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Faculty Of Humanities 2012 Report To URC

Prepared by

Prof Shireen Hassim (Assistant Dean Research) and

Ms Anne Campbell (Faculty Research Office)

15 August 2013

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1. Composition and Responsibilities of the Faculty Research Committee

The FRC is constituted on a democratic basis – it includes all heads of schools, heads

of school research committees, plus elected representatives of the staff levels lecturer,

senior lecturer and associate professor, as well as directors of the various research

entities.

The FRC makes overall policy decisions, and approves the annual budget. Sub-

committees of the FRC make decisions with regard to the award of AdHoc Grants,

Research Promotion Grants and the allocation of special funds such as Mellon grants.

Apart from the research output of staff in schools (Literature, Languages and Media

Studies; Human and Community Development; Arts; Education and Social Sciences),

the FRC has oversight with regard to the centres and institutes within the Faculty.

These are:

History Research Group (History Workshop)

Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA)

Centre for Diversity Studies (in progress)

Centre for the Creative Arts in Africa

Health Communications Unit

African Centre for Migration Studies

The LINK Centre

Education Policy Unit (REAL)

SWOP

WISER

2. The Faculty Research Plan

The Faculty aims to

Provide support for individual researchers through the research promotion

grant (this supports research costs)

Encourage the development of a thriving intellectual culture, high quality

research linked to global and local debates and the building of international

networks (through the conference grant line)

Facilitate time out from teaching responsibilities at strategic moments in a

research cycle, such as completion of PhDs, books, and journal articles

Support collective projects in Humanities and Social Science that position the

Faculty nationally and globally (support for WISER, SWOP, History

Workshop and REAL)

Although the overall ethos is one of encouragement and support, there are also

various mechanisms for ensuring that funds are used to their maximum effect in terms

of publications outputs. All grants come with conditions for publication, and failure to

deliver accredited publications means that there will be no further support for

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conference attendance or research grants until the publication commitment is met.

This has worked very well. Additionally, because we cannot support conference

attendance to the extent that we would like, researchers are responsible for co-

payments to cover costs. At the moment we are able to fund a local conference every

year and an international conference every two years (to a maximum amount of R15

000). Co-payment tends to come from individual or school RINC, or out of

researchers’ own pockets.

The FRC chairperson also sits on the Faculty’s Staffing and Promotions Committee,

Budget Committee and Faculty Executive. This allows the alignment of various

endeavours such as identifying areas of productivity and those that are lagging behind

at discipline level, and working collaboratively in setting norms for probation,

confirmation and promotion that are aligned with the research plans of the Faculty

and the University. This cross-fertilisation of knowledge also helps the FRC to

understand where support is needed to assist teaching staff in particular to achieve

their research ambitions as smoothly as possible.

On the policy front, the FRC spearheaded the drive to get recognition for creative

work and for books to be valued as significant outputs for research subsidy, both

within the university and in the DoHET system. We have also worked hard to share

information about funding sources that were previously opaque to researchers in

Humanities (such as capex).

The careful balancing of supporting active researchers while creating the enabling

conditions for young staff to become research active, and balancing individual

research needs with collective projects, has served us well and provides a solid

foundation for the Faculty.

It is this combination of support for excellence and for creative initiatives that has

raised the profile of Humanities – it is not an accident that research awards like the

Friedel Sellschop and Claude Leon are now being won by researchers in our Faculty.

The Graduate Centre in the Faculty is another innovation of which we are proud, and

indeed which has modelled a range of new methodologies that advance the quality of

postgraduate research, link postgraduate students with academic staff in a trans-

disciplinary manner, and support the process of writing for both postgraduate students

and younger staff.

