AND THE WINNERS ARE - NIHSS · since it looks at the intersecting histories of slavery, Islam and...
Transcript of AND THE WINNERS ARE - NIHSS · since it looks at the intersecting histories of slavery, Islam and...
FEATURE
A wide array of HSS scholars who are advancing the humanities, the arts and critical thinking have been honoured at the annual Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) 2017 Awards: Book, Creative and Digital Contributions held by the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS).
Nine (9) winners were celebrated at an awards ceremony held on 29 March 2017, after a panel of 33 judges whittled down a broad field of over 60 entries to select winners in each category. The eligible submissions included 21 non-fiction book entries, 14 books of fiction, 14 creative collections and three (3) digital contributions.
These contributors are helping to shape the cultural landscape and cast a shining light on South African narratives. “Your contribution to the HSS scholarship community is encouraging.
More so at a time when we are faced with a challenging environment within the higher education landscape and the publishing world, as funding for the humanities and social science is also declining.”
The HSS Awards aim to support and promote new South African voices, says Professor Sarah Mosoetsa, CEO of the NIHSS. “These
awards truly celebrated, recognised and honoured outstanding and innovative scholars in the Human Social Sciences,” she said.
This is the second year the NIHSS has run these prestigious awards to bring significant works into the public arena and highlight society’s need for arts and social sciences, academic debate and intellectual stimulation.
“The awards have energised the organisation to continue its critical work of supporting outstanding scholars, authors, playwrights, poets, artists, curators and publishers whose collective contributions benefited humanity.”
“However, there was still a great need to prioritise creative works that promoted African languages and digital humanities,” Mosoetsa said. This is a challenge the NIHSS is bravely embracing and promises to prioriotise in the comings months and years. This focus is especially important as it will support South Africans to tell their own stories to inspire, inform, educate and perhaps provoke others into thinking more about the world around them and, encourage them to tell new stories. “Much work needs to be done to identify, support and promote new South African scholars in the
humanities and social sciences,” Prof Mosoetsa said.
The NIHSS was established in 2013 by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Its mandate is to support the humanities and social science in universities by supporting and funding HSS by providing doctoral scholarships and research grants for various forms of knowledge production within the HSS. It currently funds over 450 PhD students nationwide as well as over 100 academics who are conducting innovative research in the humanities and social sciences at over 20 universities.
Mosoetsa said a major role of the organisation was to inculcate a love and appreciation of the humanities and the general arts in South Africa, where historically the academy, government and funders’ emphasis often focused more on the STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “If we are going to have well-rounded individuals and societies we need to have social sciences take their rightful place in the world,” she says.
The humanities help to create value for our history and a capacity for critical thinking, and that was currently vital in South
Africa, she added. “A nation that doesn’t know its history is a lost one.” Engaging with the HSS includes evidence that informs debate and the ability to argue intelligently, triggering a higher level of critical thinking. “We generally lack that rigour of making arguments and quality debates in South Africa,” she said. The HSS are necessary and have a bigger a role to play in South Africa.
Allowing South Africans to tell their own stories was hugely important for readers, students, artists, politicians or community leaders to readily identify one of their own who tell a story they identify with, and make them realise they could become storytellers, creators of history, and knowledge producers themselves.
The stories told by the HSS 2017 Award winners were not just about art, creativity and history, they were a commentary about our world and a significant contribution to the growth of our young society.
Reading and appreciating such works during these times, marked by political and economic upheavals should be fully embraced by all. This is important as South Africa requires active citizens with a broader appreciation of social issues and thinking to shape the future of the nation.
