​​​More than 80 nursing educators from the Western Cape and beyond converged on Stellenbosch University's (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) in March for what has been hailed as a “very successful" seminar of the Nursing Education Association's (NEA) Western Cape chapter.

This was the first time the event was hosted by SU. The theme was “Voices of Health Professions Education".

It was also the first time that a seminar was included in the post-graduate diploma course in nursing education at SU, said Dr Guin Lourens of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, programme co-ordinator of the diploma.

Prof Portia Jordan, the new Head of the Department, welcomed all delegates to the seminar.

Lourens said about half of the attendants were SU post-graduate nursing education students from all over South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho. Others hailed from universities including the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Western Cape, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), the Western Cape College of Nursing, as well as nurse educators from the Western Cape Health Department.

She said she had collaborated with NEA chairperson Gohwa Fisher and deputy chair Linda Jonker to realise this historic event.

The speaker line-up included an international keynote address on global nursing education trends by Prof Phillip Moons of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium; a talk on effective clinical supervision by Dr Elize Archer of the SU's Centre for Health Professions Education (CHPE), and a talk by the CHPE's Justine Geiger on a framework for fit-for-purpose training.

In his talk, Moons discussed the main competencies required of nurses once they graduate as professionals. These include making nursing diagnoses independently; collaborating with other professionals; teaching the adoption of a healthy lifestyle, as well as ensuring and evaluating the quality of nursing care.

Other presentations included cutting-edge work emanating from various master's studies, such as Fisher on learning styles and Penny Gill on digital storytelling at CPUT. Groote Schuur's Terry Wulff shared an innovation on game boarding as a teaching strategy.

Commenting on the symposium's success, Lourens said: “We received positive feedback from the students and other attendees. The general consensus was that it should become an annual event."

According to Lourens, a key achievement of the symposium was that it drew together the local higher education stakeholders in nursing education.

“It also introduced the next generation of nursing educators to the network of the NEA and showcased local expertise in the field of nursing education teaching and learning strategies, as well as providing an international perspective."

On international nursing education trends, Lourens said: “We are all grappling with an international shortage of nurses, which means nursing educators are also in short supply, especially those with master's or PhD degrees. The shift is towards a four-year degree in nursing globally for training of professional nurses and many countries abroad are still in transition."

Caption: Dr Guin Lourens, Gohwa Fisher (NEA chair), Prof Portia Jordan and Dr Elize Archer.

​With an undergraduate nursing programme having been reinstated this year at Stellenbosch University (SU), it is an exciting time to be at the helm of the Department of Nursing and Midwifery. 

“The programme offers a transformative journey for the candidates, as it includes transformative pedagogies and learning and teaching methodologies," says Prof Portia Jordan, who commenced as new executive head of this department in March. 

It has been 15 years since a graduate degree in nursing has been on offer at SU. The new Bachelor of Nursing is a four-year degree that would enable a graduate to register with the South African Nursing Council as a professional nurse and midwife. 

A total of 54 nursing students were accepted at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences for this new programme, which is offered on the Tygerberg campus and its associated distributed clinical platform. “It is exciting that SU is one of only two universities in the country that has been granted accreditation to present the programme in 2019," says Jordan. 

Her vision is to strengthen and grow the Department of Nursing and Midwifery in the delivery of excellence in leadership, scholarship and clinically competent graduates who are prepared for future work. In collaboration with other stakeholders and academia in the Western Cape and nationally, she intends to create a hub for excellence at SU in order to strengthen the nursing profession in general. 

Jordan was born and bred in Port Elizabeth, where she completed her basic nursing degree at the University of Port Elizabeth. “After completion of the degree I worked at Tygerberg Hospital in the intensive care and renal units for a period of one year." 

She returned to Port Elizabeth and a decade in intensive care units at the local provincial hospital followed. Jordan then joined the Department of Nursing at Nelson Mandela University as a lecturer. She worked there for 15 years and was promoted to department head in 2016. 

Jordan holds a PhD in Nursing, Masters of Business Administration, Masters Curationis in Critical Care Nursing (cum laude), Baccalaureus Curationis, Diploma in Nursing Education (cum laude) and Diploma in Nephrology Nursing.

Why did she take up this specific career? “I chose nursing, in particular intensive care and nephrology nursing science, in order to deliver quality and safe care to those who are entrusted to our care by loved ones. As nurses we are in a privileged position to be part of the delivery of a new born, the developmental stages from toddler to geriatric, and to be part of either a good recovery and/or rehabilitation or a peaceful death of a patient." 

Jordan, who has supervised more than 45 postgraduate students, is a National Research Foundation (NRF) Thuthuka research grant holder and PLUME research fellow. PLUME - a structured support programme – is designed to support nursing schools to develop research programmes and produce lead researchers who will not only create research intensive programmes in their nursing schools, but also enhance their own skills, working towards the NRF scientific rating.

Jordan's research programme focusses on the implementation of best practices and evidence-based guidelines to promote patient safety, particularly in mechanically ventilated patients. She has and published several peer reviewed articles in this research area. She is the co-editor of the book “Foundation of Nursing Practice: Fundamentals of Holistic Care," of which she has written three chapters in the two editions of the book.

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The award-winning writer, editor, satirist and columnist, Ms Mariann Thamm, has called on the next generation to help uncover untruths. She delivered the eighth annual Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert (FVZS) Honorary Lecture at Stellenbosch University (SU) on Monday 19 August 2019.

The theme of her lecture was Navigating your way in a world filled with untruths. She also encouraged the many young people in attendance to help make society a better place for the generations to come.

“The way to navigate our way through a world filled with untruths is by seeking the truth. We also need to strengthen our institutions of democracy by ensuring a free and accountable media, which subscribes to a code of ethics," said Thamm.

Thamm is assistant editor of the Daily Maverick, a top-selling author, comedian and commentator at large. She has written several successful books, including Hitler, Verwoerd, Mandela and Me and Alison Botha's story, I Have Life.

In his welcoming speech at the event, Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at SU, praised Thamm for her incredible work. He also said that events like the FVZS lecture would ultimately help empower students to become active citizens in society.

“In 2011 we launched the FVZS Institute for Student Leadership Development, which has since enriched the lives of thousands of students who have benefited from its short courses, series of discourses and other activities – and not only Stellenbosch students, but students from other universities locally and abroad. We hold Van Zyl up as a role model to students because he helped build bridges across the divides – not only in our country, but also at his alma mater," said De Villiers.

The late Dr Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert was a respected politician, business leader, critical thinker and SU Chancellor. The annual FVZS Honorary Lecture aims to stimulate critical and challenging dialogue about our country and the continent. The event is hosted by SU's Centre for Student Leadership & Structures' (CSLS) FVZS Institute for Student Leadership Development, with financial support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Mr Henning Suhr, Resident Representative at Konrad Adenauer Foundation, expressed how excited the foundation was to have been part of the FVZS lecture over the last few years.

“For many years the foundation has supported the annual lecture of the FVZS Institute for Student Leadership Development. This is an excellent platform for discussing a topic, which is relevant to the actual debate in the country," said Suhr.

He also expressed his delight at the fact that this year's speaker works for The Daily Maverick, whose slogan is 'Defend Truth', something that Suhr believes is important in our society.

“It is important to strive for the complicated truth, rather than the convenient and often untrue soundbite. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is working worldwide for the promotion of democracy and strengthening the free press," said Suhr.

During her lecture, Thamm also reiterated the importance of a free press and believed that it was every citizen's democratic right to help uphold press freedom and eliminate the spread of disinformation.