By supporting individual researchers and research collaborations, we have created a

Faculty that is not only growing in productivity but is also a genuinely stimulating

place to be. The calendar in the Faculty is thickly populated with seminars, public

lectures by globally-recognised academics, conferences and colloquia. Over the years,

we have seen ever-widening networks of ideas and researchers and can see the impact

of this on the attractiveness of the Faculty for postgraduate students and postdoctoral

fellows. Morale and collegiality has also grown in tandem. Our research institutes

have been crucial in creating epistemic communities across the Faculty that draw

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international scholars into conversation with Wits academics and postgraduate

students. Together, these initiatives make Wits a desirable destination for PhD

students.

In our view, the best guarantor of long term sustained success is to create an

environment in which researchers feel intellectually excited, want to be part of

debates and conversations, and feel peer pressure (rather than punitive regulation

from above) to be publishing and energetic in setting the terms of intellectual debate

locally and globally.

3. Prizes, Awards and Honours

The faculty is extremely proud to report the following research-related achievements

for 2012

Professors Garth Stevens and Norman Duncan were the recipients of the

University’s Transformation Award for their leadership of the Apartheid

Archives project.

Professors Brett Bowman and Mzikazi Nduna won the prestigious Change

Fellowship award for emerging researchers in psychology. They were two out of

just five emerging psychologists worldwide to have won this award.

Professor Claire Penn was awarded a Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies

Residency in February 2012.

Dr Jennifer Watermeyer was awarded the Friedel Sellschop Award for research

excellence among young researchers and the Mellon Mentorship Award. She was

also recognised as an emerging researcher by the National Research Foundation.

SHCD postgraduate students Janice Moodley, Kim Baldry and Caitlin Longman)

won a number of awards at the in the Faculty of Humanities section of the 2012

Cross-Faculty Research Day

Dr Brenda Mhlambi in African Languages was awarded Most Outstanding

Literature Article for 2011 by the African Language Association of Southern

Africa in 2012. Brenda also received a University of Michigan African

Presidential Scholars scholarship to carry out research on Black opera in South

African at the University of Michigan.

Professor Leketi Makalela received a grant of R57000 from a university wide

project on High Potential Youth by the Vice Chancellor and the Dean of

Humanities.

The Faculty of Humanities granted seven academic members of staff the SPARC

ISI grant that aimed at supporting and encouraging academics who wants to

publish in ISI accredited journals.

Professor Leketi Makalela received a grant of R165 000 from Carnegie

Cooperation to conduct a large study on morpho-syntactic properties of Black

South African English in township schools.

Alison Kearney, Corin Mathews (R94 000), and Prof Leketi Makalela (R62 000),

each has been awarded an NRF Thuthuka Competitive Grant.

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Prof Ruksana Osman received a grant of R250 000 from the Department of

Higher Education and Training and used the funds to advance practice-based

research in teacher education.

Professor Hilary Janks and Dr James Stiles were granted funding by the Zenex

Foundation and supported by the NRF and the Johannesburg Centre for Software

Engineering to conduct a multidisciplinary research project that seeks to

understand the use of mobile literacy skills by Grade 5 learners.

Professors Jill Adler and Hamsa Venkatakrishnan received a further R2 million

grant, respectively, for the two NRF Chairs hosted by the Wits School of

Education in Mathematics Education.

Professor Karin Brodie received renewed funding of R3 023 204 for the Data

Informed Practice Improvement Project (DIPIP) in 2012.

4. SARChI Chairs

There are three established Research Chairs in the Faculty. Professor Noor

Nieftagodien has an NRF Chair in ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’; Professor

Jill Adler has a First Rand Foundation/NRF Chair in ‘Mathematics Education’; and

Professor Hamsa Venkatakrishnan has a First Rand Foundation South African

Mathematics Education Chair (in Numeracy).

During 2012, SARChi chairs were awarded in Diversity Studies and in Migration

Studies.

