Stellenbosch University (SU) has partnered with an international organisation to start a bursary programme aimed at filling a critical need for funding opportunities in the humanities in 2023.
This is according to Dr Candice Steele, manager of the SU graduate school.
The Mellon Foundation, a New York-based organisation, has agreed to fund the Turning the Tide bursary programme until 2025, according to Steele.
“You need the humanities to communicate scientific research in a way that can be digested [by the general public],” said Prof Catherine du Toit, former vice-dean of arts and social sciences. PHOTO: Téa Bell
Turning Tides
The 2023 Turning the Tide bursary programme will offer research funding opportunities to six masters students and three PhD students from SU, stated Chandrea Smith, co-ordinator of the SU graduate school. The students must be conducting research into African studies, queer and/or identity studies, anthropocene or ecocriticism to apply, she said.
“The hope was that these should be areas of research that not only could attract funding, but are also important for the humanities in South Africa,” said Prof Catherine du Toit, former vice-dean of arts and social sciences at SU.
Funds are reserved for masters and doctoral bursary recipients to go on a writing retreat with their supervisors, after which they must then present their research at a national conference, explained Steele.
For doctoral bursary recipients, funding is also reserved for the publication of their paper at the end of the retreat, she stated.
“The idea is that students are trained from the beginning that their research must be disseminated,” said Du Toit.
The closing date for Turning the Tide bursary applications was extended from 31 July to 30 August, according to Smith.
The Mellon Foundation, a New York-based organisation, has donated six masters bursaries and three PhD bursaries to Stellenbosch University for 2023. The Turning the Tides bursary programme will offer funding opportunities to humanities students pursuing research in African studies, queer and/or identity studies, anthropocene or ecocriticism. SOURCE: Stellenbosch University website. GRAPHIC: Téa Bell
‘A perennial problem’
“Securing funding for postgraduate study [in the humanities] is a perennial problem,” said Steele.
Academic funding opportunities in South Africa tend to be more prevalent in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The South African department of higher education emphasised the importance of increasing the number of STEM graduates entering the workforce in an effort to close the country’s critical skills gap.
This is according to a 2015 report on the state of the humanities in South African universities, prepared by Ahmed Essop for the Mellon Foundation.
“Often, the humanities is discarded as something that is a nice-to-have rather than a must-have,” said Du Toit.
The social sciences and humanities provide the ethics and human values that should underpin science, technology, engineering and mathematics advancements. This is according to Prof Catherine du Toit, former vice-dean of arts and social sciences at Stellenbosch University. PHOTO: Téa Bell
However, Du Toit believes that the humanities are equally as important as STEM disciplines.
“You need the humanities to communicate scientific research in a way that can be digested [by the general public],” explained Du Toit.
The social sciences and humanities provide the ethics and human values that should underpin STEM advancements, she said.
Lizé Myburgh, a sociology honours student at SU, has applied to the Turning the Tide bursary programme to fund her masters studies in 2023.
“The social sciences are supposed to critique STEM advancements,” said Myburgh. The humanities should therefore be “a layer above” STEM disciplines in terms of their importance, she claimed.