HSS Awards honour social responsibility
JOHANNESBURG – HSS awards were held to honour outstanding, innovative and socially responsive scholarship.
The annual Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Awards were held on 12 March. The awards which cover book, creative collection and digital contribution had their ceremony held at The Square, Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
The awards, now in their fifth year, are run by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and are open to South African publishers, scholars based in South African universities and independent artists linked to universities.
“With the world over seemingly in turmoil – from the pandemic of the Covid-19 to our challenging economic climate, the concerning high unemployment rate and persistent levels of inequality – never has the need for education, relevance and innovation been so intense,” said the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Buti Manamela,
Speaking during the awards ceremony, Manamela sounded a reminder on the importance of humanities and social sciences. “In order to evolve as a people (humans in society), we depend on outputs from the humanities and social sciences. The humanities and social sciences hold the keys to unlock future potential for greater equity, justice and social responsibility. In 2013, all indications were that vital disciplines in this broad humanities and social sciences field were in dire need of intervention to arrest their decline and stimulate and rejuvenate research activity.”
The awards honour ‘outstanding, innovative and socially responsive scholarship, creative as well as digital contributions that enhance and advance fields in the humanities and social sciences’ and ‘recognise and celebrate those members of the HSS community who are undertaking the necessary work of creating post-apartheid and postcolonial forms of scholarship, creative production, and digital humanities outputs’.
One of the judges, Professor Hlonipha Mokoena said, “Many of this year’s entries dealt with this unalterable link between humankind and ecology. Nature; from the humblest dung beetle to the gargantuan and winding Kowie River; was given centre stage as authors worked through our Anthropocene dilemmas.”
He added that this year’s submissions revealed that South African intellectuals are as conscious of their predecessors as they are of the present academic milieu. “By broadening our understanding of what it means to be an intellectual, an activist, a novelist, a jurist, an anthropologist et cetera, this year’s entries offered riveting and compelling reading for those who are captivated by personal narratives as well as the foregrounding of effect in the telling of the story of a life.”
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