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06 February 2025 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Dr Jared McDonald
Prof Jared McDonald, Assistant Dean: Faculty of The Humanities at the University of the Free State, obtained his first National Research Foundation rating in the C2 category.

Obtaining his first National Research Foundation (NRF) rating has been the goal of Prof Jared McDonald, Assistant Dean: Faculty of The Humanities at the University of the Free State (UFS), since 2020 when he was selected for the UFS Transforming the Professoriate Mentoring Programme.

Prof McDonald obtained a C2 rating recently and credits the programme, under the leadership of Dr Henriëtte van den Berg, who provided invaluable support and mentorship, for this achievement. This rating recognises Prof McDonald as an established researcher and he may enjoy some international recognition for the quality and impact of his recent research outputs. 

“I am delighted to have received a C2 rating. I was hoping to obtain a C2, so when I received confirmation, it felt really good. Since being recruited to the Transforming the Professoriate Programme I have been focused on producing a series of quality journal articles, and importantly, my first monograph. At times it was a struggle to balance the demands of being Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Humanities along with my teaching responsibilities,” says Prof McDonald.

He says obtaining the rating would not have been possible without the interventions of the programme, which assisted him in securing funding for a sabbatical. The encouragement of colleagues and family was equally valuable in helping him to keep his eye on the goal.


Research 

As a nineteenth-century historian, Prof McDonald’s, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, research includes topics ranging from the London Missionary Society’s missions to the San as well as the role of controversial missionaries in influencing public discourse on the right to legal equality and social inclusion for indigenous subjects of the British Crown. Another topic is the ways in which evangelical-humanitarian discourse inadvertently provided the justification for the transfer of San children to Cape colonial society. 

“In my publications, the key actors, including Khoesan, are revealed to have been exercising agency in response to a social and political context that was not of their own choosing, but to which they had to respond. The contradictions of the period, coupled with the prospects for blurring the social boundaries of an otherwise strict hierarchical society, provided the means for social manoeuvre and options for resistance from within the confines of the colonial state. I am continuing to explore these ideas in a series of upcoming journal articles and book chapters,” he says. 

The pressure, says Prof McDonald, is already on to retain his rating, and hopefully improve it, when it comes up for review in five years’ time. He is currently working on his second monograph, which is a historical biography of a controversial, but fascinating, missionary who played a notable role in South African history in the early nineteenth century. “The worth of any historical biography lies in the biographer’s ability to shed light on the circumstances, contingencies, and contradictions that shaped the contours of the protagonist’s life, thus illuminating the historical context,” concludes Prof McDonald. 

He seeks to relate his research to his approach to teaching by exploring innovative ways of making the past relevant to students today. This is motivated by the conviction that the elucidation of possibilities of agency in the past raises the prospect for students to engage with the meanings and possibilities of agency in the present.

News Archive

Nominations for Kovsie Alumni Awards now open
2009-06-25

It is once again time to nominate candidates for the University of the Free State’s (UFS) three Kovsie Alumni Awards made annually.
Nominations can be made for the Kovsie Alumnus of the Year Award, Cum Laude Award and the Alumni Award for Exceptional Service to the UFS. The Kovsie Alumnus of the Year Award honours the outstanding achievements of a Kovsie alumnus at national or international level. The person must still be alive. From time to time, the Cum Laude Award is bestowed on an alumnus for outstanding service or achievement at regional, national or international level in his/her field of work. The Alumni Award for Outstanding Service to the UFS is awarded to any person (not necessarily an alumnus) who delivered exceptional service to the University from time to time.

Nominations should contain the following:

1. Any alumnus can submit a written nomination for the above-mentioned awards.
2. At least five alumni seconders must support the nomination.
3. A comprehensive motivation and a brief curriculum vitae of the candidate must accompany the nomination.
4. The candidate’s complete address and telephone number must also be provided.

Nominations can be submitted to Ms Annanda Calitz, Alumni Awards, PO Box 2319 Bloemfontein, 9300 or 086 523 5108 or ficka.stg@ufs.ac.za. The closing date for submission of nominations is 24 July 2009. The Awards Dinner will take place on 4 September 2009.

Media Release
Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za  
24 June 2009

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