“Disinformation is designed specifically to cause public harm, to fracture society, to reduce trust in the media and to undermine democratic processes. Seek out those who themselves seek truth and guard the Constitution that is the foundation of our democracy in South Africa," said Thamm.

For more information on the FVZS Institute click here.

Photos by Henk Oets.

​The scars of childhood trauma run much deeper than the actual abuse or neglect experienced by the child. Studies have revealed that they can have a lifelong effect on brain functioning. Now researchers at SU's Department of Psychiatry are studying the long-term effects of childhood trauma on local populations.

A postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Dr Georgina Spies, is unravelling the impact of childhood trauma in HIV positive women, while Lindi Martin is analysing its role in the development of anxiety disorders among high-school learners as part of her PhD studies.

Spies' study explores the impact of early childhood trauma and HIV on the brain. It has highlighted the need for trauma screening to be included in HIV care. People with HIV commonly experience cognitive deficits such as attention and memory disturbances, delayed reaction time and disturbance of executive functioning (the mental processes that enable people to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and juggle multiple tasks). Studies assessing early-life trauma have also revealed disturbances in brain function and structures. “The brain and behavioural changes that accompany early life trauma may result in additional complications related to the course of HIV disease in this vulnerable population," Spies says.

She is leading a long-term study in which the brain function and structure of more than 300 women from Cape Town are compared. Half of the women are HIV positive and the other half HIV negative. Each of the groups included women with and women without a history of childhood trauma. All of the women underwent neurocognitive assessment using a neuropsychological battery sensitive to the effects of HIV, as well as structural magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain volume. These tests were done at the onset of the study as well as one year later.

 “The most commonly reported childhood trauma type was emotional abuse, followed by emotional neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse and lastly sexual abuse. Results revealed that the average brain volume was significantly smaller in HIV positive women who had experienced childhood trauma, compared to the other three groups," Spies says.

Several regions of the brain were affected, including the domains associated with processing speed, working memory, executive function, motor skills, learning and verbal fluency. These effects were more pronounced in women living with both HIV and childhood trauma.

“This is the first study to assess the combined impact of HIV and trauma in women with more advanced disease. It highlights the potential contributory role of childhood trauma to brain volume alterations and neurocognitive decline in HIV-infected individuals. “These findings underline the need for trauma screening and for the integration of trauma-focused interventions in HIV care to improve outcomes in affected individuals," Spies explains. Her research is supported by the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

*The article appears in the latest edition of the Stellenbosch University Research Publication. Click here to read more. 

​​​​​Firebrand. Art lover. Traveller. These are the three words that friends recently sponsored as a birthday gift for political scientist Prof Amanda Gouws. There's a host others that one could choose to describe her by too: Feminist. Academic. Garagist winemaker. Columnist. Lover of poems and novels. Fighter. Friend. Mother. Activist. Political psychologist.

“I am very accessible to my students and likeminded people, but stereotypically people think that I am difficult, and that I am often angry. Which is of course also true some of the time," she just smiles in her office in the Arts and Social Sciences building with its view over the campus of Stellenbosch University. "But if for instance you've been at a university for 30 years, and still have to constantly reinvent the wheel ever so often, you really do get a little fed up."

On Wednesday 11 September Gouws will present the next lecture in the Division for Research Development's Forward with Research Impact series, at 13:00 in the Old Main Building (law faculty). She will talk about the influence that attitudes about culture have on gender equality.

"Interestingly, the data shows that women tend to feel more strongly about the stereotypical roles of men and women, and that some go to great lengths to reproduce them," explains Gouws, who was among the thousands of South Africans who marched to Parliament last week to protest against violence against women.

Gouws currently holds the SARChI Chair in Gender Politics in the Department of Political Science. She has served on more committees on women's issues, sexual harassment, gender equality, discrimination and violence against women within the sphere of the University and South Africa than is appropriate for one CV. She has written new courses, arranged overseas exchange programmes and co-authored a book on political tolerance in South Africa. She has also helped to edit four others, the latest being Nasty Women Talk Back (2018) with her PhD student, Joy Watson.

For the past 16 years, Gouws has written opinion pieces for the newspaper Die Burger. She regularly shares her views on gender-related issues on radio and on television. No wonder she was one of the first academics to receive a new Rector's Award for being an outstanding voice in the media last year.

Through her bi-weekly opinion pieces, Gouws tries to broaden Afrikaans readers' perspectives on gender, politics and social events in the country.

“In 2003, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation asked me to write something for Youth Day. It was about how vastly different white and black students engaged with issues about reconciliation, or something like that," she tries to recall. “Back then (Thabo) Mbeki was still president. He later quoted almost two thirds from it in Parliament. Of course, it suited his agenda."

After that, Die Burger asked her to write a regular opinion piece. It often elicits quite strong, confrontational reactions – but in the process she has developed a skin as thick as a Sunday newspaper. She's been publicly called a traitor, and another time was threatened with so much heinous violence on a far-right website that she had no choice other than to report it to the Human Rights Commission. Five years later, no steps have yet been taken against the (male) author.

“I get hate mail and I also get fan mail. The hate mail can be very intense, and at first it upset me," she explains. "There are not many grey areas when it comes to what people think of me."

The hate mail is 99.9% of the time from men.

“It's not necessarily about what I said or wrote, but what I represent. 'A woman out of her place'", she muses.

Then Gouws adds: "I come from a stubborn line of French Huguenots who were prepared to stand by their principles."

The makings of a political scientist

“I love being a political scientist. In South Africa, that means there's never a dull moment. There's something about gender issues every day. I'm generally always enthusiastic about my work, and it's a big part of my identity. "

Gouws grew up as the child of a bank official who was, typical of his profession, relocated often. It meant that she quickly learnt how it felt to be the outsider. She started her schooling at Truida Kestel Primary School in Bethlehem and completed it ten different school uniforms later as the Dux learner of Eldoraigne High School in Centurion.

“Moving so often made me the outsider. You develop a sense of fairness and justice. This definitely contributed to my later choices," Gouws believes.

There was at least one plus to her father's career in the bank sector. In her first year, she was visiting the building where he was working. An art exhibition was presented in the foyer, and there this avid art collector purchases her first pieces of art. It was a set of pencil sketches by Judith Mason. Gouws simply knew she had to buy it, because of the way that Mason's social commentary spoke to her through her art.

Back then, Gouws was studying BA Communication at the then Rand Afrikaans University, largely because she loved writing. Thereafter, she became a journalist at the Afrikaans daily newspaper Beeld, while also working on an honours degree in political science.

At the newspaper, she was in for a shock, and had to hear that women couldn't write politics: “They assigned me to the fashion pages. It simply did not work for me," she emphasises.

She admits that she only understood the concept of gender equality (or lack thereof) once she stood in the workplace: “First job and they say I can't write politics. And I am qualified!"

After six months in the newspaper industry, Gouws returned to university to obtain her master's degree. In the politically loaded early 1980s, she went on to lecture at UNISA, the University of the North and later also SU. The two years she spent at the University of the North in particular, opened her eyes to the often brutal treatment that the state machinery inflicted on black activists.

In later years, she was able to put her writing talent to good use in academia, through the writing of books, columns and journal articles across a range of disciplines.

"When I write, I work with a gender lens, and specifically from a feminist perspective," she explains. “Political science is a male-dominated field. This has started to change a lot in the last two decades, but most theories are still formulated with men's view of the world in mind."

Was her gender lens a deliberate choice?

Gouws breathes in, before telling how in the 1980s she was feeling disconnected from s the politics she had to teach: “Betty Friedan, an American feminist of the 1970s, called it 'the problem with no name'. You know something is wrong, but you do not know what it is.

"I knew there were things that bothered me. There was discrimination, and there was inequality, but in the early 1980s social justice and gender equality wasn't really addressed in political science."

She left for the USA in 1986 to complete a PhD at the University of Illinois. Her majors were political science and gender studies, a subject that one at that stage could not study in South Africa.

“There I started to understand why I felt so unhappy about things. I understood that I was attracted to gender studies because of the explanations it gave me about how I understood the world and viewed it. My unhappiness with the world about how I was treated as a woman," she emphasizes.

She has since often written about feminism within institutions and the state - always with a woman's perspective - and has helped to drive the large-scale development of gender studies in political science in South Africa. She draws inspiration from other women with a feminist mindset, and from her children:

“I have two daughters, who are also young feminists," she notes, before adding: “It's not like I deliberately raised them to be feminists, but I am their mentor and role model."

Then she smiles proudly, as a mother should: “They keep me grounded. I'm so proud of them."

2019 and women in South Africa

In 1994, Gouws was one of the feminist academics who helped write submissions made to the government on how the architecture of state institutions should promote gender equality.

And, where do things stand in 2019?

"Well, I think you have to be very strong, in the sense that it is really difficult to remain positive," she tries to be diplomatic.

“Everything is rolled back. We have this very dysfunctional ministry for women, youth and people with disabilities, that have actually had no successes yet. Four ministers later, and no success," she stressed.

She tells of a conference she organized shortly before Women's Month. It investigated the state structures that should be driving gender equality. Afterwards, many of those attending the event were quite depressed.

“Things are not positive. I often work with gender-based violence. It's a terrible thing to have to work with. I was a commissioner for the Gender Equality Commission and realized within 3 months nothing was going to happen."

At the time, a report she helped compile as Western Cape commissioner calculated that prisoners receive nearly three times more state money per day than is allocated for women and children fleeing to shelters as a result of domestic violence.

Nothing has changed since then.

All of this could leave one despondent, she admits.

“I remain positive about work, because I continue to believe in it," she adds.

“It's a tough battle, but just look where we started in the 1980s and where we are now. When I was young, feminism was severely frowned upon. Now young students embrace the concept. They will take the projects further. They are much more fearless. "

Then she muses again: “I'm the proudest of the people I've mentored during my career. And who I have been able to see grow."

​The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently celebrated its 25-year partnership with the community of Bishop Lavis with a Community Partnership Day.

The event, held at the Bishop Lavis Library, showcased some of the successful and mutually beneficial initiatives the FMHS and the Bishop Lavis community have collaborated on. It also provided an opportunity for reflection on, and appreciation of these partnerships.

Dr Leslie van Rooi, Senior Director for Social Impact and Transformation at SU, said that the university has been involved on a number of levels in the Bishop Lavis community for the past 25 years. “It is clear that these partnerships have grown. The purpose of today is to gain a better understanding of the relationships – how they formed and played out – and to reflect on how we can solidify and build on these partnerships.

“We are about to enter into a new phase, and today is an opportunity to take stock and see how we can expand and improve the partnership between SU and the broader Bishop Lavis community," Van Rooi said.

“The Bishop Lavis Rehabilitation Centre was developed 25 years ago with the aim of providing comprehensive healthcare to the local community, while at the same time providing our students with an opportunity to be of service on a primary care level," said Prof Susan Hanekom, head of the FMHS Division of Physiotherapy.

“The rehab centre is a student-driven primary care facility," said Hanekom. The services offered there include health promotion, treatment of impairments, comprehensive rehabilitation, full community integration of clients with disabilities, and empowering the community.

Representatives from a number of organisation attended the event, including the City of Cape Town, city councillors, the Bishop Lavis Development Forum, the Bishop Lavis Action Committee, the local rehabilitation centre and day hospital and the University of the Western Cape.

Sue Statham and Liesbet Koornhof, with FMHS Divisions of Physiotherapy and Human Nutrition respectively, have been involved in the rehabilitation centre since the inception of the partnership, and gave an overview of how the FMHS established the primary healthcare training platform in Bishop Lavis.

“We were breaking new ground," said Statham. “The whole project depended on partnerships between the university, the community, and the Department of Health."

In his talk, Dr Martin Heine of the FMHS Division of Physiotherapy, presented an ambitious new plan to expand the university's involvement in the Bishop Lavis community. As part of the City of Cape Town's Urban Renewal Programme, which will see upgrades the centre, SU plans to enlarge the current student learning platform to involve not just interdisciplinary, but interfaculty teams of students that can apply their learning there for the betterment of the community.

SU staff and students also paid tribute to community volunteers who help out at the rehabilitation centre. These volunteers, many of whom have disabilities and were patients there once, assist at the centre without any compensation.

Other community projects, such as the Bishop Lavis Day Hospital's Community Oriented Primary Care project, and the Words Open Worlds (WOW) projects, were also presented on the day. 

​​In yet another “feather to her cap", Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry in the FMHS, Professor Soraya Seedat, has been appointed as a 2020 Women Global Chair by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

Seedat was appointed along with another world-leading academic and renowned scholar on gender-based violence, Professor Jacqui True from Australia's Monash University.

Seedat, who is recognized as an expert on global mental health, has more than 20 years of clinical, epidemiological and basic neuroscience research experience as a psychiatrist under her belt. Her research interests range from gender-based violence to post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, HIV/neuroAIDS, as well as early life adversity and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Her work has taken her to into the heart of some of South Africa's most vulnerable communities and she has collaborated to build research capacity among early-career researchers in countries on the African continent, in South-East Asia and Latin America.

Seedat, who qualified as a medical doctor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal before completing her specialist training in psychiatry at Stellenbosch University, was, in 2017, awarded the prestigious Chancellor's Award for Research at Stellenbosch University for her two decades of eminent research.

The winner of the 2013 Mail & Guardian Women in Science award has received many accolades and awards and has written more than 350 journal articles and book chapters, and has had her work cited in scientific literature around the globe.

In their announcement, on the Global Chairs of Seedat and True, the University of Bath said the appointments of the two visiting professors will “lend further support to Bath's core partnerships in Australia and South Africa and will strengthen our university's global research networks in the fields of mental health and gender".

“The Women Global Chair Scheme highlights women in academia through the funding of international visiting professorships. The two visiting professors will be able to use the Global Chair platform to enrich the celebration of women academics across all disciplines at the University of Bath."

Commenting on Seedat's appointment, Professor Sarah Halligan said: “I'm absolutely thrilled we will be welcoming Professor Soraya Seedat as a Global Chair. Soraya is an international leader in child and adolescent mental health, with expertise ranging from psychiatric genomics to intervention-based research. Her appointment will be a major opportunity to consolidate our existing links and to develop a wider range of collaborations in the global mental health field. I'm very much looking forward to hosting her in Bath."

Seedat said: “I am really honoured to be chosen as a Women Global Chair. The visiting appointment at the University of Bath will be for the period 1 September 2019 - 31 August 2020 and I will undertake two visits over this time.

“This appointment as Global Chair will allow me to further develop my relationship with Prof Sarah Halligan and her team. We have overlapping research interests in the longitudinal trajectories of youth from high adversity environments and in identifying early psychobiological signatures of persistent PTSD that may be targets for early intervention. I am very excited about engaging with other staff and students and generating new research projects and collaborations at a university level and across the G4 alliance (the GW4 Alliance is a network of four of the most research-intensive and innovative universities in the UK: Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter)".

