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19 September 2019 | Story Amanda Thongha | Photo Charl Devenish
Dr Gwande
Dr Victor Gwande

Attaining his master’s degree cum laude, completing a PhD degree, and publishing in top academic journals, University of the Free State (UFS) academic, Dr Victor Gwande, has been an outstanding researcher throughout his career.

Adding to his list of notable achievements, the postdoctoral research fellow in the International Studies Group has just been awarded a fellowship at Princeton University, one of the top universities in the world. The US institution was recently ranked sixth in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020.

As a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Dr Gwande will spend two weeks on the Ivy League university’s New Jersey campus in 2020. This will be followed by a weeklong session at one of two collaborating institutions in South Africa and the US, with continuous communication facilitated among selected scholars throughout a two-year period. 

Flying high the flag of the African academy
Dr Gwande believes the fellowship will expose him to new intellectual traditions and perspectives. “It will help me create international academic networks across continents, as I seek to put my name out there as an internationally recognised scholar.”

With his research interests in economic and business history of Southern Africa, Dr Gwande says he wishes to become “a great scholar of African economic history, flying high the flag of the African academy, as well as training and producing young scholars for the academy”.

Working with some of the world’s top minds at Princeton University, there will be much to focus on.

“I will be researching, writing, and presenting my research project in which I use the case study of the Anglo American Corporation to look at the histories of capitalism and to understand how monopoly capitalism shaped economic trajectories of Zimbabwe and the broader Southern African region.”

Longer-term plans include completing his monograph stemming from his PhD thesis.

There are many people to thank for his journey from the UFS to Princeton, and the scholar draws attention to some of those who have influenced him. 

“God and my family. But in my career, quite a number of people and institutions have really moulded me; the International Studies Group under Prof Ian Phimister has given me an environment to flourish in my young career.

News Archive

Golden Key recognises top achievers
2012-08-29

A jam packed audience listens to the keynote address at the UFS Golden Key Annual new members’ ceremony.
Photo: Stephen Collett
29 August 2012

Recognising academic excellence at the University of the Free State (UFS), the world’s biggest academic honour society, Golden Key International Honour Society, selected a record number of Kovsie students as new members this year.

More than 700 top achievers have been invited to join the prestige academic society – the biggest crop of students thus far.

New members, the top 15% of academic students at Kovsies, were welcomed to the society’s UFS Chapter at an induction ceremony held on Saturday 25 August 2012. The ceremony also saw Justice Ian van der Merwe, Chairperson of the UFS Council, Mr Billyboy Ramahlele, Director Community Engagement, and Prof. Hendrik Swart, Senior Professor in Physics at the UFS being recognised as honorary members of the society. The event, held at the Kovsie Church, drew a large crowd with the venue packed to capacity.

Sibusiso Tshabalala, a third-year BCom Law student, and recently selected as one of ten Google Young Minds for 2012, delivered the keynote address. Structuring his talk around dreams, fears and music, Sibusiso told students they had joined a global community of students who valued academic achievement, leadership and service. “In a country where rhetoric triumphs over logic and mediocrity rules supreme, while excellence is fast becoming taboo, we need the thinkers to do the leading.”

Dr Derek Swemmer, Registrar and co-advisor of the UFS Chapter, told the students they had demonstrated the ability and now had to fulfil their potential. He was appointed as Chairperson of the society’s governing body in March this year.

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