Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

iCAN Vol 2 strengthens CTL’s bid to decolonise

28 November 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Dr Peet van Aardt

iCAN read more — The book was launched during the Student Arts and Life Dialogues Festival on the Bloemfontein Campus in October.

In its continued bid to decolonise the academic curriculum at the University of the Free State (UFS) the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) published the second volume of Creative African Narratives (iCAN) short stories written by UFS students.

iCAN Volume 2 comes after extensive creative writing workshops were presented on all three campuses during the year. The project is coordinated by Dr Peet van Aardt from CTL and is funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Through the iCAN project, CTL plans to incorporate the students’ written texts as part of the extensive reading component of the first-year academic literacy courses across all faculties. “We are teaching and motivating our students to read, but we cannot keep relying on a curriculum that is foreign to them,” said Dr Van Aardt.

The volume comprises 55 short stories with topics ranging from the Struggle, to campus life, mental illness, family affairs and love, with the students’ lived experiences also a main theme throughout the anthology. The stories are written in Sepedi, isiZulu, Setswana, English, Afrikaans and Sesotho. Some were also performed at the recent Multilingual Mokete, held on the Bloemfontein campus in September.

“We are really proud of this year’s publication, and the project as a whole,” says Dr Van Aardt. “This year we were able to include more student contributions than last year.”

News Archive

University is proud of its women in science

2013-08-17

Dr Marieka Gryzenhout
Photo: Sonia Small
19 August 2013

Two lecturers in the Department of Plant Sciences received national recognition for their research at the Women in Science Award 2013 function of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) on Friday 16 August 2013. Dr Marieka Gryzenhout received the award as Young Women Scientist and Prof Maryke Labuschagne was first runner-up in the category Distinguished Women Researcher, both in Life Sciences.

The third award-winner was Rose Lekhooa in the Doctoral Fellowship category. She is studying toward a PhD in Pharmacology and said the fellowship will enable her to attend seminars and workshops internationally.

Friday’s award was the second, in as many months, for Dr Gryzenhout. She received the TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award as emerging researcher in June 2013. She was the recipient of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations’ Outstanding Doctoral Research award in 2010.

Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, said, “Dr Gryzenhout represents one of a growing group of very impressive young scientists at the university who are emerging as leading international scholars in their fields.

“Her international leadership in mycology research has already made significant impacts on the African continent and beyond. The university will continue to invest in these young academic stars through its Prestige Scholars Programme where scholars like Dr Gryzenhout are increasingly well-placed to be the next generation of scientific leaders in the world.”

“It as a great privilege to receive the award, especially as second one in this year,” Dr Gryzenhout said. She established a research programme, Mycotoxigenic and Phytopathogenic Fungi, at the UFS. She is president of the African Mycological Association and general secretary of the International Society for Fungal Conservation. She is also a member of the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi – a permanent committee of the International Botanical Congress.

Prof Labuschagne received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah award for life and earth sciences in 2011, and the National Agriculturalist of the Year Award and the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Award for research-capacity development over the last five to ten years, both in 2008.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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