Photo credit: Stefan Els

Prof Anneke Hesseling keeps a painting by Sir Luke Fildes called The Doctor above her desk. The image of the Victorian-era general practitioner observing the “crisis of illness" in a child in those (pre-antibiotic) days is an enduring one – a record of the status of the physician at a particular time in history.

It's an image she grew up looking at often as it used to hang in dad, Peter Hesseling's, study for years. He is a renowned paediatric oncologist based at Stellenbosch University (SU), and Anneke's maternal grandmother, Emma Terblanche, was a psychiatrist who trained at the University of Witwatersrand in the 1920's. “I actually wanted to study music, but medicine is something I kind of fell into. I'm really glad I did!"

Appointed as the Director of the Desmond Tutu Tuberculosis Centre (DTTC) based at SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) in 2016, Hesseling says she has an “urgent responsibility" to address efforts to prevent tuberculosis (TB) both locally and internationally. After HIV/Aids, this ancient disease is the leading infectious killer on earth. This toll continues despite a known cure existing for nearly a century. Large-scale efforts to ensure the prevention of TB are thus the modern imperative.

Children are her focus

Hesseling is especially concerned with the effects of TB on children, as its rampant spread still affects one in ten South African children. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that at least 1 million children under the age of 15 currently suffer from TB worldwide and the yearly death toll is some 250 000.

“For centuries there were just these finite ways to treat a disease like TB which, coupled with HIV, causes further complexity. Minors do not get to choose their circumstances or what they are exposed to. They are passive recipients of everything that happens to them and that is why I've decided to make this specific focus my passion," Hesseling explains.

Her many accolades include being awarded the first research chair in paediatric TB in South Africa a few years ago. With nearly twenty years' experience in paediatric TB research in South Africa; she has carved a career path which was virtually unheard of when she completed her medical studies at SU in the 1990s. “At the time, public health wasn't this awe-inspiring thing to look into, but then I worked and studied abroad, first in Amsterdam in 2001 and then in the USA in 2003. Spending time and obtaining training in epidemiology and public health in the USA offered me a global (health) perspective of South Africa and its response to TB and HIV/Aids specifically. That was a transformative experience and it set the course for what would eventually become my career."

Consultative approach

Through continued edification and leadership of mentors and the people who came before her, she has come to understand the value of a working environment which fosters collaborative learning in an effort to find the answers to some of the most pressing questions in the field. “The (DTTC) environment has always consisted of this wonderful group of researchers who led from the front and have left us with a rich legacy. I count professors Nulda Beyers (the former and founding DTTC director), Mark Cotton, Simon Schaaf, Peter Donald and Robert Gie as real pioneers in this respect. We also have a wonderfully rich and research-supportive academic department here in Paediatrics and Child Health, with a strong legacy of clinical research."

She has chosen to lead the DTTC, which was established in 2003, in a systematic but consultative way, entrenching paediatric TB alongside operational research and health systems strengthening and HIV prevention as key strategies in a bid to achieve the centre's objectives. “Our current vision and strategy is to be the global leader in paediatric translational TB research, to become a leader in other key research areas within the next five years, as well as to lead in other domains globally in terms of implementation and health systems strengthening. It is the only way to approach pandemics of this nature.

“We have strong collaborations internally, nationally and internationally to support the design, implementation and analysis of our research programme and we are working very hard at building capacity in our own ranks," Hesseling says. “I have increasingly started to realise what role social behavioural research plays in our work, which is why we prefer to work consultatively. When you are looking for solutions, you have to realise that everything is connected, including social determinants of health. TB and HIV affect families and communities."

Hesseling is a strong proponent of evidence-based strategies and therefore focuses on motivation for good research infrastructure as far as possible. “The DTTC is uniquely positioned in this university in that we're working off a phenomenal research base. This is not necessarily a given everywhere. The DTTC is furthermore geared towards pooling collective knowledge in a consultative and pragmatic way as a means to build capacity for the future and foster the next generation of researchers." These strong collaborative efforts have resulted in what she calls a “breeding ground for great research", which facilitates translational work. “For example, where we've developed an intervention that is relevant for adults, we will ask which strategies (of that intervention) children will like, and what works in the context of families and communities."

Leaders in clinical research

Her work is furthermore concerned with finding ways to translate the very granular findings of scientific research into policy. In mid-2018, Hesseling co-authored a large international systematic review, which was published in the weekly medical journal PLoS Medicine. The review showed that tuberculosis treatment is successful in children with multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and informed the WHO's guidelines on the treatment of MDR-TB in children in 2017.

According to Hesseling an estimated 32 000 children develop MDR-TB each year. Treatment for MDR-TB is longer and requires more toxic drugs. “These regimens are frequently hard to tolerate, particularly in children. Very little is currently known about the optimal treatment for these children and this review therefore provides vitally important information about potential outcomes and some very good news for the TB field.

“We are now leading clinical research on novel drugs like bedaquiline and delamanid in children, and plan on evaluating a six months orally administered regimen for MDR-TB treatment, which will be a major breakthrough for children in South Africa and globally.

“We are also leading work on better ways to treat and prevent TB in children, ending decades of historical neglect in this area," Hesseling concludes.

Photo credit: Damien Schumann

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The first inaugural Social Justice Summit and International Conference presented by Prof Thuli Madonsela, Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University (SU), kicked off on a hopeful note on Thursday, 29 August 2019 with various high-level speakers and members of civil society coming together to unpack the concept of social justice in South Africa.

The summit and international conference is taking place at the Hazendal Wine Estate outside Stellenbosch from 29–31 August and is themed “Leveraging the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Human Rights Agenda to advance Social Justice". The outcome of the summit will be to emerge with a declaration detailing the desired future regarding social justice efforts, a summary of current challenges, and a call for action to government, businesses, society and academia, the judicial system and the global community.

At the opening ceremony, Prof Madonsela reminded those in attendance about the importance of everyone working together to help solve social justice issues in the country.

“An injury to one is an injury to all. As long as there is injustice somewhere, there can't be sustainable peace anywhere. We are here today because, like the UN, we believe that no one should be left behind as society and the world progresses into the future. We are here to decide as part of the summit where we are in South Africa with regards to social justice. If we work together, then poverty will be nothing against us, it will be history. It will take all of us to build a society where there is a place for everyone in all areas of our lives," said Prof Madonsela.

Prof Madonsela also shared the Social Justice M-Plan (Mosa-Plan for Social Justice) with those in attendance. The Social Justice M-Plan is a social justice accelerator programme that aims to catalyse the process of ending poverty and equalising life opportunities by 2030 as envisaged in the National Development Plan (NDP) read with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The project seeks to establish, among others, a social justice think tank to help government accelerate progress towards socio-economic inclusion and related shared prosperity as part of anchoring democracy and the rule of law.

SU Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wim de Villiers, reiterated Prof Madonsela's remarks during his speech at the opening ceremony. He stressed the importance of the M-Plan for Social Justice and said that it needed a strong coalition that sought to end poverty and drastically reduce structural inequality.

SU Rector, Prof Wim de Villiers.

“Societal challenges can't be solved in isolation. We have representatives from all of these sectors here. We must all do our part – universities, the rest of civil society, the state and also businesses. Stellenbosch University is committed to advance knowledge in service of society. We have made a commitment to be a force for good in the transformation of South Africa into a place of opportunity for all, a place of shared prosperity and a place where there's sustainable peaceful coexistence," said Prof de Villiers.

