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28 January 2020 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Pexels
Conference
At the meet-and-greet last night, were from left Prof Ruad Ganzevoort, Diversity Officer and Dean of Theology and Religion at VUA, Prof Francis Petersen and Dr Gene Block, Chancellor of UCLA.

The Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS) is hosting a colloquium on Fragility and Resilience: Facets, Features and Transformation in Higher Education which started on 29 January, with the official progamme concluding on 30 January 2020.

The colloquium is a annual collaborative partnership between the UFS, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA).

Apart from the overarching themes the colloquium also placed some focus on mental health, within this context as all three regions are witnessing a spike in mental health issues among students and staff as well as a deficit in terms of being able to sufficiently address the crisis.

“All three universities are committed to discussing global developments in diversity and transformation in higher education to discussing global developments in diversity and transformation as it may constitute itself in higher education circles around the globe,” says Dr Dionne van Reenen, convener of the 2020 colloquium and research fellow at the unit.  

The idea is to discuss what has and has not worked and, hopefully, access best practices in a variety of contexts. The partnership between the three universities spans over six years starting in 2014 when the UFS first hosted the research colloquium. It is the third time the UFS has hosted the colloquium.
 
Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, along with other members of the UFS Rectorate, attended a meet-and-greet on Monday 28 January 2020, and was joined by Dr Gene Block, Chancellor of UCLA, Vice Provosts Cindy Fan, Patricia Turner, Charles Alexander, Professors Abel Valenzuela, John Hamilton and Dr Shalom Staub, director of Community Learning, as well as Prof Ruard Ganzevoort, Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of Theology and Religion at VUA 

News Archive

Dr Makutoane to present research on world stage in US
2017-06-14

“If the SBL has acknowledged you,
it means the research you are doing
is solid. There are people out there
who want to listen to my paper.”

To present a research paper at an international conference of about 10 000 people and where 100 sessions are taking place at the same time is what dreams are made of for an academic. This is no longer a dream for the humble Dr Tshokolo Makutoane who will share his knowledge at the annual meeting of the prestigious Society of Biblical Literature (SBL).

Dr Makutoane, a senior lecturer at the Department of Hebrew at the University of the Free State (UFS), will be a speaker at the conference in Boston, in the US, from 19-21 November 2017. This after receiving a remarkable travel grant from the SBL to present his paper, titled The Contribution of Linguistic Typology for the Study of Biblical Hebrew in Africa: The Case of Sesotho Pronouns.

Description: Dr Makutoane to present research on world stage in US Tags: Dr Makutoane to present research on world stage in US

Dr Makutoane, senior lecturer at the Department of
Hebrew at the University of the Free State, was
speechless when he heard he will be presenting a
paper at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical
Literature in Boston in the US.
Photo: Jóhann Thormählen

Scholars from around the world participate
His paper is part of a thematic session on “Theoretical Approaches to Anaphora and Pronouns in Biblical Hebrew” in which scholars from Canada, the US, Australia, Europe and Israel will participate.

The research Dr Makutoane will be showcasing in Boston is about teaching Biblical Hebrew in Africa, and more specifically, pronouns, to Sesotho-speaking students.

“SBL is one of the largest organisations in the world and if you get the opportunity to present a paper there, it is one of the highest honours in our context you can have,” Dr Makutoane said.

“If the SBL has acknowledged you, it means the research you are doing is solid. There are people out there who want to listen to my paper.”

According to the SBL website (https://www.sbl-site.org) more than 1 200 academic sessions and workshops will take place at the conference, co-hosted by the SBL and the American Academy of Religion.

Highlight of researcher’s entire career
Receiving the grant and attending the conference for the first time is the highlight of Dr Makutoane’s career. “I feel very grateful, honoured and humbled. I was speechless when I heard about it. I couldn’t help myself and actually cried,” he said.

The grant, given to only four SBL members – the other three are from Samoa, Nigeria and India – is intended to support under-represented and under-resourced scholars who demonstrate a financial need.

Dr Makutoane thanked his mentors, Prof Jacobus Naudé and Prof Cynthia Miller-Naudé, who assisted him with the application. Naudé is a senior professor at the Department of Hebrew and Miller-Naudé a senior professor and head of the department.

Dr Makutoane, who studied Theology at the UFS and is a minister at the NGKA Rehauhetswe church near Bloemfontein, is also grateful to his church that gave him the opportunity to study at the UFS and be able to work at the university.

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