NIHSS Postdoctoral Fellowship Created

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The National Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), in collaboration with a UKZN working group, has established a comprehensive postdoctoral fellowship.

The aim is to advance critical understanding of pressing human and social issues through incisive inductive and deductive collaborative and interactive scholarship in South Africa and on the African continent.

The programme works to cultivate a space for critical, formative, innovative and collaborative knowledge generation working with communities to understand and respond to the so-called ‘wicked problems’ currently facing the African continent. Such a space provides post-doctoral scholars and mentors with exciting opportunities to collaborate on critical and innovative research that ultimately contributes solutions to current human and social problematics.

Methodologically, the postdoctoral fellows are encouraged to work with both rural and urban communities on the study of both the problematics of the phenomenon researched, and to implement inclusive, community-involved, solution-driven research. Such community participation ensures that communities own the problematics they experience, and that the co-developed interventions are informed by local perspectives and activities.

The postdoctoral fellowship programme, under the mentorship of the working group, develops and functions as a community of praxis, playing a catalytic role in developing a new crop of scholars and engendering respectful and generative working relationships with communities.

Through this Community of Praxis members have rigorously explored crucial existing theories in humanities and social sciences scholarship such as (1) the decolonisation, conceptualisation, and theorising of academic, professional, social and cultural identities, intellectualisation of African languages theory; (2) the rights-, community-based and community-integrated approaches to inclusive and sustainable development; (3) the experiences, behaviour, and development of rural girls and boys in interaction with community perceptions, expectations; and (4) initiatives that impact social and economic development, the wellbeing of children and teenagers; and (5) the study of the representations of leaders' subjectivities and personality representations within the framework of decolonial and liberationist theories of transformation.

The research projects seminally emphasise the significance of lived experience, and personal and social capacity development and initiatives, with communities of praxis, in innovative scholarship and research.

As the projects develop, the variety of approaches, data generation measures and facts, research findings and opportunity - and solution-creating initiatives - are shared and discussed with both scholarly and local rural and urban communities who experience the problematics being studied.

Fellows are also formatively supported by both mentors and supervisors, to write papers, make scholarly presentations and publish on peer-reviewed platforms and in highly-rated national and international scholarly journals.

Said Chair of the Humanities Institute, Professor Johannes Smit. “They are also encouraged to seek opportunities for inputs into policy evaluation, policy development, and policy implementation in relevant areas of scholarship. Very often, existing social and development policies lack evidence-based data that may inform, guide and steer helpful and enabling policy development.”

One of this year’s NIHSS fellows, Dr Zanele Zuma, explained the significance of her research in shedding light on community perceptions and their influence on behavioural patterns of boys. Having completed her PhD in the area of rural girl-child studies, amid GBV, Zuma’s postdoctoral fellowship supported her to engage in a similar study, involving rural boys, in respect of coping mechanisms, psychological impacts, and the educational implications affecting academic performance and attendance.

Another fellow, Dr Hlengiwe Phetha, addressed unemployment challenges faced by graduates in South Africa with regard to entrepreneurship and e-commerce, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. Phetha’s publications focus on the introduction of work, digital and artificial intelligence skills to enhance adaptability in the evolving job market. The nature and dynamics of digital education in employment-related scholarship creates and impacts digital infrastructure to attract investment and employment, both nationally and internationally.

Advocating for language policy and related policy implementation and practice as a transformative tool to intellectualise African languages, Dr Melusi Msomi supports Ukuthuthukiswa kwezilimi zomdabu kanye nomthelela wakho ezikhungweni zeMfundo Ephakeme eNingizimu Afrika which translates into the ‘Decolonisation of African languages, focusing on the role and implementation of these languages in South African Higher Education’. In his report, Msomi also said that collaboration and peer learning in the NIHSS working group’s research seminars, workshops, and group writing retreats allowed him “to collaborate with other fellows.” He says these collaborative spaces fostered a strong sense of academic community and provided critical feedback that improved the quality of his work.

Dr Sabatha Khumalo’s focus is on rights-based approaches seminally published on the intersecting dynamics of governance policies, civil protests and service delivery, poverty and economic development, water conservation, the social welfare system and education.

Dr Brian Fulela’s publications engaged the role of space and place with regard to notions of ‘home’ in post-apartheid literature, the role and impact of literature in ‘literary cities’, and the significance of novels such as K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents (2013).

Zuma acknowledged that Smit’s mentorship had been pivotal in shaping her academic journey. The programme emphasised consistent progress monitoring, with regular sessions to refine research objectives, troubleshoot challenges, and strategise publications.

Said Zuma: “Leadership development was fostered through collaborative monthly cohort meetings, where engaging discussions on the gender-resource nexus propelled peer learning and intellectual innovation. Responsive support ensured that any concerns, from resource access to fieldwork logistics, were addressed promptly, enabling a steadfast focus on achieving high-impact results.”

According to Smit, since its inception by an Act of Government in 2013, the NIHSS has played a seminal role in upscaling the quality and transformative relevance of PhD scholarship in South Africa. “The focused research-informed societal engagement of PhD scholars has been leading the way in formatively engaging the most pressing human and social challenges experienced in post-apartheid and post-colonial realities of inequality, poverty, and unemployment.”

Since late 2020, the NIHSS’s Working Group system for postdoctoral fellows has exponentially added to the transformative impacts of NIHSS-initiated scholarly projects.

The 16 fellows who have come through the UKZN-based programme have each already made their mark in the human and social sciences in their respective areas of specialisation, with some already being employed at universities across the country.

•    Project Leaders were Professor Johannes A Smit supported by co-mentor Professor Relebohile Moletsane as well as dedicated supervisors for each Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDRF).

Words: Sinoyolo Mahlasela

Photograph: Supplied