AND THE WINNERS ARE...The 2017 Humanities and Social Sciences: Book, Creative and Digital Awards were judged by a panel of more than 30 reviewers including
Joyce Myeza, Thembinkosi Goniwe, Professor Shireen Hassim and Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola. These are the well-deserving winners
Best Non-Fiction Monograph
Declassified - Moving beyond the dead-end
of race in South Africa
Author: Gerhard Maré
Publisher: Jacana Media
This book is undoubtedly one of the best to
come out of SA in the post-1994 period. It
contributes to our body of knowledge in
detailed and profound ways, challenging
existing ways of thinking about race as well as
existing policies about race. It provokes us to
rethink about the ideals of non-racism, in a
context where race thinking continues almost
unabated in a democratic South Africa. It is a
tour de force of critical scholarship,
encouraging us to be bold enough to consider
alternatives to the taken-for granted
assumptions about the existence of races and
the complexities around race based
discrimination and (significantly) capitalist
exploitation. It advances our understanding by
linking together a range of practices, policies and
pieces of legislation and then places them in the context of the everyday life of race,
racism and race thinking. Mare evokes an immediacy to the text by relating his own
personal journey in race consciousness. He asks very awkward questions about the
enduring reality of race and he proposes a way out of our current impasse, with full
recognition of just how limited the scope is for such an alternative in the face of the
overwhelming reality of the casual acceptance of the very existence of races. But he
does all of this while not portraying a lazy "colour-blindedness".
Best Non-Fiction Monograph
Regarding Muslims: From slavery to
post-apartheid
Author: Gabeba Baderoon
Publisher: Wits University Press
This is a timely, innovative and unique book
since it looks at the intersecting histories of
slavery, Islam and the literary / visual tradition
of the picturesque. The author has picked
topics as varied as cookbooks and poetry to
show the many different ways in which the
presence of "Malays" / Muslims/ "Coloureds"
has reflected the ambiguities of visibility vs
invisibility. It is an excellent contribution to
the postcolonial literature on race, culture,
religion and identity. Although clearly
influenced by the "linguistic turn" and by
postcolonial theory, this book is not overly
"theoretical" and its language invites
readership and engagement. The book is both
about South Africa and also about the history
of evasion and silence about the presence of
Muslims in the country's founding. The arguments are lucid, and coherent
throughout. The source material has been properly interrogated. Writing and
editing style are of good quality. Despite the very long span of time that is dealt with
in the book, well over 350 years, the author succeeds in wielding everything together
in a convincing manner, thus bringing her points across to the reader. It is very
well-edited and the quality of writing is excellent.
Best Non-Fiction Edited Volume
Changing Space, Changing City:
Johannesburg after Apartheid
Edited by Philip Harrison, Graeme Gotz,
Alison Todes and Chris Wray
Publisher: Wits University Press
This book is an excellent intervention in
debates about "cities of the South". It
challenges many of the common assumptions
about the city of Johannesburg while at the
same time offering the readers more than just
platitudes. In their introductory essay, the
editors are thorough in showing how their aim
is to balance the "materialist" and "subjectivist"
literature on Johannesburg by offering a
nuanced articulation of both. The
understanding that space shapes identities and
vice versa is one the best contributions to new
knowledge that this books makes. The
arguments are supported by quantitative
research and databases and this is also a unique
feature of the book - that is, it doesn't shy away
from combining statistics, graphs, mapping, photographs, tables in making its
arguments. The analysis elucidates the larger trends, while identifying shifts that are
not easily detected at the macro level. With empirical data supported by new data sets
including the 2011 Census, the city’s Development Planning and Urban Management
Department’s information system, and Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s substantial
archive, the book is an essential reference for planning practitioners, urban
geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists, among others.
Best Fiction Single Authored
Volume: Poetry
A Half Century Thing
Author: Lesego Rampolokeng
Publisher: Black Ghost Books
The poems in the anthology are divided into
seven movements, which immediately evoke
a sense of the epic, perhaps on a Wagnarian
scale, or Mazisi Kunene Athem of the
Decades or Emepror Shaka the Great. And
when one starts reading it, the poems
indeed rise up to the intensity and scale of
an epic. Ulysses. The foregrounding of
anatomical imagery makes one avoid
swallowing for a while, until the poet
releases the tension, only to pummel the
reader once again. It is when one comes to
reading “Writing the Ungovernable” that
one find security in having suspected that
the French avant-garde style and that of
African political and literary heretics
(Chinweizu, Marechera et al) had some
influence in the forging of the poetic sculptures that the poet has carved, which
defiantly utter sacrilege to, as in “speaking truth to power”.