Representing the South African president, Mr Jackson Mthembu, Minister in the Presidency, delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony. He said that government was hopeful and looked forward to the outcomes of the summit.

Mr Jackson Mthembu, Minister in Presidency.

“We commend Stellenbosch University for elevating this issue around social justice in our national discourse. We need more of these engagements. This summit and conference is timely for us to have a microscopic look at the justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities and privileges within our society. As we commemorate 25 years of our democratic dispensation, it is more compelling for us to examine the way in which human rights are manifested in the everyday lives of people at every level of our society," said Mr Mthembu.

He further also employed those in attendance and the rest of the country to not only look to government alone to help solve the social injustices in South Africa. “Leaving government as the sole proprietor of the social justice project is limited. Everyone has to do his or her part. It is important to elevate the voice of the poor to plot the way forward. We look forward to seeing how this summit will help come up with more solutions to help alleviate poverty and inequality," said Mr Mthembu.

The keynote speakers and panellists for the three-day summit include Dr Pali Lehohla, former Statistician General; former President FW de Klerk; Nicky Newton King, former CEO of the JSE; Busiswe Mavuso, CEO, Business Leadership South Africa; Ben Turok, former anti-apartheid activist and MP; Justice Dunstan Mlambo, Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa; Ashraf Garda, media host and investigative journalist; and Sello Hatang, CEO, Nelson Mandela Foundation.

In a declaration adopted at the end of the first day's summit, delegates expressed their concern about ongoing poverty in South Africa, the inequality still experienced by women, and a deterioration in social cohesion in our country. They called for accelerated change, and committed to joining hands to reverse disparities in all sectors of society. Those attending the conference the following two days resolved to form a coalition of universities, researchers and civil society that would work in a coordinated way to advance social justice. 

• Watch the live streaming of the remainder of the summit on the Social Justice M-Plan Facebook page.
  

​

The Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden (SUBG) is the only garden in Africa and one of only 11 gardens in the world to have been named an Accredited Conservation Practitioner by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).

The BGCI Conservation Practitioner accreditation recognises excellence in plant conservation policy, practice and education, and accredits botanic gardens carrying out plant conservation activities of local, national or global importance. SUBG received this prestigious award in 2018. From orchid micro propagation to conservation work, the team at the renowned SUBG is hard at work ensuring that the garden maintains its international accreditation. And despite the ongoing water crisis in the Western Cape, limited funds and staff, the SU Botanical Garden is flourishing.

“Our conservation focus is now primarily bulbs and orchids, because they are both things that have a disproportionate number of threatened species here in the Cape Floristic Region, and can be grown in quantity in our small spaces. They both also happen to be charismatic, cool and pretty and a nice sell within a botanical garden, which we want to share with the public," says Dr Donovan Kirkwood, curator at the garden.

In picture 1: Haemanthus pumilio, Duthie Nature Reserve.

In picture 2: Oxalis collecton - supporting major SU academic programme

Kirkwood was appointed in October 2018 and has been hard at work becoming acquainted with the garden's large plant database and making sure the SU Botanical Garden (SUBG) earns its Accredited Conservation Practitioner status.

Part of SUBG's strategy development and role as a BGCI accredited garden is to look at more conservation work and research, public education and sustainability.

“We are working hard on developing our orchid micro-prop technique and methodology. Orchids don't have seed reserves. In nature, they form a symbiotic relationship with a fungus once they're in the ground and that stimulates germination and the fungus actually feeds them for the first few weeks and months, that's why it's so hard to grow them in a lab," says Kirkwood.

In addition to its conservation work, the SUBG has also been putting effort into creating scientifically sound and compelling content housed in its plant database, which in turn produces the plant labels and interpretation boards at the garden.

In picture 3: Spring Cape daisies between the glasshouses.

In picture 4: Satyrium pumilum on Changs plated.

Because collecting must comply with both Provincial regulations and permitting and have landowner permission, the Botanical Garden has been in discussions with both SANParks and CapeNature to enable collecting within their respective protected areas (nature reserves) and this will be applied formally over the next few months.

Kirkwood says some new collections take a long time to nurture from seeds and cuttings into display plantings. “For one of our new glasshouse displays we want to showcase that South African summer rainfall diversity is not just simple grassland and thorny bushveld, but includes places with complex associations of tropical, subtropical and savannah ecosystems, with multitudes of fascinating, useful and often highly restricted and special plants and trees. Longer term we are working towards showcasing some of our extremely threatened Cape lowland habitat types."

However there are already nearly 4 000 unique plants in the garden, and it's always a great time to visit and enjoy the sheer diversity and beauty the garden has to offer.

Note:

Day fee entrance is R15 for adults and children older than six.

However, school groups and educational entries (pre-booked), Stellenbosch University staff and students (must tap in staff or student card every entry) and visiting academics with valid staff card from another academic institution, have free entry to the SUBG.

The SU Botanical Garden is situated at the corner of Van Riebeeck and Neethling Streets in Stellenbosch and is open 08:00 to 17:00 (Monday to Sunday). The garden is closed on certain public holidays. For more information on the Botanical Garden, visit https://sun.gardenexplorer.org/.

​Stellenbosch University's (SU) efforts to mitigate the risk of day zero has resulted in a 45% reduction of water usage in 2019 when measured against the year 2015.

Since the implementation of a new grey water system, the institution is determined to reach a 63% water saving target, said John de Wet, Manager for Environmental Sustainability at the Facilities Management Division.

SU commissioned consulting engineers to conduct a water balance study. The study detailed the major sources of consumption across all campuses and as a result, a drought response plan was rolled out.

The response plan led to campus-wide campaigns such as “war on leaks" and the rollout of water efficiency equipment and measures such as showerheads, rainwater harvesting, the use of boreholes and the catching of groundwater.

According to De Wet, the institution was able to achieve these great results through the efforts of students who piloted a variety of water saving initiatives. “We must give credit to the students for their contribution to help us save water; without the students this huge reduction wouldn't have been possible," said De Wet.

He said students at Simonsberg and Eendrag residences actively collected shower water to use for flushing toilets and irrigation purposes.

De Wet said they worked way in advanced on the water crisis and the aim of the institution was to change systems by introducing grey water to flush toilets He said this will soon be carried out in both student residences and academic buildings.

Nadeem Gafieldien, Director for Property Services at SU, said these results show that people can stand together during a crisis.

“We are thankful to the Department of Higher Education and Training for recognising our water saving efforts as an institution and awarding us a R7 million grant in their sustainable infrastructure and efficiency category," said Gafieldien.

He said the goal was to have all the toilets at SU flushing with grey water to avoid another day zero.

​Students and staff of the School of Accountancy at Stellenbosch University recently acted as camp leaders and mentors at various development camps for Grade 11 and 12 learners across South Africa.

An initiative of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), week-long development camps are organised annually in cooperation with provincial departments of education, the accounting profession and university representatives with the purpose of improving learners' performance in Mathematics, Science, Accounting and English.

SU Auditing lecturer Prof Riaan Rudman, who visited camps in the Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and the northern parts of the country, said, “More than 2 500 Grade 11 and 12 learners attend SAICA's annual development camps."

“Students and staff of the SU School of Accountancy have been involved with these camps for more than a decade. We see it as a way of 'giving back' to the community. Even some of our alumni are involved in providing camp leader training." 

