Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
01 September 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin
As in previous years, the Department of South African Sign Language and Deaf Studies (SASL) – a pioneering force within deaf studies – will embark on a broader campaign to create much-needed awareness of the deaf. 

This year’s #UFSDeafAwarenesscampaign aims to inform and contribute to an inclusive society, not only among the UFS community, but also among the public. The department, together with the Centre for Universal Access and Disability Support, provides exceptional support to the 16 deaf and hard of hearing students at the UFS. 

Jani de Lange, Lecturer in Deaf Studies at the UFS, says the deaf forms part of the diverse South African community – “however, there are still many misconceptions about the deaf world. Therefore, deaf awareness plays an important role in facilitating a bridge between hearing and deaf people”.  

Awareness, duty, and social responsibility collide 

Many of the staff in the department considers themselves part of the deaf community. “They play a major role in educating others through our academic programmes, as well as continuous workshops and short learning programmes,” says De Lange. She continues, saying that by celebrating Deaf Awareness Month, “we are reminded of our role and responsibility towards the deaf.” 

The department also has a long-standing relationship with Mimosa Mall in Bloemfontein, with conversational students displaying their final group projects in the centre of the shopping mall.  Mimosa is also a partner in school-based projects, such as the Bartimea School for the Deaf and Blind in Thaba Nchu. “Every year, the department, together with our student association, Signals, and all interested Sign Language students, visits Bartimea, where we host a variety of activities with the children and also help the school with small maintenance projects. In 2019 – the last time we were able to visit the school – we repainted parts of the Foundation Phase’s playground,” De Lange says.

“We hope that the public will take the time to read about deafness, Sign Language, and the deaf community to understand the exciting traditions of the culture.”  The end goal is to encourage a greater understanding that ‘you do not need hearing to listen’. 

Getting the community involved 

To get people involved in the campaign, the department invites UFS staff to participate in a competition where they can learn how to introduce themselves in SASL. The department is also planning an informal training session for staff and students on 7 September 2021. 


The Department of SASL and Deaf Studies also presents a FREE Introduction to SASL short learning programme. 

→  Click here for more information 


 #UFSDeafAwarenessMonth #DeafAwareness #DeafCommunity

                     


News Archive

Vermeulen’s work on display at Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery
2015-10-26

 

Dot Vermeulen, Anthropology (2014),
Oil on plywood, 300 x 200cm.
Photo: Supplied

“I am primarily fascinated in the travelling or movement of images in different spaces and media. By moving images from one medium into another, or posting and reposting them in different urban and virtual spaces, I ask questions about media presence and space.”

According to the late artist Dot Vermeulen, this is what the work for her Master’s degree was about. She was still completing it at the Department of Fine Arts at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Her work, called Posting Presence, is currently on display at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery on the Bloemfontein Campus. The exhibition is running from 1-30 October 2015.

Vermeulen was a junior lecturer at the Department of Fine Arts before she passed away in a car accident in April 2015.

According to Angela de Jesus, curator of the UFS Art Galery, the exhibition would have been part of Vermeulen’s final evaluation for her Master’s degree. She was one of South Africa’s most promising young artists, and won the prestigious Sasol New Signatures art competition in 2013.

In the work she had done in Posting Presence, Vermeulen said the spaces represented were derived from areas under bridges in an urban space where the visual messages left, speak of an accumulation of movement.

Exhibition event

An exhibition event was held on Friday 16 October 2015 at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery to celebrate Vermeulen’s work.

Janine Allen-Spies and Prof Suzanne Human, the supervisors of her Master’s degree,spoke about the work to those attending.

Catalogue

De Jesus said a catalogue of Vermeulen’s research for Posting Presence had also been compiled, and would be available at the UFS Sasol Library in order for others to “use her work for further research”.

•    Vermeulen’s work can be seen from 08:30-16:30 daily until 30 October at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept