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12 June 2019 | Story Zama Feni | Photo Charl Devenish
Annatjie Bouwer
Annatjie Bouwer who is a Research Officer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.
The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Prof Hussein Solomon scooped a prestigious Best Published Book award for his critical analysis on the nature of environments, challenges, and opportunities facing the African continent in his book.

Titled African Security in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Opportunities, UFS Vice-Rector: Research, Innovation, and Internationalisation, Prof Corli Witthuhn, hailed the book as “An ambitious and in-depth study covering several regions, and with due regard for changing contexts and relevant historical legacies. This analysis is perspicacious, conceptually sophisticated, and based on a solid range of sources.”

UFS awards to stimulate staff creativity

Prof Solomon is a Senior Professor in the Department of Political Studies and Governance. The annual UFS 2018 Book Prize and Research Support Awards is aimed at recognising outstanding contributions by staff members in these focus areas.
Prof Witthuhn congratulated the winners and all the participants who spent time on their submitted work.

The other two entries in the Best Published Book category were Prof Philippe Burger, the Head of the Department of Economics and Finance, for his book titled, Getting it Right: A new economy for South Africa.

The other published book entry was that of Prof Jacobus Naudé, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Hebrew in the Faculty of the Humanities, titled, A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar.

Winning author’s analysis impressive

Prof Witthuhn said the author of the winning book employed a human security approach which not only examined and analysed these challenges, but also assessed the effectiveness of solutions and progress in addressing these challenges.

“This approach is critical to understanding the true meaning and context of security in Africa, by asking questions such as: security for whom and security for what?”

Bouwer comes top in research support category

Ms Annatjie Bouwer, a Research Officer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, emerged victorious among the nine entrants from various faculties. 

Her award was for the support she offered to the broad community of researchers within the Faculty of Health Sciences.



News Archive

A model of resilience – Dr Anja Botha probes into the ability to recover from trauma
2014-12-02

She may have been awarded her doctorate degree only in July 2014, but Psychology lecturer at the University of the Free State (UFS), Dr Anja Botha, is already making a name for herself with her latest research.

Her study aims to develop a model of resilience for South African adolescents exposed to trauma. “The broad field, within which I work, is that of Developmental Psychology, with a specific focus on child and adolescent development and therapy,” says Dr Botha. 

Resilience studies are situated within Developmental Psychology since normal developmental tasks – such as achieving self-confidence and building supportive relationships – contribute greatly to children’s resilience. Resilience broadly refers to the individual’s ability to ‘bounce back’ after being exposed to adversity.

“The model of resilience which I compiled was a good fit for my participant group, indicating that the model explains the development of resilience in these adolescents well. The factors that I found to promote resilience in the South African context include various coping skills, intra- and interpersonal strengths, family involvement, and school engagement.

“Thus, aside from my passion for resilience studies, I am also very much interested in coping, strength-based interventions, parental guidance and school-based programmes.”

Dr Botha was awarded a Donald J Cohen fellowship in August 2014 during the 21st World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists and Allied Professions. The fellowship is in recognition of her work as an emerging international scholar in the field of child and adolescent mental health. This award was based on both her research as well as her involvement in the training of postgraduate students in child psychology.

She is currently supervising a number of master’s students’ research on various constructs related to resilience.

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