Two Unisa creative intellectuals win coveted HSS Awards

After a gruelling judging process of the over 190 entries received – the largest number in the seven-year history of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Awards – the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) announced the winners of the 7^th HSS Awards.

The 2022 HSS Award winners. Back row, from left: Aryan Kaganof, Natalia Molebatsi, Dr Napjadi Letsoalo, Thulasizwe Simpson, Nthikeng Mohlele, Mandla Langa. Front from left: Zolani Shangase, Wezile Harmans, Futhi Ntshingila, Athambile Masola, Coral Bijoux, Dimakatso Sedite, Pumla Dineo Gqola (Photo: NIHSS)

At an awards ceremony held at the University of Pretoria’s Javett Arts Centre on 31 March 2022, guests, judges, board members, publishers, members of the media, NIHSS staff and key stakeholders celebrated the winners in the Book, Creative and Digital categories of the coveted HSS Awards.

Unisans Natalia Molebatsi and Dr Napjadi Letsoalo took top honours in their respective categories.

Natalia Molebatsi giving her acceptance speech (Photo: NIHSS)

Unisa Library Marketing Coordinator and PhD student Molebatsi won the award for Best Fiction Edited Volume for Wild Imperfections: An Anthology of Womanist Poems, while Letsoalo, senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages in the College of Human Sciences, took top honours in the Digital Humanities: Community Engagement category for Mzansi Taal: The South African Taal Dictionary.

The event, attended by luminaries in the academic and the arts sector, including Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Puleng LenkaBula, honoured writers and creators for outstanding work in the humanities and social sciences.

Other winners include acclaimed writers and scholars such as Mandla Langa, Gabeba Baderoon, Athambile Masola and Pumla Gqola.

“The entries and winners of the 7th edition of the HSS Awards embody an emergence of new voices, the making of space for fresh or revisited experiences that enrich our field (and therefore humanity) and the inclusion of our histories, her-stories and their-stories previously untold, or told one-sidedly,” said NIHSS CEO, Professor Sarah Mosoetsa. “The NIHSS feels deep satisfaction and gratitude for the contribution South Africa’s HSS creative intellectuals are making to the opening up of viewpoints and vantage points. Each in their own way, whether with words, brush strokes, musical notes or body movements, the members of this community are expanding the possibilities humanity has at its disposal to make sense of our worlds.”

NIHSS CEO, Professor Sarah Mosoetsa (Photo: NIHSS)

The NIHSS has since 2013 been invested in the advancement and co-ordination of scholarship, research and ethical practice in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences within and through the existing public universities and those to be established or declared in future as public universities.

The HSS Awards are open to all academics, curators and artists of various forms of creative work who are based in South Africa working to advance the HSS. Through these awards, the NIHSS provides an enormous contribution to the national dialogue about the importance of the HSS for the country as a whole.

The HSS Awards provide an opportunity to cast a celebratory limelight to those intellectual-creative workers whose work often goes unnoticed both in the academy and society at large. These include the tenacious authors and playwrights, the risk-taking poets and artists; and curators and publishers who ensure that we can all view and enjoy the HSS boundary-spanning outputs.

Click here for details of all the winners.

* Submitted by the Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation and Commercialisation Portfolio