49 Essay Prize A big highlight of the year for our postgraduates is the Anton Lembede essay writing competition, where the submissions are evaluated by a judge external to UJ Philosophy. The quality of submissions continues to impress, and past winners have gone on to publish their entries in accredited academic journals. The Lembede Prize winners for 2021 were: • 1st place (R10 000): Shené de Rijk, “Euthanasia in Companion: Animals vs Human Beings” • 2nd place (R6 000): Tarryn Harding, “Paradoxes of Aboutness” • 3rd place (R4 000): Ragnar van de Merwe, “Paul Cilliers’ Dilemmic Approach to Complexity Theory: Post-structuralism vs Model Exclusivity” Our staff and students made a noticeable impact in terms of public engagement this year. Prof Ben Smart was featured in The Conversation, The Sunday Independent and Newsroom Afrika among others. Sarah Setlaelo, a PhD student, has been published in popular media such as Khaleej Time and Mail & Guardian. Looking Ahead: 2022 The biggest change in our plans for the coming academic year is the gradual return to campus in 2022. We are excited at the prospect of reintroducing limited contact sessions for all our modules. We also officially welcome Devon Bailey and Dimpho Maponya, who start as lecturers from January 2022. Both Devon and Dimpho are on course to complete their doctorates in 2022. CENTRES ACE The Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE) is a research centre based at the University of Johannesburg that was founded at the end of 2016. ACE works to contribute to the University of Johannesburg’s vision of being an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. This vision is ACE’s guide to achieving its mission as a research centre: to contribute to the reduction of poverty and inequality in Africa and South Africa through the use of evidence. This annual report of ACE’s work showcases the highlights and lessons from 2021, and shares a taste of the Centre’s plans to continue working to this goal. ACE’s key highlights in 2021 The uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic continued in 2021, as many countries undertook to rollout their national vaccination policies. This uncertainty meant that many of the Africa Centre for Evidence (ACE) staff were still unable to come into the office and continued working remotely. Irrespective of our largely dispersed workforce, the achievements of ACE staff in 2021 speak to our continued impact as a University of Johannesburgbased research centre. Below, we detail our achievements in teaching, research, community engagement, internationalisation, visiting academics, and staff/student achievements. 1.1. Teaching Teaching at ACE takes place within our evidence capacities portfolio, under the leadership of Dr Carina van Rooyen. In 2021, our centre piloted a short learning programme (SLP) from August called ‘Principles, Processes and Practices of Evidence-Informed Decision-Making’. There were 15 students who participated in this pilot. These students were a mixture of researchers, and professionals/practitioners from the private and non-governmental organisation sectors, as well as from provincial and national government departments. The participants were from four countries throughout Africa. “This was a great course where I learnt much, and we not only formed a community of practice but a family of future collaborators.” – SLP course participant in course feedback Dr van Rooyen was supported by three of staff from ACE (on just over one FTE) who delivered the SLP until 25 November. This SLP is the first of its kind and represents the first phase of ACE’s
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