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English Academy of Southern Africa conference – ‘Ways of Reading: Literature and Literacy’

25 January 2024

The University of the Free State’s Bloemfontein campus played host to the English Academy of Southern Africa’s (EASA) annual international conference on 7-8 December 2023. Attracting 35 delegates from Canada, the UK, Nigeria, Botswana, and South Africa, the two-day conference delved into the theme, “Ways of Reading: Literature and Literacy,” with a diverse group seeking to unravel the intricate relationship between literature and literacy.

The proceedings were inaugurated by Prof Vasu Reddy, emphasising the importance of exploring how literacy shapes our modes of attention, both culturally and socially. He expressed his faith that the conference would be “generatively disruptive,” noting that “where there is disruption, there is also growth.”

Featuring two eminent keynote speakers, the conference saw Prof David Attwell, Emeritus Professor at the University of York (UK), discussing the connection between translingualism and creativity in a lecture titled, “A Ventriloquial Literature: The Art of ‘Throwing the Voice’ in the South African Canon. On the second day, Dr Karen Jennings, author of the Booker Prize longlisted novel An Island, reflected on “how place and identity are crucial to the act of creation,” with her talk whimsically titled, “Bums in the Ground.”

Delegates approached the conference theme in various ways, with some exploring how specific writers or critical movements have shaped scholarly reading habits. Others highlighted the significance of literacy for social justice. This diversity extended to the interdisciplinary nature of the conference, bringing together scholars working in language practice, literary studies and even the medical humanities.

Convened by Dr Rick de Villiers, a senior lecturer in the Department of English and the regional vice-president of EASA, the conference delighted in attracting scholars from different backgrounds and stages of their careers. “We had a wonderful mix of established and early-career scholars. The atmosphere was rigorous and robust but collegial throughout.”

Speaking on behalf of EASA, Dr De Villiers extended gratitude for the financial and administrative support from the UFS, particularly the Department of English.

News Archive

UFS receives several awards for communication projects

2014-11-26

Staff from the Department of Communication and Brand Management received five awards at MACE 2014. From the left are: Leonie Bolleurs (Excellence awards for the Internet Broadcast Project and the B Safe safety campaign), Lacea Loader, Director of the Department of Communication and Brand Management, Lelanie de Wet (Excellence award for the #FaceOfFacebook social media campaign and Merit award for the Redesign of the UFS website) and René-Jean van der Berg (Merit award for the No Student Hungry media campaign).
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

The Department of Communication and Brand Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) received several national and international awards for communication campaigns and projects this year.

On international level, an audit of the university’s stakeholders received the Jake Wittmer award for research in communication from the International Association of Business Communicators

(IABC), a merit award in the category communication and research management from the IABC, a 2014 IABC Africa Gold Quill award and a bronze medal from the International Business Association (IBA). Furthermore, the audit was a finalist in the Golden World awards (GWA) of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). The Bult magazine also received a bronze medal from the IBA.

Staff from the department also walked away with five awards at this year’s Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (MACE) Excellence awards, which formed part of the annual MACE congress held at Sun City from 13-15 November 2014. Some 185 communication, marketing and institutional advancement practitioners from across South Africa attended the event.

Lacea Loader, Director of the Department of Communication and Brand Management, says: “The national and international recognition from our peers in higher education, as well as from the industry, is of exceptional value to us and I am delighted that the standard of our projects and campaigns could be benchmarked in this way.”

The UFS received awards from MACE for excellence in:

- Internet Broadcast Project (category: audiovisual)
- #FaceOfFacebook social media campaign (category: social media)
- B Safe safety campaign (category: integrated campaigns)

Merit awards were presented to:

- Redesign of the UFS website (category: electronic media)
- No Student Hungry media campaign (category: media)

Mace fulfils a leadership role in the Higher Education (HE) and Further Education and Training (FET) sectors within Southern Africa by adding value to practitioners in marketing, communication and advancement through high-quality development programmes, facilitating networking partnerships and transformation, as well as promoting best practices among these professions at member institutions.

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