Although the aim of camp leaders is to transfer their knowledge and lessons learnt to the learners, SAICA project manager Ms Betty Abrahams said that the camps also stimulate student leaders to become aware of their personal potential and awaken their awareness of their responsibility as the future leaders of South Africa.

“Learners are taught to step out of their comfort zones and become inspired and empowered to make crucial decisions about their lives and their career paths," she added.

Learners are also offered life skills training and career information to help them make appropriate career choices.

• Photo: Prof Riaan Rudman of the School of Accountancy at Stellenbosch University (far left) and Mr Godfrey Legwale, SAICA Project Manager (far right) are seen here with the top maths and accounting learners of the Mpumalanga Camp Centre.
  
  

​5 September 2019

CALL BY VICE-CHANCELLORS FOR A MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA TO DISCUSS THE SCOURGE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

We are experiencing an epidemic of incomprehensible violence. South Africa's universities are reeling this week from the rape and murder of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana and the murder of UWC student Jesse Hess at a truly tragic moment in our country's history, a moment that has moved South African society, across constituencies, to say enough is enough. This is one of many cases of gender-based harm that afflicts womxn in South Africa on a daily basis. This is not the society we want - the status quo pertaining to gender-based harm must change. We cannot stand back and allow womxn to be violated. We need all branches of society to unite and to work together to eradicate gender based harm in society. We also need political leadership and a practical agenda that works within our national and constitutional laws to ensure that we find a long-term sustainable solution to eradicate this scourge.

Our people are angry – angry about the violent abuse of womxn that happens daily, angry about not being heard, angry about the irrational violence that robs people of their lives, angry about the lawlessness in our country, angry about the wanton destruction of infrastructure and angry about the empty promises and lack of political leadership on these matters. We have every right to be angry. 

At the same time, we cannot allow our anger to spill over in a way which reduces us to lawlessness or advances further harm. For example, a number of individuals have been named on social media as alleged perpetrators of gender-based harm, without investigation or a determination of the facts around the matter. In the last few days there are cases where individuals, including womxn, have been identified on social media as perpetrators of gender-based harm, with calls for people to congregate outside their homes to intimidate them. On investigation, it was found that some of these accusations were scurrilous and that these accusers used the current moment opportunistically in order to settle scores on unrelated matters. These are the unintended consequences of social media and mob justice – where people abuse a just cause to further their own agendas.

There are political forces at play who are eager to manipulate this national tragedy to fulfil their own agendas – both within and beyond the academic sector, regardless of the rules of universities or the law of the land. In recent days we have seen how mob justice against foreign nationals have left people dead and families decimated because people have no regard for the law.

It is imperative to hold those who are guilty of perpetrating gender based harm to account and we should do so through the channels and processes developed to address gender violence. Universities South Africa and its members have a zero tolerance approach to gender based harm and progressive policies are in place to ensure that perpetrators are dealt with decisively.

All complaints of gender-based harm should be referred to the respective Gender Equity Offices at the universities who have committed to investigating all complaints expeditiously.

So, what can we do as members of the academy?

All 26 Vice-Chancellors will engage the Presidency by Friday the 13th of September, with the view of registering our anger and developing a plan of action for addressing the scourge at the universities.  

Universities are powerful social institutions with agency. They have much to contribute to transforming the culture that produces this form of cowardly violence.

This statement is issued by Universities South Africa on behalf of the vice-chancellors of all 26 universities.

​As part of a process of further developing the Lückhoff Living Museum in partnership with the local community, Stellenbosch University (SU) will hold a special ceremony on 26 October at which two of the original school benches will be returned to the school.

Fifty years ago in 1969, as a result of the Group Areas Act of 1950, learners from the Lückhoff School in Banhoek Road, Stellenbosch, were forced to vacate their beloved school and relocate to the new Lückhoff School in Idas Valley, some carrying their benches as they left.

Fifty years on, SU and the larger community of Stellenbosch will commemorate this event and continue a process started in 2007 by the then SU rector and vice-chancellor, the late Prof. Russell Botman, during which the Old Lückhoff School building in Banhoek Road was symbolically rededicated to its original owners.

At the time, Botman said that the rededication was infused with a spirit of hope and an intent to “serve as a balm to deep-rooted wounds and pain, which we believe will heal with time".

Mr Neville Bruintjies, a 1969 alumnus and recently retired Lückhoff educator, commented, “I share my excitement with all other Lückhoff alumni, that this 'proud ou gebou' from a shattered past will again arise as a domain from which a pedagogy of healing, of hope and restitution can emanate".

“This initiative further aims to facilitate the continuing process of critical conversations, spaces of healing, memorialisation and reflecting on 50 years since the painful forced removals during the spring of 1969," explained Dr Leslie van Rooi, Senior Director: Social Impact and Transformation.

“The Old Lückhoff School currently houses the SU Division for Social Impact as well as numerous Stellenbosch NGOs. The Lückhoff Living Museum will form the central point of our reflection and discussions about the history of the historic Vlakte community. As such, it will acknowledge our history while also guiding us in building bridges for the future. This will help us not to repeat the mistakes of the past", added Van Rooi.

He added that SU acknowledges the Lückhoff school community of 1969 and intends to further develop the Lückhoff Living Museum in partnership with the local community in the spirit of restoration and the implementation of a practical demonstration of redress and development. “The ceremonial return signals the continuation of the flame of restorative justice that was lit in 2007 by Prof. Botman."

“The impact of the forced removals in the greater Stellenbosch has not been adequately researched. The voices that are still unheard need to be acknowledged and documented in order for healing to take place. This is a wonderful opportunity for a new way of being together to redefine community. I am passionately connected to the Lückhoff School through my late father, an English teacher and part of the school community of 1969, and look forward to co-creating this wonderful initiative," stated Ms Renee Hector-Kannemeyer, Deputy Director: Division for Social Impact.

In a spirit of restorative justice, SU has acknowledged its contribution to the injustices of the past since 2000 and committed itself to appropriate redress and development initiatives. In its centenary year, in 2018, SU developed the SU Restitution Statement,* in which it acknowledges its contribution towards the injustices of the past, expressing regret and unreservedly apologising to the communities and individuals who were excluded from the historical privileges that SU enjoyed.

Invitation

In keeping with the University's values of compassion, equity, accountability, respect and excellence, the institution's Division for Social Impact extends a warm invitation for past learners of the Lückhoff School and members of the Lückhoff school community of 1969 to participate in the ceremony to symbolically return two of the original school benches in an act of restorative justice.    

• The event is to be held on Saturday 26 October 2019 from 12:00 to 15:00 in the Old Lückhoff School in Banhoek Road in Stellenbosch.
• Liaise with Ashtrolita Rudolph at arudolph@sun.ac.za or tel. 021 808 3645 for more information and to RSVP.

*STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY RESTITUTION STATEMENT

Stellenbosch University (SU) acknowledges its inextricable connection with generations past, present and future. In the 2018 Centenary Year, SU celebrates its many successes and achievements. SU simultaneously acknowledges its contribution towards the injustices of the past. For this we have deep regret. We apologise unreservedly to the communities and individuals who were excluded from the historical privileges that SU enjoyed and we honour the critical Matie voices of the time who would not be silenced. In responsibility towards the present and future generations, SU commits itself unconditionally to the ideal of an inclusive world-class university in and for Africa.

Respect, humility, accountability, reciprocity and an acknowledgement of the knowledge and needs present in communities – these were some of the talking points at Stellenbosch University's annual Social Impact Symposium hosted at STIAS on Friday, 6 September.

