Unisa congratulated seven Unisa staff members, two of whom are from the College of Human Sciences (CHS), who have been nominated for the prestigious 2012/13 NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards. These awards encourage and reward excellence in scientific research, technological innovation, education, capacity building and communication.
Since the Executive Dean of the CHS, Prof Rosemary Moeketsi, regards 2013 as the year of recognizing excellence and awarding achievement Prof Lindiwe Zungu from the Department of Health Studies and Dr Puleng Segalo from the Department of Psychology are both recognized in the college. Both Prof Zungu and Dr Segalo are prominent black women researchers in the CHS worthy of recognition of innovators in their respective fields. Prof Lindiwe Zungu is the outgoing Chair of the Ethics Review Committee of the CHS. She has served in that capacity for 3 years. The new Chair is Dr Kealeboga Koenane.
Prof Zungu was nominated for the category Contributions to Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) by an Individual including the Lifetime Achiever Award, the TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award for Research and its Outputs, and the Management and Related Activities Award. Dr Segalo was nominated for the TW Kambule NRF-NSTF Award for an Emerging Researcher, also in the category Contributions to SET by an Individual.
Dr Segalo’s research highlights how visual imagery can be used as an alternative way of understanding notions of suffering and trauma. She explained, “In 2008 I started the journey of looking at how women engage in freeing themselves from the shackles of patriarchy. My Master’s thesis was situated within an embroidery collective, documenting the shifts in economic, familial and personal roles that the women take up as workers, members of the collective, and designers of embroidered bags that travel the world.”
She emphasised that the idea behind her research was to contribute to knowledge creation in theoretical, methodological and analytical ways. As part of her research she also examined South Africa’s national project of truth and reconciliation. Her study highlights the importance of taking privilege, race, gender, power and history into consideration when examining issues of empowerment and social justice.
Dr Segalo is involved in the UPCOMING CONFERENCE and the CHS will be supporting this
The next step will be to announce the finalists through the Awards eNewsletter by the end of April 2013. The announcement of the winners will take place at the prestigious Awards Gala Dinner planned for 27 June 2013 with the Minister of Science and Technology, the Patron of the Awards.
By Busi Mabaso
