Today's news
Monday, 21 May 2012
"Be proud of being African"
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Perhaps it is a bit too easy - as some would charge - to forget that the Cape Town bubble is actually as African as, well, anywhere else in Africa. Thus, when UCT's international student societies exhibited their goods on Upper Campus's Jameson Plaza on 15 May, it was an ideal opportunity to learn more about the continent.
Medical musical merriment at the Baxter
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Medical people are well-rounded people, it would appear. Away from clinics, stethoscopes and rounds they are drummers, flutists, pianists, dancers, rappers and singers. And decent ones at that, as demonstrated when staff and students took to the stage at the Baxter Theatre Centre for the Faculty of Health Sciences' Centenary Concert, staged on 16 May. Mapungubwe not the origin of Great Zimbabwe
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Popular discussion about the relationship between the Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe regions in southern Africa probably needs re-examining, says UCT archaeologist Dr Shadreck Chirikure. He was speaking at the first of two lectures organised by the Department of Archaeology as part of UCT's Celebrating Africa Month, Alumnus wins playwright award
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UCT alumnus and playwright Mike van Graan has won the inaugural Theatre in Translation award from Proyecto 34ºS, an independent Cape Town-based organisation that oversees the exchange of written theatre plays between Africa and Latin America. Van Graan's 2004 political thriller Green Man Flashing was named the South African winner on 2 May.
Just ask the Google Scholars
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Two UCT students have been awarded Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarships for 2012. Joyce Mwangama, a doctoral candidate in electrical engineering, and Maletsabisa Molapo, a master's student in computer science, were named among the 70 students from universities in Africa, Canada, the Middle East and the US to win the scholarships.
Student apprentices rise to the challenge
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UCT students showed off some winning business acumen at the first instalment of the twice-yearly AIESEC Student Apprentice Challenge (SAC) in early May. The SAC - hosted at UCT for the first time since its 2005 inception - pitted 64 ambitious students from around South Africa in a five-day face-off, testing core business disciplines such as project management, networking, logistics and bargaining. Africa Month celebrations continue
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UCT's Celebrating Africa Month continued last week with a fashion show, masquerade, exhibitions and talks galore. On 10 May the Faculty of Law hosted Afropolitan Through Fabric, an event that threw the spotlight on some of Africa's cultural riches - from traditional homebrew and wear to a fashion show featuring designers from South Africa, Mali and Nigeria, among other nations. Candlelight memorial for the thinking
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It was a Candlelight Memorial with a difference at UCT on 10 May. Yes, the matter in hand was the same: HIV and AIDS and, more specifically, stigma. Yes, there were again the typically powerful speeches: on the power of stigma and the need to eradicate stigma (thus this year's theme, Shine Light. Stop Stigma). Derivatives market low in Africa, study
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The global derivatives industry is valued at around US$700 trillion. Yet, except for South Africa, few African companies have a finger in this pie. So said Professor Glen Holman, head of UCT's new Department of Finance and Tax, in his 8 May lecture, Derivatives in Africa. The lecture tripled up as part of the university's Celebrating Africa Month schedule, and as the formal launch of the new department. Develop drugs in Africa, for Africa
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Africa Month is about celebrating our heritage, yes, but it's also a platform to showcase how UCT, through its research, keeps its promise of being an Afropolitan university. It was in this spirit that Professor Kelly Chibale of UCT's Department of Chemistry delivered a lecture on 8 May titled Drug Discovery in Africa: Challenges, Status and Opportunities, which formed part of a Merck seminar series.
HUMA launches book on AIDS, intimacy and care
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A new book by UCT's Dr Patricia Henderson, titled AIDS, Intimacy and Care in Rural KwaZulu-Natal: A Kinship of Bones, took centre stage at a launch hosted by the Institute for the Humanities in Africa (HUMA) on 7 May, an event that also formed part of UCT's Celebrating Africa Month. Expert honoured for lifetime's seabird research
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The birds weren't the only drawcard on John Cooper's recent trip to Hawaii - the retired UCT ornithologist was also there to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group (PSG). In February, the US-based PSG honoured Cooper for his nearly four decades of study into seabirds.
