Prof Mogomme Masoga

Mogomme Alpheus Masoga is professor and dean of the Humanities Faculty. Mogomme’s research in African indigenous research and Decoloniality follows a 25-year experience. He has managed to develop Afro-sensed approaches and frames for conducting research in and with local communities. Pushing for a strong place of local communities in research and challenging researchers to ‘negotiate space’ in their work. He is the book series editor of the series publication working under the title, Knowledge Pathing: Multi-, Inter- and Trans-Disciplining in Social Sciences published by AOSIS. Recent published books: Studies on Indigenous Knowledge (2020) and Narratives of Culture, Identity and Community: From Mother to Son (2021).

 

 

 

 

Professor Nompumelelo Zondi or “Mpume” as she prefers to be called, is a newly appointed Vice-Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein Campus). She assumed the role on 1 March 2024. She was Professor and Head of the African Languages Department at the University of Pretoria (UP) from 2017 to February 2024. Prior to her employment at UP, she worked at the at the University of University of Zululand (2012-2017) and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (1995-2011). She is a National Research Foundation (NRF-C2) rated scholar and has published a corpus of work with high impact journals such as the London Folklore Society, Education as Change, Literator, South African Journal of African Languages and Agenda. Her scholarship converges on African literature (traditional and modern) as well as addressing gender inequality, especially in African patriarchal societies. She has published book chapters with Michigan State University Press in African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021) and with Orient Black Swan, in Indigeneity, Culture and Representation(2000). Her recent monograph, Bahlabelelelani-Why do they sing? Gender and Power in Contemporary Women’s Songs (2020), deconstructs her doctoral thesis (2008) which uniquely contributed to unlocking women’s agency in rural KwaZulu-Natal. She is a recipient of a prestigious and highly competitive Fulbright South African Research Scholar Program-SARSP (2022-2023). While her host university was The Ohio State University (OSU), the program provided her an opportunity to engage with a few universities in the US where she either delivered keynote addresses or guest lectures. She is a lead editor for 2023 (ESI Publication), Thetha Sizwe: Contemporary South African Debates on African Languages and the Politics of Gender and Sexualities. The book launch took place on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 30 January 2024. 

Prof Zondi looks forward to engaging with different departments in the faculty as well asidentifying niche areas of research with other faculties and universities nationally and internationally.  
 

 

 

 

Marlize Rabe joined The Humanities at the University of the Free State in April 2024 as Vice-Dean: Teaching and Learning. Prior to this position, she was a professor in Sociology at the University of South Africa until she joined the University of the Western Cape in 2020 where she also served as the head of the department. Her main research interests are inclusive family policies with a focus on how the state, families and the non-profit sector, including faith-based organisations, are linked to issues of care. She published extensively on non-residential fatherhood in South Africa and currently her focus is on fatherhood amongst incarcerated men. She is a former Vice-President of the South African Sociological Association and a former co-editor of the journals South African Review of Sociology and Gender Questions. Currently she is an associate editor of the Journal of Family Issues, and she serves on the board of the Committee of Family Research (RC06) of the International Sociological Association. She has a C2-rating with the National Research Foundation.

 

Faculty of the Humanities
University of the Free State
PO Box 339
Bloemfontein
9300
South Africa

Marica Coetsee
T: +27 51 401 2240
E: humanities@ufs.ac.za