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ISG researcher awarded prestigious Colin Murray Prize

13 November 2020 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Supplied

Dr Innocent Dande_web read more — Dr Innocent Dande, UFS ISG scholar, has been named the 2021 winner of the JSAS Colin Murray Prize for his research on food politics in Zimbabwe.

Dr Innocent’s Dande’s research on the everyday food struggles experienced by residents of poor suburbs in Harare, Zimbabwe, has earned him a coveted research prize from the London-based Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS) – the leading international journal in its field.

Start of extended book project

“Winning this award means a great deal for my career plans, especially as I am planning to come up with an extended book project that looks at working classes’ eating habits and foodscapes, or the geographies of food, cooking and eating in lower class suburbs,” says an excited Dr Dande. His aim is to write a sensorial history of how the working classes ate and enjoyed food in Zimbabwean cities between 1980 and 2019.

“One advantage is that this prize provides me with funding to carry out research. If the JSAS is satisfied with the outcome, their tradition is to publish it,” he says.

Not deterred by lockdown

Dr Dande arrived at the UFS at the same time the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, which saw many of his colleagues hastily returning to their home countries. His decision to stay indirectly led to his application.

“I was spending so much of my time in my room at Kovsie Inn during Level one of the lockdown. Applying for this grant was a way of dealing with the boredom that comes with locking oneself in for too long,” he explains.

His application was titled, Cooking, the crisis and cuisines: household economies and food politics in Harare (Zimbabwe), 1997-2020, with much of his research focusing on everyday issues affecting ordinary people, in contrast to “high politics and many other topics that ordinarily shout for more attention.” His aim is to write a social history of the Zimbabwean crisis, focusing on “mundane issues such as the cooking and eating of food.”

Colin Murray Prize background

Colin Murray was a sociologist, anthropologist, and political economist who passed away in October 2013. He taught at various universities in the UK and South Africa and had a special interest in family histories. Carrying a purse of £2 500, the Colin Murray Prize is awarded to an applicant who is within two years of completing his or her PhD, and is meant to assist the winner in engaging in original research in Murray’s fields of interest.

ISG an intellectually enriching environment

The COVID-19 pandemic may have restricted physical interactions with colleagues, but Dr Dande says he still found the International Studies Group (ISG) an intellectually enriching place.

“The ISG continued to hold regular and interesting Zoom seminars. Many of my colleagues have also won very prestigious prizes and are in different stages of completing their various projects. Many others have also published in the same journal (JSAS) and many other high-impact journals.”

He highly values the generous professional advice from his fellow researchers, as well as the input and feedback of ISG Head, Prof Ian Phimister.

“The ISG has shown me that it is possible to dream big and to even contemplate applying for jobs anywhere in the world and not just in Southern Africa,” says Dr Dande.

News Archive

Qwaqwa Campus’s Teaching and Learning Champs scoop up award

2014-10-24

Dr Elize Smuts (right) proudly displaying the UFS Vice-Chancellor’s Team Award. Equally ecstatic, is Qwaqwa Campus’s CTL Manager, Fred Mudavanhu.
Photo: Thabo Kessah

Action research to improve classroom practice and student success rates, recently received a boost when the Qwaqwa Campus’s Teaching and Learning (TL) Champions were honoured with the prestigious UFS Vice-Chancellor’s Team Award. The award was in recognition of the team’s efforts to enhance professional development and was accompanied by a R50 000 prize that will be utilised to further encourage and develop a scholarly culture on the Qwaqwa Campus.

“An active learning community has developed over the past four years, which led to the creation of a scholarly forum for sharing problems, experiences and new knowledge”, revealed Dr Elize Smuts, who has been the pillar of strength in the development of TL Champs.

“This”, Dr Smuts said, “has continuously motivated the group to persevere in challenging and often under-resourced circumstances.”

“Over a four-year period, 44 projects were undertaken, many with great success. Thirteen scholars participated in a pilot of CLASSE (Classroom Assessment of Student Engagement) in 2013. This survey, contextualised by staff from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, was a first in South Africa,” said Dr Smuts.

“The team undertook extensive literature reviews and attended numerous workshops on principles and practices of good teaching, research and writing. The two summarising booklets they prepared from two publications (How Learning Works: 7 Research-based Principles for Smart Teaching and Student Engagement Techniques) in 2013, will serve as guides and inspiration for the larger academic community of the UFS for many years.”

Since the formation of this team, TL scholars have presented 25 papers at 12 national and two international conferences.

“Taking into consideration that it is not easy to get an abstract accepted for presentation, these are impressive achievements,” Dr Smuts said.

“Some of the immediate results of scholars engaged in this project, include improved student success rates averaging 20% compared to only 8% improvement by academics who are not part of the project.”

“In 2013, one TL scholar reported student success rates that increased by 29%; another reported 80% on average; and another reported an increase from 65% to 95% in a class bigger than previous years.”

In congratulating the team, Centre for Teaching and Learning’s (CTL) Prof Annette Wilkinson said that she was very proud of the team.

“The team’s dedication and growth in scholarly practice – amidst challenging circumstances – are in my mind, the outstanding features of the project. I am very proud of the entire team”, said Prof Wilkinson.

The two presentations at international conferences were delivered by Ms Lea Koenig at the 32nd Annual Conference on the First-Year-Experience in Orlando, Florida and by Dr Elize Smuts in North Carolina. Both of these were presented in 2013.

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