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5. Valid NRF Ratings 2012

Name Title School Faculty Rating Valid until

Freschi, F Professor Art - Music Humanities C2 2016

Zaidel-Rudolph, J

Professor Art - Music Humanities C1 2017

Nettleton, ACE Professor Art - Art History Humanities B2 2013

Wafer, J Professor Art - Art History Humanities B3 2015

Moyo, L Dr Art - Media Studies Humanities Y2 2017

Willems, W Dr Art - Media Studies Humanities Y2 2017

Adler, JB Professor Education Humanities A2 2017

Brodie, K Professor Education Humanities C2 2017

Cloete, EL Professor Education Humanities C3 2012

Fleisch, B Professor Education Humanities C2 2016

Janks, H Professor Education Humanities B1 2016

Makalela, L Professor Education Humanities Y2 2017

Rollnick, MS Professor Education Humanities C1 2016

Venkatakrishnan, H

Professor Education Humanities C2 2013

Penn, MAC Professor H&CD - Speech Pathology Humanities B1 2013

Finchilescu, G Professor H&CD - Psychology Humanities C2 2015

Ivey, G Professor H&CD - Psychology Humanities C1 2015

Marchetti-Mercer, MC

Professor H&CD - Psychology

Humanities C3 2012

Thatcher, AJ Professor H&CD - Psychology Humanities C1 2017

Horn, AC Professor Modern Languages Humanities C2 2015

Horn, PRG Professor Modern Languages Humanities B1 2016

Hofmeyr, CI Professor African Literature Humanities A2 2012

Ogude, JA Professor African Literature Humanities B3 2012

Petersen, BKJ Professor African Literature Humanities B2 2012

Gqola, P Professor Literature & Languages - English Humanities C2 2017

Houliston, V Professor Literature & Languages - English Humanities B3 2015

Thurman, CJ Dr Literature & Languages - English Humanities Y2 2015

Titlestad, MF Professor Literature & Languages - English Humanities C1 2012

Milani, T Professor Literature & Languages - Linguistics

Humanities Y1 2017

Inggs, J Professor Literature & Languages - Translation Studies

Humanities C2 2016

Landau, L Professor Social Sciences - Forced Migration Humanities B3 2016

Palmary, I Dr Social Sciences - Forced Migration Humanities C1 2016

Bonner, PL Professor Social Sciences - History Humanities B1 2015

Delius, PN Professor Social Sciences - History Humanities B2 2015

Taylor, RL Professor Social Sciences - Politics Humanities B3 2016

Thornton, R Professor Social Sciences - Social Anthropology

Humanities C1 2012

Gilbert, L Professor Social Sciences - Sociology Humanities B3 2013

Kenny, B Professor Social Sciences - Sociology Humanities C2 2016

Steyn, ME Professor Social Sciences - Sociology Humanities C1 2016

Gunner, L Professor WISER Humanities B1 2012

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6. Postdoctoral Fellows

Surname First Name Discipline

Bocchiola Michele Philosophy

Grover Lisa Philosophy

Sommerdyk Stacey History

Brown Julian History Workshop

Moloi Tshepo History Workshop

Chisanga Tadios Psychology

Schumann Anne Media Studies

Kadyamusuma McLoddy Linguistics

Hungbo Jendele WISER

Jungar Anna SWOP

MacDonald Andrew CISA

Mati Jacob SWOP

Macqueen Ian SWOP

Patahuddin Sitti Mathematics Education

Otulaja Femi Mathematics Education

7. International Research Collaborations

The sheer scope and depth of international collaborations runs into several pages, and

can be produced if the URC would like to see these. They range from individuals who

are involved in multinational research projects to formal memoranda of understanding

between universities abroad and Wits.

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8. Support to Research Entities

Budget

from FRC

RINC

Earnings(Prov.)

Higher

Degrees

Units

for year

Rands

per unit

EPU R515 862 3.33 - 3.33 R154914

SWOP R1 128 867 10.08 6 Masters 16.08 R70 203

History

Research

Group

R116 613 3.25

5 MA

8.25 R14 135

WISER R1 399 058 7.68 3 PhD 16.68 R83 876

9. Ad Hoc & Research Promotion Grants

Budget from

FRC

Commitments Estimated

RINC

Rands per

unit

2012 R427 905 14.5 Journal

Articles

2 PhD completions

1 Edited volume

1 Guest editing of

special edition

1 Translation &

afterword

1 Exhibition

14.5

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2.08

?

