Humanities Update Showcases Just a Few of These Many Cases of Excellent Performance in Teaching and Learning, Research and Public Scholarship
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
humanities december 2014 upd te INSIDE: Technology giant partners with UCT P8 in the Karoo 12 One on one with Phylicia Oppelt P20 Study Abroad students love Humanities P24 UCT School of Dance celebrates 80 years of excellence P30 CONTENTS FACULTY NEWS Greetings to Faculty alumni from the in Dean of Humanities The first year in a new position is always a daunting experience and it has not been any different for me these last 12 months since I joined the UCT Faculty of Humanities. However, I am happy to say this that my time in the Faculty so far has been extremely eventful but exhilarating and rewarding. I have been humbled by the support and co-operation I have received from staff and students and it is a tribute to all of them that 2014 became yet another year of great successes and stellar achievements. This Humanities Update showcases just a few of these many cases of excellent performance in teaching and learning, research and public scholarship. issue The UCT School of Dance turned 80 this year and to celebrate the FACULTY NEWS: occasion, the school organized a spectacular production in October called Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts Fellow 2014 04 dance institution. During the year our students were involved in outreach activities of UCT Masters student goes to Humanities of Nllng 05 Washington 19 in Khayelitsha and the Stepping Stone project involving staff and students Update is a Faculties collaborate on business ethics 22 book 06 College of Music who have been selected to produce ringtones for the new newsletter for CFMS takes digital skills to Khayelitsha next generation 23 youth 07 alumni and friends 26 “This year we will confer a record Technology giant partners with UCT 08 of the Faculty number of degrees” SACM students produce new Queer in Africa 09 27 of Humanities, In the area of teaching and learning, staff and students of the Faculty Chilean President focuses discussion Stepping Stone project cultivates University of on gender equality 10 new talent 28 Cape Town. Live Art Festival 2014 11 Retrospective Exhibition connects in a series of public panel discussions titled The University and Society. The past to present 29 12 UCT students ALUMNI University hosts Carnegie African 37 Diaspora scholar 13 TRAILBLAZERS: discussions on the position and role of the University in our society. UCT Opera School shines at the 14 FEATURES: 34 Politics Professor joins top fraternity 15 and students are treated, and treat one another, with respect and dignity. International accolades for Lily Students experience Xhosa language One on One with Phylicia Oppelt 20 Becker 34 and culture 16 I hope that you enjoy reading this Humanities Update and I encourage you Art Workshops bring joy to local kids 17 24 to tears 34 First conference on Political Psychology UCT School of Dance celebrates 80 Pauline Alexander recieves VC hosted on local soil 18 years of excellence 30 Award in 2014 34 Sakhela Buhlungu 2 HUMANITIES UPDATE 2014 3 FACULTY NEWS FACULTY NEWS Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts Fellow 2014 award Associate Professor Berni Searle has been awarded a HU: When does your residency with the Foundation Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship. These fellowships are commence and what does it entail? In November 2013 and January 2014, awarded to visual artists who, inspired by global social B: Drs. Sheena Shah and Matthias issues, produce work of an exceptional standard. Berni It involves travelling to Bellagio in Italy, which is located on the Brenzinger (UCT Department of is a well-known South African artist, she lectures at the Linguistics) travelled to Upington in Michaelis School of Fine Art and is an alumna of the the Northern Cape to work with Katrina same institution. She is one of only three recipients of the Bellagio Fellowship award in 2014. Humanities Update The idea is that Fellows either produce a new body of work, or the most endangered language of people today. Together with her HU: What does being named the Rockefeller Bellagio advantage of this by creating a new body of work in response granddaughter, Claudia du Plessis, Creative Arts Fellow mean to you? B: the end of the residency, the Foundation publishes a catalogue Ouma Geelmeid is currently teaching her mother tongue to close to 35 children in an effort to preserve this Bellagio residents have also included writers such as Maya HU: Bodies and women feature prominently in your work. heritage language. Dr. Matthias Brenzinger pictured with Hanna Koper, one of the last five What is the inspiration behind this? B: selected as one of three Fellows for 2014, is therefor a great the Northern and Western Cape by privilege and honor. The Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts as well as posters for teaching purposes citizens. The conference attracted Bellagio Center. The Center, through conferences and March 2014. of its objectives was to ensure that all any As one of three postdoctoral research Even though the language is spoken by conferences. This provides an opportunity to establish new which is located within the School of connections with other professionals around the world, and HU: You obtained an MAFA from Michaelis in 1995 and now HU: You’ve received a number accolades during you hold a teaching position here. Do you feel that you’ve your career. Which award stands out as the most come full circle? What do you enjoy most about your efforts. Thanks to a Faculty of memorable and why? current position? B: B: established a network of all scholars was definitely a highlight. It was the first opportunity years. The language was thought to locations across South Africa, which up until that stage I Michaelis lecture theatre, in which years ago I sat as a bewildered had not had the opportunity to do. Awards are generally an student. Being a student at Michaelis in the late 80s and early based language teaching efforts require recordings are not only of greatest speakers were “rediscovered” around value for linguistic research, but also Shah is helping to produce readers for the CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING About the Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts Fellow in Teaching and Learning Award for 2014. The award, which was given in recognition 2014 award: The selection panel for the awards consisted of Fellows receive a cash prize, a residency at the Bellagio as a publication of their work after the residency. 4 HUMANITIES UPDATE 2014 5 FACULTY NEWS FACULTY NEWS Faculties collaborate on Business Ethics book Business Ethics & Other Paradoxes is a book which @ CFMS takes digital skills to accounting procedures. But it also acknowledges that Khayelitsha youth an acquaintance with abstract ethical theorising is not enough to prepare businesspeople to handle ethical that the best way for anybody to learn to behave ethically is Business Ethics & Other Paradoxes seeks to equip its readers with the key ethical concepts and Commerce students will no doubt face ethical dilemmas when they enter the working world, and with this in worry about and wonder how to think clearly about. mind three academics from UCT – Dr Greg Fried and Dr George Hull (Philosophy Department) and Jimmy Winfield (College of Accounting) - have launched a reading it”: Professor Don Ross book to help them face these challenges. Published by Fairest Cape Press, Business Ethics & Other Paradoxes: How Philosophy Answers Questions about the Ethics of Business is useful for teaching ethics and critical thinking skills to undergraduate or postgraduate An exciting initiative is bringing the latest digital and game design technology to a new generation of urban techies. students as well as business professionals. The book draws “I was not at all looking forward to opening a book called Creative Code is a partnership between UCT students and Khayelitsha’s IkamvaYouth in a project designed to expand on the three authors years of experience jointly teaching access to South Africa’s Information and Technology sector. It was also a World Design Capital 2014 project the Business Ethics course gives an intriguing clue about its approach and style. As it career opportunities available within years. Business professionals are required to take decisions very few South African children are Khayelitsha. that affect not only their own welfare, but also that of their It is written by philosophers who can think, who can write in a design allows young people to use their addition, businesspeople increasingly have to give an account access at school level is pretty low at when, and if, they enroll at tertiary that access to the kind of subject Visual Art curricula at school. Creative inequalities. This book helps show that business ethics is Code not only about fair dealing between business people. It