Inaugural Lectures 2018

The past five years has seen a groundswell in the biomedical sciences for transparent analysis and open data. I will discuss some of the key forces that are driving this change in behaviour, and how technological advances are making it easier for 'old dogs' such as myself to learn (and teach my students) how to report data in an open and accessible way.

Small' comes in many guises: a molecule, a bacterium in the gut, elucidating the mechanism of a disease, an experimental animal, the interaction with a patient, supervising a post-graduate student or mentoring and advising the trainee specialist clinician/surgeon. Scientists working in Health Sciences must undertake translational research to be clinically relevant. Candy describes the challenges and highlights working as a biochemist and scientist working in the clinical field of surgery and clinical medicine.

Drawing on her experience with health inequalities in prehistoric populations, Professor Schepartz presents how she pursues similar questions regarding the impact of gender and social roles on health in contemporary African societies. Her research employs a multidisciplinary perspective, incorporating data on dental growth and development, oral health and biocultural anthropology.

Dystopian fiction for young adults in South Africa has increased in both quality and quantity in recent years, and is able to hold its own against globally celebrated trilogies such as Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games or Veronica Roth's Divergent. While young adult literature often reflects changes taking place in society as the protagonists negotiate a sense of identity and position of power within the institutions of their society, in dystopian literature the young protagonists take a leading role in opposing and subverting the totalitarian societies that have emerged. This lecture highlighted recent works by South African authors and sought to situate them in both a local and global political and historical perspective. The focus is on the portrayal of female protagonists and questions whether writers are promoting the active agency of young women as empowered citizens or whether they are inadvertently reinforcing the traditional role of females as nurturers, ultimately dependent on their male counterparts.

Scientific achievement and the development of economic success has been the focus of universities, to varying degrees, since their first inception. More specifically, the research engendered by these academic institutions has been a part of humanity's attempts to seek truth. From this purpose followed certain intellectual and moral obligations, such as the continual support and sanctioning of debates around the merits of past and current ideas, and the development of those minds eager to attain knowledge. However, as society's norms and values have altered, so too have the pressures faced by universities, and the academics therein. Having transformed at the behest of so many, at times opposing forces, we should re-evaluate what we define our purpose to be, and how we aim to achieve it.

Simplistically, are academics losing relevance? Are we still perceived as part of the intellectual elite of our era? Do we still hold with high regard the pursuit of knowledge, and aim to produce individuals who will contribute to society? Or have the pressures we face led to our consensual participation in a race for popularity, ultimate group righteousness, and hence continual intellectual comfort?

Under a post-extractivist model of development, poverty would be a thing of the past and rights would be conceded to nature. Under the current dominant model of predatory extractivism, mining promises poverty alleviation and manageable impacts but contributes to highly unequal development and the erosion of the commons. Multiple pro- and dissenting mining discourses presently frame contribution and cost in a manner that makes common ground appear elusive.

In her lecture, Humby asks: How should a post-extractivist mining discourse present contribution and cost; and would it facilitate a common political agenda?

Whenever a finite set of distinct objects splits into subsets in which only the size of each subset is of significance, the object of interest is a partition of the integer cardinality. The ramifications of this relationship between integer partitions and set partitions is ubiquitous in number theory and combinatorics, with applications in statistical mechanics, group representation theory, molecular chemistry and vertex colouring of planar graphs, to name just a few. This lecture traced a selective path of recent discoveries under the two themes.

The lecture reflected on the ideas and practices that shaped Public History. Contrary to expectations, the moment of formal decolonisaton – the post-1994 era of democracy – did not lead to an embrace of the transformative impulses inherent in Public History. Instead, History came under pressure to support the production of ANC-centric narratives of the liberation struggle and to become institutionalized in the service of mega heritage projects.

These objectives of the new ruling elite were always challenged and increasingly so as popular discontent gained momentum from the mid-2000s. It will finally be suggested that the Fees Must Fall movement powerfully and urgently placed on the agenda the need to rethink the role of public universities. Encapsulated in the demand for ‘decolonised education', this movement further opened space to critically reflect on the relationship between the academy and publics. By reconnecting to its roots, Public History, undergirded by rigorous and principled intellectual work and a commitment to dialogical practices, can contribute to a revitalisation of the idea of a decolonised public university. In so doing, Public History can also be reimagined.

Calling something ‘slavery' is a popular way of seeking to draw attention and investment to specific causes and issues. One recent example of this strategy is the category of ‘modern slavery', which has unexpectedly emerged as a major source of popular fascination and political mobilisation since the mid-1990s. Over the years, numerous governments and activists have declared their intention to end slavery once and for all. However, there are a number of fundamental differences between transatlantic enslavement and ‘modern slavery'.

In stark contrast to historical campaigns to end legal enslavement, which were firmly aimed at the profits and privileges of the rich and powerful, campaigns today rarely pose a direct threat to major political and economic interests, particularly in the Global North. Governments and corporations feel comfortable supporting campaigns against exceptional cases of ‘modern slavery' – rather than broader campaigns for migrant, worker or women's rights – because they selectively focus on deviant criminals and ‘bad apples', thereby pushing larger global systems of exploitation, violence, discrimination and privilege into the background. High profile campaigns against ‘modern slavery' have secured support because they do not rock the boat. How much can a campaign realistically accomplish if it is popular because it doesn't make waves?

In his inaugural lecture Valodia will reflect on the role of an economist in shaping policies aimed at reducing inequality. He will focus on three policy issues that have played some role in guiding ‘academic discussions' to actual policy recommendations. These are the proposal for a National Minimum Wage in South Africa; the proposed amendments to the Competition Act; and finally, the proposal to increase the rate of VAT from 14% to 15%.