Creative

Creative

R18 951

10. Conference Fund

Year Budget Articles in Journals

or Peer reviewed

conference

proceedings

Rands per unit

2012 R500 000 51 R9 804

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11. Activities of the Humanities Graduate Centre

Although the Graduate Centre was not funded through the FRC for 2012, we consider

the activities of the Centre key to the overall research environment in the Faculty, and

integrally tied to our efforst to improving the quality of our postgraduate programme

and our throughput figures.

The Grad Centre offers workshops that take postgraduate students and young staff

through the research cycle from conceptualisation through methods to publication,

and attracts participation ranging from 14 to 67 students. The workshops are led by

senior staff in the Faculty.

In addition, the Grad Centre ran a Key Thinkers Seminar Series in 2012. Prof

Mbembe’s series of seminars on Fanon and the Subject of Emancipation was the most

popular, with 95 participants. Overall, over 500 people attended the 2012 Key

Thinkers series.

Other activities include a mentorship programme, support for postgraduate students to

attend conferences and the highly popular and successful writing retreats which

involved 98 participants in 2012. Our early analysis of the relationship between these

activities and publication output is promising: there is a direct correlation between

participation in writing retreats and publication. Prof Worby is preparing this data

currently and we can share this with URC when it is ready.

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12. Research Data

Research output: DE Units - Estimate including chapters and books

DHET UNITS PER DEPT IN SCHOOLS 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011* 2012* 3 year

average

DE Units DE Units DE Units DE Units DE Units

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 38.26 31.39 39.62 41.99 47.19 48.13 45.77

Education Policy Unit 2.97 3.42 1.17 0.05 0 0 .02

TOTAL 41.23 34.81 40.79 42.04 47.19 48.13 45.79

Centre for the Creative Arts in Africa 1.48 .49

SCHOOL OF HUMAN & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 39.28 34.99 37.53 53.6 54.18 61.44

56.41

SCHOOL OF LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE STUDIES 23.99 34.27 36.42 62.35 42.34 64.9

56.53

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 43.46 45.33 71.89 55.34 65.66 50.25 57.08

History Research Group 0.00 2.54 0.00 2.00 10.42 4.54 5.65

Sociology of Work Unit 7.86

TOTAL 51.32 47.87 71.89 57.34 76.08 54.79 62.74

WITS SCHOOL OF ARTS 15.36 10.83 9.82 8.44 13.95 11.42 11.27

Creative Output 18.25 17.25*

TOTAL 28.07 25.69* 13.95 11.42 17.02

GRAD SCH OF HUMAN & SOCIAL SCIENCES 13.56 4.32 0.00 0.00 00 00

0

WITS INST FOR SOCIAL & ECON RESEARCH 9.88 12.45 27.52 11.81 11.53 7.82

10.39

SWOP 4.46 2.9 7.49 7.3 10.49 8.43

CISA .45 .15

FACULTY TOTAL 194.62 184.00 245.12 260.77* 252.57 260.47 257.44

*

UNIVERSITY TOTAL 910.80 840.25 909.58 925.65 1090.71 1152.2

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TOTAL (incl. Creative units) 936.83* 942.9*

HUMANITIES AS % UNIVERSITY TOTAL 21.38 21.89 24.43 26.43 23.16 22.48

HUMANITIES AS % (incl. Creative units) 26.59* 27.36*

TOTALS ONLY Incl. retrospective 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

2009

2010 2011

2012

units for 2000-2012. 2011/12 ESTIMATES

Est.

Est.

