Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
06 May 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Barend Nagel
Africa Month
Africa Month; a time to celebrate and reflect on African unity in diversity.

Africa Day marks the commemoration of the establishment of the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU), now called the African Union (AU). Every year on 25 May the continent celebrates its diverse peoples and cultures. At the University of the Free State (UFS), Africa Month is pinned on the calendar as a time for critical conversation. This year, it coincides with the general elections on 8 May 2019, when South Africans will exercise their democratic right to vote.
  
Opportunity versus opportunism

A series of events such as the Annual Africa Day Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies will mark the memorable month. Prof Francis Nyamnjoh is expected delve deeper into the topic of Ubuntu-ism and Africa: Reconciling opportunity and opportunism.  

Giving back to locals

The Student Representative Council is to champion a community outreach programme known as Meal In A Jar. This initiative will see learners at Joe Solomon Primary School in Heidedal receiving a hearty meal and stationery as a gesture of ubuntu and engaged scholarship. 

Dialogue beyond borders

The Office for International Affairs is to host the second Annual Africa Day Reflection and Celebration event at which topical issues of continental importance will be dealt with.

Migration, segregation, and liberation

The Debate Society together with the History Student Society will unpack Africa’s role in South Africa’s liberation, the formation of Southern Africa’s borders, and free internal migration policy. 

Debate on African Boarders
Tuesday 21 May 2019
15:00-17:30
Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus

Annual Africa Day Memorial Lecture
Wednesday 22 May 2019
17:30
Equitas Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus

Meal In A Jar
Thursday 23 May 2019
14:00
Joe Solomon Primary School, Heidedal

2019 Africa Day Reflection and Celebration (Livestream)
Friday 24 May 2019
11:00-14:00
Reitz Hall, Centenary Complex, Bloemfontein Campus

News Archive

Environmental sociologist from the USA visits the UFS
2009-12-03

From the left are: Prof. Bell, Dr Nola Redelinghuys from the Department of Sociology at the UFS, and Prof. Wijnand Swart, Director of Strategic Academic Cluster 4.
Photo: Lacea Loader
 
The Strategic Academic Cluster 4 (Technologies for Sustainable Crop Industries in semi-arid Regions) at the University of the Free State (UFS) this week hosted a seminar featuring Prof. Michael M. Bell, Chairperson of the Agroecology Graduate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA. The title of his seminar was, “Thinking Like a Holon: A Post-Systems Approach to Agroecology”.

By using examples drawn from issues of agriculture, food, and the environment, Prof. Bell argued for moving beyond systems thinking’s emphasis on connections to the contextual awareness of “holon thinking.” He also argued that holon thinking encouraged an ontological humility that fostered openness to interdisciplinarity.

Prof. Bell is an environmental sociologist and a systems theorist with three central foci in all of his work: dialogics, the sociology of nature, and social justice. He is the author of seven books, three of which have won national awards in the USA. His visit to South Africa, and particularly the UFS, was to explore possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the UFS.

His seminar attracted numerous students and staff members from various departments in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Faculty of the Humanities. Follow-up discussions will hopefully encourage closer collaboration between researchers in Cluster 4 and Cluster 2 (New Frontiers in Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development).

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept