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Johann Rossouw: “The soul of academy is at stake”

22 March 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Johann Rossouw Inaugural lecture — Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities; Prof Fani de Beer, Prof Rossouw’s mentor; Prof Johann Rossouw; and Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic.

For Prof Johann Rossouw from the Department of Philosophy, the Naval Hill Planetarium – a digital planetarium on a hill in the centre of a modern city, was the perfect place to deliver his inaugural lecture titled, The soul of the academy.

The message of his inaugural lecture was on “the form adopted by the contemporary university, which is so focused on the quantitative that the qualitative is neglected. The focus on training is so strong that the university no longer pays attention to the education of students”.

Prof Rossouw referred to the soul of the academy as the highest in humanity, especially the part which cannot be counted. He also referred to the words of Blaise Pascal in the 17th century: “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing”.

“Do we understand any of this in the contemporary university? And do we still remember the earliest origins from which the academy originated; that Philosophy is the mother discipline of all other disciplines, and how all contemporary disciplines form part of a bigger, coherent entity?” he asked.

The inaugural lecture took place on 28 February 2019. Prof Rossouw has a C2-rating from the National Research Foundation, and it is thanks to him, among other things, that the Department of Philosophy is the only South African Philosophy department with modernity studies as its main focus.

At the end of 2018, he was promoted to Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Free State (UFS), and currently he serves as acting Head of Department. “Due to Prof Rossouw’s involvement, among other things, research on African philosophy, critical theory, postcolonial thinking, and tradition and modernity is conducted in the department,” Prof Heidi Hudson (Dean: the Humanities) said.

Prof Rossouw started his formal training in Philosophy at the age of 12, and in 1991 he obtained a BA degree majoring in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Pretoria, with distinction. He obtained his MA degree, a critical study of apartheid on the basis of Michel Foucault’s thinking, at Unisa in 1998. In 2002, he obtained his DEA in Philosophy at the University of Lyon 3 under the leadership of Régis Debray, and in 2013 his PHD on the theological trail in Bernard Stiegler’s thinking at Monsh University (Melbourne), under Michael Janover.

In 2016, he won a prize from the South African Academy for Science and Culture for one of the best Afrikaans humanity articles published in 2015.

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UFS academic discusses Dutch, Afrikaans and African languages

2006-05-22

During the colloquium presented in Belgium by the Province Antwerp were from the left Prof Pol Cuvelier (University of Antwerp), Prof Theo du Plessis (Director: Unit for Language Management at the UFS), Mr Ludo Helsen (Permanent Deputy: Province of Antwerp) and Mr Jean-Pierre Rondas (Flemish radio journalist).

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UFS academic discusses Dutch, Afrikaans and African languages at international conference

Prof Theo du Plessis, Director of the Unit for Language Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), was the main speaker at a colloquium titled “Routes: Where to now? - Een traject van het Nederlands naar het Afrikaans en de Afrikatalen”, which was recently presented by the Province Antwerp in Belgium.

The aim of the colloquium was to discuss the future cooperation in the field of language between the Province Antwerp and South Africa.

The Province Antwerp is already involved with projects in South Africa. One of these projects is the Multilingual Information Development Programme (MIDP), a partnership project between the UFS and the Free State Province that is mainly funded by the Province Antwerp.

The project has been running since 1999 and was recently in the news with the presentation of a symposium on multilingualism and exclusion on the Main Campus of the UFS. It is hoped that the Routes colloquium will indicate new stages on which can be added to the already successful cooperation in the area of language.

Prof Du Plessis’s presentation titled “Nederlands, Afrikaans en die Afrikatale – kan samewerking slaag? Die geval MIDP in die Vrystaat”, investigated the successes that have been made with the MIDP. He discussed two possible approaches to cooperation in the areas of language, that of a sentimentalistic approach against an instrumentalistic approach.

Cooperation in the first approach makes language the aim. In the second approach language is used as a means to a greater aim. According to Prof du Plessis the first approach is driven by a romantisised idea about the relation between the Flemish and Afrikaans speaking people, which may unfortunately polarise the position of Afrikaans in South Africa even further.

He argues that, given the time that we are in, the second approach will deliver more constructive results as language can among others be used for to further democracy in South Africa. This can happen by cooperation in the institutionalising of multilingualism in our society. The more languages are used in education, law and government administration, the more we can be assured a successful democracy.

The Routes colloquium was facilitated by the well-known Flemish radio journalist, Jean-Pierre Rondas. About twenty South African and Flemish language specialists took part in the colloquium. Dr Fritz Kok, outgoing chief executive officer of the ATKV took part in the opening ceremony and Dr Neville Alexander from the University of Cape Town and well-known activist for multilingualism in South Africa was also one of the main speakers.

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