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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

UFS mourns the death of a great linguist and educationalist
2012-08-29

He was one of the founders of the National Liberation Front. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit sabotage in 1964 and was sent to Robben Island for 10 years. During his incarceration, he taught history to fellow prisoners.

According to SA History Online, Alexander wrote of his time in prison: "The 'University of Robben Island' was one of the best universities in the country. It also showed me that you don't need professors.”

He also devoted most of his professional life to defend and preserve multilingualism in the post-apartheid South Africa and has become one of the major advocates of linguistic diversity.

During a recent visit to the UFS where he took part in a Critical Conversation at the Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, Dr Alexander said that a multilingual state and culture could lead to more tolerance in South Africa.

In a tribute to Dr Alexander, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Rector, said Dr Alexander was an incorruptible, a revolutionary who remained true to his core values despite the materialistic excesses of former struggle heroes.

“He taught me many things, one of which was that Afrikaans is and can be a language of liberation and a vehicle for reconciliation. He took his methodology for language learning into the townships, and altered countless lives in the process. South Africa has lost a great scholar, a principled activist, a generous humanitarian and a formidable intellect; the last of the true revolutionaries.”

 

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