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20 April 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo istock
The Faculty of the Humanities webinar series will provide opportunities for future research collaboration.

How does an anthropologist, a linguist, and a health systems researcher collect data during COVID-19 when human interaction is limited? Speaking at the first webinar hosted by the Faculty of the Humanities on Fieldwork in the time of COVID-19, Prof Deborah Posel, Research Professor in Sociology, said, “Lockdown impacted social sciences just as much. For us it was a lockout from people, libraries, and field research.” 

“The benefits (of the webinar) for Humanities research are obvious. Research in the Humanities differs a lot from research in other disciplines such as Natural Sciences; it happens in silos and not as a group focused,” said Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities. This webinar series will provide a platform to engage, but also for inter-departmental and inter-disciplinary research in the faculty. “Using this platform to engage and talk about our shared experiences will help bring researchers together and to reflect on our own experiences,” Prof Hudson said. 

Academics from different departments in the faculty shared how the COVID-19 lockdown affected their research projects. They were Dr Gladys Kigozi, Senior Researcher in the Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSR&D), Dr Kristina Riedel from the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice, and Prof Joy Owen from the Department of Anthropology

Different approaches implemented 

Centre for Health Systems Research and Development
Research in the CHSR&D focuses mainly on in-person research. “COVID-19 has diminished the interaction between researchers and participants, and it threatened the quality of data gathering,” Dr Kigozi said. Field activities were thus suspended for six months, which compromised the timeline of projects.  

The CHSR&D aligned their projects with COVID-19 regulations and had virtual consolidations with the Free State Department of Health, while advertising research through health-care workers and social media.

Listen to a recording of the webinar here: 


Faculty of the Humanities webinar on Fieldwork in the time of COVID-19


Department of Linguistics and Language Practice 
For Dr Kristina Riedel, COVID-19 was not the proverbial nail in the coffin of linguistics research. There is great body of spoken, signed or written language that has been transcribed. “Linguists may also study public or private online data or printed texts such as newspapers, social media, and Bible translations,” Dr Riedel said. 

Language documentation usually happens with a researcher interacting with a speaker or group of speakers, which is then recorded in a high-quality, low-noise environment. Just like Anthropology, the best form of understanding data comes from in-person documentation. “We often need to work with people who are not connected to online spaces, such as the elderly and marginalised communities,” Dr Riedel said. Researchers sometimes need to be immersed in the community when recording takes place.

Department of Anthropology 
Prof Joy Owen provided perspective on how Anthropology as a discipline and anthropologists have been impacted by the lack of human interaction, which is what Anthropology is essentially about. “Anthropology, as founded in the early 20th century, is a fully immersive experience. Body, mind, psyche, and spirt were employed to understand the other (people),” Prof Owen said in her opening remarks. The anthropological encounter could thus not be socially and physically distant. 

The continuous shift to virtual interaction is not an ideal practice. “A video call, however initiated, cannot provide access to the daily nuances of life,” Prof Owen said. The video call/interview cannot replace the in-person ‘hanging out.'


News Archive

Quantity Surveying celebrates many firsts
2014-10-20

 

From the left are: Pierre Oosthuizen, Prof Kajimo-Shakantu and Dr Stephan Ramabodu
Photo: Ifa Tshishonge



The Department of Quantity Surveying at the University of the Free State (UFS) has much to be proud of. With Prof Kahilu Kajimo-Shakantu as Head of the Department of Quantity Surveying, the department is celebrating several firsts.

For the first time, the department has four academics with PhDs. This includes Prof Kajimo-Shakantu, Dr Stephan Ramabodu, Dr Timothy Froise and Dr Benita Zulch. It is also the first time that this department is managed by a woman.

Furthermore, the Department of Quantity Surveying has performed very well at this year’s national Quantity Surveying Conference held in Pretoria, where they walked away with four of the seven awards.

The awards were:

•    Best presenter: Pierre Oosthuizen (lecturer)
•    Most innovative presenter: Pierre Oosthuizen (lecturer)
•    Best paper on engineering projects: Prof Kahilu Kajimo-Shakantu
•    Best academic paper: T Monyane (postgraduate student) and Dr Stephan Ramabodu (lecturer)

The South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession (SACQSP) also presented two prestigious life achievement awards. One of these were bestowed upon Prof Basie Verster from the UFS for his contribution to quantity surveying since the 1970s.

The university is especially proud of Dr Stephen Ramabodu, lecturer in the Department of Quantity Surveying, who completed his PhD this year. This makes of him the highest qualified quantity surveyor in the department and one of only a few holders of a quantity surveying PhD in the country. Dr Ramabodu is also registered with the South African Council for Quantity Surveying Professionals.

Prof Kajimo-Shakantu said the following of Dr Ramabodu. “Since 2002, Stephan was appointed as a lecturer in a programme called Grow Your Own Timber at the UFS. Later on, he went to Cape Town to gain some commercial experience, where he worked for Davis Langdon in 2005. In 2008, he returned to the Free State, where he established Ramabodu & Associates. Later on in the same year, he returned to the UFS as a lecturer to complete all the remaining milestones of the Grow Your Own Timber programme.

“The university looks forward to Stephen’s increased responsibilities and contributions, not only in teaching and learning, but also in research, mentoring and community engagement.”


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