SU views Social Impact as the evaluable change incurred through mutually beneficial associations, collaborations and partnerships between the university (staff, students and alumni), and external societal partners in government, industry and the various institutions of civil society.

The theme of the symposium was “Social Impact through learning and teaching and research: Enhancing ethical partnerships" and it had a dual purpose: To reflect on progress with the implementation of Social Impact (SI) as a strategic priority of SU through learning and teaching as well as research, and to better understand how SI initiatives are implemented through ethical and purposeful partnerships.

The symposium took place against the backdrop of country-wide protests against gender-based violence and a moment of silence was observed.

In his opening, Dr Jerome Slamat, Executive Manager: Rectorate, referred to “engaged scholarship", which assumes a knowledge ecology in which interaction with social partners leads to the co-production of knowledge.

“For SU, Social Impact is not an add-on – it is part of the essence of the university," said Prof Nico Koopman, Vice-rector: Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel.

“We want to be an institution that is concerned with the wounds of society and aims to – in a humble way – make a difference through research and innovation, learning and teaching, co-curricular activities and our professional expertise."

Ms Ernestine Meyer-Adams, Director: Social Impact, expanded on this by saying that Social Impact should not only be ingrained in the culture of SU, but should BE the culture of SU, with societal wellbeing as a core goal and social justice as a core commitment.

SU follows a model of embedded SI, which refers to the integration of SI into all the academic and co-curricular practices of the university through the notion of engaged scholarship and engaged citizenship and Meyer-Adamas emphasised that embedded social impact requires equal partnerships that speak to the needs of communities.

“Yes, our communities are the beneficiaries, but so is the institution. We need to reposition ourselves as a university so that we also reposition our partners, and really value the partnerships."

Representatives of three SI initiatives shared their experiences with the audience.

Dr Burt Davis, senior lecturer at the Africa Centre for HIV/Aids Management at SU, who developed a photo storybook to address the problem of tik abuse, explained how important it is to treat all partners in a project as research equals. He also believes that research should have a direct benefit for the community, and not just an academic benefit for the researcher.

Ms Rhoda Malgas, a lecturer in the Faculty of AgriSciences, discussed the value of participatory research and acknowledging the knowledge available in the communities. She emphasised the need for reciprocity, knowledge dissemination and feedback to the communities where the research was done.

Dr Leanne Seeliger from the Stellenbosch University Water Institute – involved with the Kayamandi River Partnership Initiative – spoke about the core principles of collaborative problem-solving, voluntary engagement and appropriate evidence-based innovation that actually makes a difference.

Ms Caroline Peters, who represented the Cape Flats Women's Movement, felt that social impact should focus on community capacity enhancement. According to her, communities often feel used and exploited. She suggested that researchers engage the experts in the communities in which they do their research and requested that they return to the community to share their findings.

During a panel discussion to conclude the symposium, Prof John Volmink, chairperson of the Umalusi Council, said that the boundary around universities should be porous so that innovation can pour from the inside out and from the outside in.

“Sometimes we forget that there is knowledge in the institution AND knowledge in the community. Both should be celebrated, and both should be respected."

​Three staff members from Stellenbosch University (SU)'s Division for Research Development (DRD) won prestigious awards on Thursday (5^th of September 2019) for their contribution towards research management in Southern Africa at the annual DSI/SARIMA (Department of Science and Innovation/Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association) Excellence in Research and Innovation Management Awards. These awards acknowledge and encourage growth and achievement in the field of research and innovation management as a key enabler of research and innovation outputs and impact. The winners were announced at a gala event at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West.

Cornelia Malherbe (Director: Research Contracts) received the DSI-SARIMA Award for Distinguished contribution to the Research Management Profession. This award recognises individuals who have made a specific contribution in the period under review (2018), but nominations are in respect of leaders in their respective fields who has demonstrated a broad national and international contribution to the profession over many years. Cornelia won the award for her leading role in implementing a number of critical institutional policies, regulations and tools, training of more than 300 researchers on contract management across SADC and her contribution towards the policies and procedures of the IPR Act. Cornelia also serves on various internal and external advisory and steering committees and has contributed to the improvement of compliance through business processes and integration of ICT systems to manage third stream income at SU.

Clarissa Graham (Research Ethics Co-ordinator: Human Research/Humanities) was awarded the DSI-SARIMA Award for Professional Excellence in Research Management. This award recognises individuals who have been in the Research Management or Innovation Management profession for seven years or less, and have made an increasing contribution to their organisation and the R&I Management community over that time. A specific contribution should have been made in the period under review (2018), as well as demonstration of an increasingly broad contribution to the profession.

Clarissa has been instrumental in building capacity at SU in the preparation and review of applications for research ethics clearance. In 2018, she facilitated the successful audit of the REC: Humanities by the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC), resulting in a renewal of the REC: Humanities registration with the NHREC, while also coordinating the reviews of more than 1000 new ethics applications. She has also played a pivotal role in the procurement, design, set-up and implementation of a new online ethics review management system, Infonetica, for Stellenbosch University, and gives regular training to users across nine of SU's ten faculties. On national and international levels she has represented SU at a national working group drafting research data management guidelines and has undertaken a research ethics processes benchmark visit to Bristol University the UK.

The DSI-SARIMA Award for Early Career Excellence in Research Management went to Aslam Arnolds (Administrative Officer, Research Contracts). The award recognises individuals who are newcomers to the Research Management or Innovation Management professions. Nominees must have less than five years' experience in any of the core elements that make up a Research Management or Innovation Management function whether they were in a formal organisational office or not.

Aslam supports the administration of an average of R1bn worth of contracts managed by the Research Contracts Office annually, He ensures that contracts data entered conform to the new SU Research Contract Management system. He is responsible for administrative aspects of research contracts and contracts procedures at SU, and has developed new processes and procedures related to research contracts management, including a Conflict of Interest recording and documents management site.

In response to these achievements, Dr Therina Theron, Senior Director: Research and Innovation at the DRD, said: "As a team we are very happy and humbled to have received this acknowledgement from our professional peers. It inspires and further strengthens the DRD's commitment to offer an excellent professional support service to our research community. I am extremely proud of my colleagues!"

The DRD will also provide key leadership support to SARIMA as a professional Research and Innovation membership organisation over the next two years, with Dr Therina Theron having been elected as the new SARIMA President and Dr Natasha Mothapo as a member of the SARIMA Executive Committee for the next two years.

MORE ABOUT SARIMA

Established in 2002, the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association is a stakeholder organisation that provides a platform for the promotion and facilitation of best practice in research and innovation management in Southern Africa. It strengthens the research and innovation system to ensure the social and economic development of the Southern African region. For more information visit www.sarima.co.za.

​​Stellenbosch University is making inroads into global research. For the third consecutive year the international citations to its research across multi-disciplines have increased markedly according to the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2020 that World University Rankings for 2020 that was released on 11 September in Zurich during the THE World Summit.

SU improved in 2020 on the indicators of teaching, research, citations and international outlook compared to last year. The most important improvement was on the citation score, which is 13% up on the previous period. This is the third year in a row in which SU has improved on this indicator.

The University has improved its overall position in the Times Higher Education WUR from 301–350to 251–300, occupying the third spot among leading universities in South Africa – after University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand. This places Stellenbosch University in the top 1% of universities globally.

“With our vision of being a leading research-intensive university, this is of particular importance for us. It also underscores one of Stellenbosch University's core strategic themes namely, Research for Impact," says Vice Chancellor and Rector, Prof Wim de Villiers.  

