As much as it was a conference on
Germanistik (German Studies) it also highlighted the international footprint of the University of the Free State (UFS) and the important role of international and national academic collaborations.
The German Section in the
Department Afrikaans and Dutch; German and French at the UFS hosted the second conference of the
Association of German Studies in Southern Africa (SAGV) and German Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (GAS) from 15-18 April 2019 on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.
“We are very proud to be hosting the conference. It is an international conference with delegates from overseas who are all working in German Studies or to use the German term
Germanistik,” said Dr Cilliers van den Berg, Head of the German Section at the UFS.
Waiting room in Germanistik explored
Warteräume (waiting rooms) was the theme of the four-day conference with various research papers on the role and/or value of these waiting rooms within
Germanistik. “It is the transitional areas, within
Germanistik, on every conceivable level,” said Van den Berg. The conference was sponsored by the embassies of
Germany,
Austria and
Switzerland, as well as the
German Academic Exchange Service and the
Goethe Institute of Johannesburg.“When I look at the theme of the conference it is extremely exciting because it reminds me of Homi Bhabha’s Third Spaces, liminal spaces and the in-betweeners,” said Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of The Humanities.
UFS and internationalisation“One of the concepts we actively embrace is that of internationalisation. Globally and nationally, internationalisation has become accepted as one of the critical processes advancing the core business of universities,” said Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
The delegates who attended the conference were from countries which included, among others, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Italy, Kenya, Germany and Namibia as well as delegates from the universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Rhodes and North-West.
“You represent a multifaceted culture that has enriched our global academic and cultural landscape over many years: great minds like Goethe, Kafka, Beethoven, Mozart, Freud, and Einstein,” said Prof Petersen.