I read last year (2024) that 5 new universities were being planned. With News 24 declaiming a graduate unemployment rate of 24%, I have wondered whether another handful of new institutions is the best way to spend our country’s limited resources. The StatsSA report in the tale of the two new universities shows that academics …
Author archives: Derek
One wrong word….
This Easter, we had a lovely visit to the Midlands. We normally avoid travelling on a long weekend, but Mike, Kelly, and the gals were in South Africa for a wedding. So we left home at sparrows (4:30 a.m.) to beat the long weekend traffic, arrived on the meander at a very respectable hour and …
DH 2023
Please note that I first published this piece about the Digital Humanities conference on Substack in December 2023. Meant to post it to my blog, but I didn’t. I have also made a few Grammarly corrections. Introduction My first in-person conference since 2020. Yes, it was so good to be back with people (not screens). …
Place and Site Naming
Recently, (4-5 March 2025), I attended the second of SADiLaR’s Data Management Workshop at Unisa, in the Senate Hall. You might remember, I attended a similar workshop last year, where Benito Trollip opened my eyes up to research data management and Bianca Peterson (from Fathom Data) introduced to Open Refine. Here, with cameras and lights, …
Re-imagining Africa’s Knowledge Futures
On Tuesday and Wednesday (25-26 March 2025), I had the pleasure of attending a key event for those who are interested in Digital Humanities. Entitled “Re-imagining Africa’s Knowledge Futures in the Digital Humanities”. The summit was organized by Dr Denzil Chetty (and the team), who lead the Advancing African Digital Humanities Ideation Hub (AADHIH) at …
Mentorship – Part 2
A mentor is “someone who can hold a mirror up to us” (Abbott and Been). Someone with experience, knowledge, wisdom. The mentorship relationship allows for shared learning. A place for non judgmental observations about goals and performance, between mentor and mentee. A generative learning partnership that has the potential to shape the craft and culture …
Open to Mentorship
Today’s blog post is dedicated to the people who have gone beyond the call of duty and changed the way that I (and hope quite a few other people) think, act and be. People who have been responsive to concerns, aspirations. Who’ve helped me anchor myself and find a purpose. If there was a stage, …
Copyright and the Public Interest
Recently (3 Feb 2025), I attended a very interesting seminar at the Tin Temple (Wits University). The Title: Copyright and the Public Interest, Africa and the Global South. Thanks to Denise from Scholarly Horizons for the invitation. First, my apologies to her. I should have passed the invite onto my Mobile Literacy and Wikipedian friends. No matter, Matete …
Thoughts on Dis-Enclosure
“It is unclear now whether extending the postdigital framework to embrace and understand conditions, behaviour, and societies outside Western Europe and the white settler nations, might not be an inappropriate attempt to create a neo-colonialistic rather than global way of looking at necessarily diverse and different communities and cultures, each with their own way of …
Whistleblower support in SA Higher Education
I spent a fascinating (and grueling) two days at UJ a colloquium, entitled “Breaking the Chains of Corruption: Whistleblowing as a Catalyst for Social Development in South Africa.”(18 – 19th July 2024) The event was dedicated to the very complex topic of “whistleblowing” and how the state and corporations have responded to corruption and capture. …
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