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13 December 2022 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Supplied
Prof Mogomme Masoga
Prof Mogomme Masoga, newly appointed Dean: Faculty of the Humanities.

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the appointment of Prof Mogomme Masoga as Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities for a five-year term during its quarterly meeting on 25 November 2022. 

He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zululand. 

“Prof Masoga has extensive and an impressive national and international research standing, established networks and partnerships, and substantive management experience. He is a visionary leader and a renowned scholar and will be able to lead and manage the faculty at academic, research, engaged scholarship, and community-service level,” says Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor. 

Prof Masoga holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of the Free State. He began his academic career with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he proceeded to complete two honours and a master’s degree. He received a second Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of South Africa.

Prof Masoga has an excellent record of research publication within the broad niche area of Oral History, Africanism, and Indigenous Knowledge System Studies. He has developed a well-grounded sense of autonomy and involvement, as he has been able to establish a number of research projects and has produced single and co-authored articles. He was able to synergise and sustain his research niche on Africanism and Indigenous Knowledge Studies, which has informed his research over the years. 

He has maintained a coherent research trajectory as a recognised NRF-rated scholar in Indigenous Knowledge System Studies. Prof Masoga’s participation in international collaborative projects has had a positive impact on his scholarly growth, as well as on other colleagues and departments in his faculty at the University of Zululand. 

“Prof Masoga will be able to sustain his existing networks and build new ones that will support research and postgraduate studies at the UFS. This will be particularly valuable in support of the university’s Vision 130, which expresses the institution’s strategic intent to position itself in the period leading up to 2034 when the university will be 130 years old. Vision 130 furthermore exemplifies our commitment to be acknowledged by our peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, ranked among the best in the world,” says Prof Petersen. 

Prof Masoga will assume duty on 1 March 2023.

News Archive

Trevor Manuel and Max du Preez among the recipients of honorary doctorates at UFS graduation
2016-07-02

Description: 4 Hon Docs Tags: 4 Hon Docs

The UFS awarded four honorary doctorates
at its Winter Graduation ceremonies.
The recipients are from left Max du Preez,
Dr Reuel Jethro Khoza, Prof Joel Samoff
and Trevor Manuel at the UFS Chancellor’s
Dinner on 30 June 2016.

Photo: Johan Roux

He is excited about the young minds he saw and interacted with at the graduation ceremony of the University of the Free State (UFS). This is what Max du Preez, one of South Africa’s leading journalists and political analysts, said after receiving an honorary doctorate.

According to Du Preez (Humanities), he was inspired by the Winter Graduation ceremony on 30 June 2016 in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus. He is happy to finally also call the UFS his alma mater. He grew up in Kroonstad and is a true Free Stater, but previously graduated at the Stellenbosch University.

The UFS awarded four honorary doctorates – the others to Prof Joel Samoff (Humanities), Trevor Manuel and Dr Reuel Jethro Khoza (both Economic and Management Sciences) – and two Chancellor’s medals at the morning ceremony on 30 June 2016. Chancellor’s medals were awarded to Antony Osler and Marguerite van der Merwe (née Osler).

Manuel impressed by amount of soul

At the Chancellor’s Dinner, which was held in the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus on 30 June 2016, Du Preez said he feels honoured. He said South Africans must embrace the diversity of the country, and the UFS is a good example. “If the University of the Free State can make it, South Africa can make it.”

Manuel, a former South African Finance Minister, said he is honoured by the amount of soul he experienced from Dr Khotso Mokhele, UFS Chancellor, and Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS. “We cannot tolerate what is wrong (in the country) and need to push the boundaries of what is right,” he said.

UFS stands out regarding understanding


Dr Khoza, a distinguished thinker and businessman, also thanked the UFS at the Chancellor’s Dinner. “We shall strive to be known less for what we say, but rather more for what we do,” he said about the country.
According to Prof Samoff, Professor in Africa Studies at Stanford University (USA), “South Africa has committed itself to building a democratic, non-racist, and non-sexist society”. “Where the University of the Free State stands out, is in its understanding that societal change – ‘transformation’, to use the current terminology – is not an outcome, but a process. A difficult process.”

 

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