The College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHUSS) has launched a three-year research project aimed at rethinking and reshaping the role of Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences in Uganda and the entire African Continent.
The project titled, “Historicizing the Humanities at Makerere University since 1922 (Humanities@Mak100)” is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The research project will be based on three thematic areas, namely the basis of humanities and humanistic social sciences, patterns and trends of humanities knowledge production, and the disciplines and public engagement.
The Principal of CHUSS, Dr Josephine Ahikire is the Principal Investigator on the project. Dr Byaruhanga Rukooko is the head of the research team investigating the basis of humanities and humanistic social sciences, Prof. Grace Bantebya heads the team researching the patterns and trends of humanities knowledge production where as Prof. Dominic Dipio heads the team re-examining the humanities disciplines with regard to public engagement.
The project intends to historicize the life of humanities at Makerere University since 1922 underscoring the significance and challenges over time. In particular, the project will trace and re-examine the development of humanities at the University since the introduction of History in 1946. Since then, the humanities have been at the heart of Makerere University but also pioneering knowledge production on the continent especially in literary and political science scholarship. The project contends that despite this rich history, no attempts have been made to critically historicize and interrogate the past and current positionality of the disciplines of Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences at Makerere University.
Therefore, the research project aims to rethink and reshape the role of humanities in Uganda and re-examine the basis and significance of humanities and humanistic social sciences at Makerere University from a historical perspective. In this regard, the project will reflect critically on the current role and significance of these disciplines in society in order to shape their future trends in Uganda and East Africa.