Prof Hester Klopper, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Strategy and Internationalisation at SU, says this result is a demonstration of the impact of SU's research world-wide and the recognition afforded to the calibre and stature of its researchers.

“At SU we are cognizant of the importance of rankings in the overall perceptions of an institution's academic and research standing. Our focus, though, is on academic and research excellence that will shape a better world for all. It is hugely gratifying when we gain international recognition in our quest to deliver solutions to societal problems through world class research and scientific programmes," says Prof Klopper.

Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of academics within the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University, the first translation and interpreting studies congress of the European Society for Translation Studies (EST) will take place on African soil this week from 9-13 September. 

Some of the most significant academics to teach and conduct research on translation and interpreting studies will be speaking at the five-day event, including Profs Anthony Pym, Christiane Nord, Christina Schäffner, Paul Bandia, Claudia Angelelli, Kobus Marais, Gary Massey, John Milton, Luc van Doorslaer, and Reine Meylaerts amongst others.

This is the 9^thEST congress and the first to be held outside Europe after SU successfully bid for and was chosen as the host of the congress that takes place every three years. The theme of the congress is Living Translation: People, Processes, Products.

According to Prof Ilse Feinauer, the Chair of the organising committee of the congress and a Professor in Afrikaans Linguistics and Translation at SU, close to 260 delegates from 46 countries are participating in the event with more than 200 papers to be delivered either as part of one of the 21 panels to be hosted or as a freestanding paper or poster. 

“The theme of this congress speaks to the latest research trends in translation studies, namely deep or thick sociological approaches used to describe lived realities in social contexts. The focus is inter alia on how and why the translation product has come about or what the relationships between and the roles of the various agents are, working towards this product. Living translationrelates to enactments of reality, in other words actual lived experiences, more so than reflections or reports onreality," said Feinauer during her address at the opening of the congress.

“In Africa in particular translation is intrinsically linked with its environment: translation in all its variety is not only the object of an academic discipline, it is a fact of life, because most African countries have a multitude of languages functioning on the lower functions, apart from the official languages, used for the higher functions. In order to communicate effectively, speakers need to operate in a lingua franca or a language that is not their first language or interpret for others. The theme therefore ties the discipline of translation studies to Africa as context."

​​This is underpinned by the topics to be addressed during the panels which include: 

• Transnational image building and reception
• Re-thinking the role of the interpreter in conflict-related scenarios
• Cognition live! The dynamic interaction with the environment 
• Translation as empowerment: new Bible (re)translations
• Translation technologies for creative-text translation
•  Intercultural competencies for translators: Do we have them?
• Translating minority voices in a globalised world
• Lawyers and linguists translating legal terms: Who is more literal?
• Emotions in interpreting – implications for people and process 

Prof Arnt Lykke Jakobsen, Emeritus Professor from Aarhus, Denmark, and the President of the EST, was also in attendance at the opening event where he spoke in more detail about the EST and its mission. He was re-elected as President during the congress and Feinauer became the first African scholar in Translation Studies to be elected as a member of the EST Executive Board Committee. 

The four keynote speakers who will set the tone for the next few days are Prof Guy Midgley, a leading expert in biodiversity and global change science at SU; Prof Kobus Marais, Professor in Linguistics and Language Practice at the University of the Free State; Prof Paul Bandia, a Professor of French and Translation Studies in the Department of French at Concordia University in Montreal Canada; and Prof Claudia Angelelli, a Chair in Multilingualism and Communication at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

“This congress," added Feinauer, “is also regarded as a meeting space for young scholars to foster future collaborations and network with other young and more established scholars who contribute research for a new generation of scholars that they can learn from, replicate and build on."

Feinauer thanked all the sponsors that made the event possible, including the Research and Innovation Division and Language Centre at SU, the Trust vir Afrikaanse Onderwys, Folio Online, Penguin and Random House publishers, Van Schaik publishers and bookshop as well as Welmoed and Kaapzicht wineries. 

Photo: The keynote speakers at the 9^thEuropean Society for Translation Studies (EST) congress that will take place from 9-13 September are Prof Guy Midgley of SU, Prof Kobus Marais of the University of the Free State; Prof Claudia Angelelli of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh Scotland and Prof Paul Bandia of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.(Anton Jordaan, SSFD)

For the full programme, visit http://www.est2019.com/programme/. 

​​Visit the SoTL website to view short Keynote Abstract Appetizer videos from this year's Keynote Speakers: Prof Geo Quinot (Stellenbosch University) and Prof Joy Mighty (Carleton University in Ottawa). The videos give a short overview of the theme and focus of the keynotes.

The 12th annual in-house Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference presented by Stellenbosch University (SU) will take place on 29 and 30 October 2019 at the Lord Charles Hotel, Somerset West. Pre-conference workshops will be offered on 28 October 2019.

The conference theme for this year is “Teaching Matters @ SU".

Prof Mighty asks, “Why teach? Why do YOU teach? Would it matter if you did not teach? How you answer these questions may provide important clues to how you teach, how you interact with your students, and your perceptions of the role that teaching plays in both your professional identity and the dominant teaching philosophy of your institution."

Prof Quinot depicts the focus of his paper as, “A collaborate paradigm of teaching and learning. It asks what the relationship is between the 'YOU' and the 'OUR' when one says, 'Your teaching matters'. The paper aims to link the individual teaching practice with a community of practice via the African value of ubuntu, asking whether such a collaborative paradigm is perhaps more appropriate for a university with the vision of becoming 'Africa's leading research-intensive university."

Remember to register for the conference before the closing date of 18 October 2019.

Please visit the conference website at http://www0.sun.ac.za/sotl for registration and keynote biographies.​

Enquiries: sotl@sun.ac.za​​​

​The South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder held by Prof Soraya Seedat, has a strong gene-brain-behaviour research focus, and aims to identify through state-of-the-art genetic and brain imaging methods the genetic, biological and environmental factors that contribute to increasing or decreasing a person's risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) once he or she has been exposed to trauma.

The main focus of the neuropsychiatric genetics research group, which falls under Seedat via the Department of Psychiatry's SARChI grant, is to identify and determine molecular mechanisms that result in the development of stress-related disorders and PTSD in particular. Family and twin studies indicate that a genetic component contributes to the cause of the stress-related disorders, but to date no gene variants have been conclusively identified as risk factors.

This may be because present candidate gene-based studies are limited in their selection of genes, given the currently incomplete knowledge about the pathophysiology of PTSD.

In addition, the role of the environment in the study of causation of PTSD cannot be underestimated.

“The overarching aim of our neuropsychiatric genetics group is to interrogate PTSD on a genetic, epigenetic, cellular and environmental level to identify genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic signatures that increase risk of developing PTSD, and to clarify biomachinery underlying the disorder," says Prof Sian Hemmings, who heads the Neuropsychiatric Genetics Laboratory.

Recent studies have investigated the association between candidate genes and increased levels of anxiety sensitivity in adolescents. Their analysis revealed gender- and ethnicity specific risks for the development of anxiety sensitivity, both with and without the interaction of childhood trauma. Also,

Exciting preliminary results from a large whole transcriptomic sequencing project on PTSD indicate that sodium voltage-gated channel alpha subunit 2 (SCN2A) is downregulated in PTSD individuals compared to trauma-exposed controls. “Although the results await verification, they are intriguing, given that SCNA2 is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia," says Hemmings.

 *The article appears in the latest edition of the Stellenbosch University Research Publication. Click here to read more. 

Photograph: Stock image - Unsplash