Creative Collections:
Best Public Performance Best Dance,
BodyTech
Co-founded by: Jessica Denyschen and
Adrienne Sichel
Innovative use of media - the body - new ways
of articulating dance, movement and
technology. In the fields of art making, where
participants crossed over thresholds,
integrating ideas in innovative ways. It appears
that the results were interesting for the varied
audiences. Body Tech has demonstrated unique
ways of integrating various fields that is
attractive to young or progressive audiences.
There is an element of promise for greater
things. The work opens up new conversations
within the HSS Field as it embraces elements
of technology and established dance movement
that engages one in contemporary forms of
communication. Set in street spaces in
Braamfontien Johannesburg, where control
over ones’ context is negligible, it is a work that
is at once experimental as it is tentative while it crosses boundaries while anticipating
possible technological problems which one seldom has control over.
Winner: Best Visual Art
Penny Siopis Time and Again
Edited by: Edited by Gerrit Olivier
A most welcome publication which provides
instructive theoretical articulations on Penny
Siopis' work spanning more than three decades.
articulated, engaged and contextualized are
Siopis' thematic ideas, scholarship, artistic
innovations or discoveries all demonstrating
her contribution to visual art practices within
the field of humanities and social sciences.
both the editor and contributors enrich the
publication equally illuminating and
complicating Siopis' oeuvre, in this way
rendering the submission a unique
contribution, creative and intellectual
accomplishment deserving the award. Both the
diverse visual artworks of Penny Siopis and
essays featured in the publication demonstrate
substantive and dynamic content. both the
quality of Siopis's work and contributors'
essays confirms mastery, noting their instructive
articulation, insightful construction and coherent presentation. Both the subject
content and creative form are well treated, demonstrating an authority over medium,
materials and language. This submission is indicative of creative intellectual work,
with the potential to solicit response and instigate debate.
Best Digital Humanities
Contributions
South African History
Online
Omar Badsha
South African History
Online (SAHO) is a
non-partisan people's
history project. It was
founded my Omar Badsha
and registered as a
non-profit Section 21
organisation in June
2000.The organisation was
founded to address the
biased way in which South
Africa’s history and
heritage, as well as the that
of Africa is represented in
the countries educational,
cultural and heritage
institutions. SAHO set out to write and promote a new history through the building
of a comprehensive online popular history website which is an open source platform
and to establish a multi-faceted and integrated educational programme that serves
to promote research, strengthen the teaching and learning of history and the telling
of the stories of ordinary people.
Best Musical Composition
Winner: Explorations: South African
flute music,
Stoltz, Liesl with François du Toit, José
Dias, Jacqueline Kerrod, Pieter van Zyl
This particular production is very timely,
specific and possibly one or a few of its kind. It
presents modern flute art music by South
African contemporary composers and played by
leading South African chamber musicians. Most
outputs of this nature often showcase the more
"prestigious" instruments", for lack of a better
expression; like the violin or piano or even the
symphony orchestra. Here, the various abilities
of the flute are explored and displayed with
remarkable success. In addition, this extensive
presentation presents flute music in ways that
allows for further reflection and scholarly
pursuit on the flute as a solo instrument.
Best Fiction Single Authored: Novel
What Will People Say
Author: Rehana Rossouw
Publisher: Jacana Media
The plight of drugs and gangs in the
depressed areas of our nation is well known.
This book throws light on the ordinary lives
trapped in such a world. How does a mother
hope to raise her daughters so that they
escape the hardship of township life? And the
sons, becoming members of a gang or selling
drugs or becoming addicts to drugs? Society
cannot defeat what it does not understand.
The author presents us with an opportunity to
not only understand but, perhaps, grow to
empathise with our kinsfolk so afflicted. The
content is well presented; the characters,
unforgettable, and the language pitch perfect!
This author knows the world she depicts;
using one family as the centrepiece of the
story while the whole, entire, community is
also involved is nothing but masterly.
HSS Awards celebrate humanities scholars for their rich contribution to society
Prof Gabeba Baderoon – Book: Non-Fiction Monograph winner for Regarding Muslims: From Slavery to Post-Apartheid (left),with Book: Non-Fiction chairjudge, Prof Shireen Hassim (right).