Est

HUMANITIES 128.81 144.43 121.49 120.44 181.23 152.06 177.54 194.70 183.93 226.84 244.66 252.57 260.47

CLM 106.17 95.73 99.85 101.41 91.20 74.41 107.39 77.70 79.10 73.36 96.60 90.08 93.97

EBE 34.60 69.02 40.02 51.85 83.41 62.52 72.11 94.06 63.97 85.24 112.07 131.62 122.61

HS 223.77 222.07 232.00 215.44 187.00 223.32 207.44 255.46 259.45 245.42 187.22 283.03 291.33

SCIENCE 246.77 267.58 258.10 210.85 244.63 242.57 273.58 285.43 251.33 258.27 271 317.60 353.52

OTHER 4.78 4.96 3.06 0.78 3.16 4.05 5.47 3.45 2.47 20.09 14.1 15.81 30.37

UNIVERSITY TOTAL 744.90 803.79 754.52 700.77 790.63 758.93 843.53 910.80 840.25

909.22

925.65

1090.71

1152.27

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Comparing across the university, the Humanities research output is obviously

something that the Faculty is proud of. In quantity and quality, Wits Humanities is the

leading humanities faculty in the country.

Nevertheless, there are areas of concern. Overall, the FRC would like to see subsidy-

earning productivity increase in the research institutes and units. Both SWOP and

WISER have recently stabilised their leadership and we are confident that we will see

an increase in the next year. Both institutes are raising funds and have very powerful

plans in place that promise to leverage both their national and global standings into

publications. History Workshop has been the pivot for the SARChI chair, and the

output in publications and standing relative to the input from the Faculty is something

to commend them for. The Education Policy Unit, on the other hand, has not

produced what is expected and this is being addressed through the Dean.

Among the schools, the School of Social Sciences has declined slightly. The head of

school is addressing this currently and a plan is being put in place to support staff to

balance the teaching and research demands.

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Postgraduate Completions in 2012

PhD Count 2010-2012

School 2010 2011 2012 Total 3 Year weighted average (1PhD = 4 points)

Faculty totals – annual average

Humanities as % for this degree type

Arts 1 5 1 7 9.33

Education 5 2 11 18 24

Human & Community Dev

4 4 6 14 18.67

Literature, Language & Media

3 10 8 21 28

Social Sciences

11 16 12 39 52

Totals 24 37 38 99 132 30.37

Points 96 148 152 396

Masters by Dissertation

2010 2011 2012 Total 3 Yrs

Average DE points per annum

Humanities as % University for this degree type

Arts 6 8 9 23 7.67

Education 3 1 3 7 2.33

Grad Centre

1 1 0 2 .67

H & CD 4 1 14 19 6.33

Lit, Lang & Media

20 11 12 43 14.33

Social Sc 16 9 5 30 10

Totals 50 31 43 124 18.32

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Coursework Masters Qualified students by Research Percentage of Degree

Res % ‘2010 ‘2011 ‘2012 Total 3

years

Average

DE

points

per

annum

Humanities

as %

University

for this

degree

type

Arts 50 30 34 25 89 14.83

50 3 0 3 .60

Education 50 20 70 15 105 17.5

Human &

Community

Dev

25 4 3 2 9 .75

Human &

Community

Dev

50 39 47 37 123 20.5

Human &

Community

Dev

66 5 17 12 34 7.48

Literature,

Language

& Media

50 8 10 8 26 4.33

Social

Sciences

50

61 72 70 203 33.83

Faculty

totals

170 253 169 592 99.83 32.15

There are two areas of concern here. Firstly enrolments are down, attributable to the

shifts in the fee structure which resulted in international students being discouraged

from enrolling at Wits. Secondly, the postgraduate throughput and completions rates

are undoubtedly troubling. Rapid expansion (as in 2011) without resources has its

own burdens. The Faculty is addressing this by providing a range of additional

resources to postgrads, as the section on the Grad Centre outlines. We expect to see

positive changes in th enext two years.

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