANFASA magazine. Curricular and teaching highlights The department went through a revision of its third year offering in the first half of the year. The new CAM (combined module of the old JFT and CMS) courses were streamlined and eight third year offerings became six. The offerings were revised as per current trajectories in media studies and communication. The new offerings are set to begin in 2022, all amendments have been approved by the university. The full CAM combined module (1st year to 3rd year) will be active as of 2022. Module success rates have remained high with progress being made to graduate the pipeliners. 2
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