The winners of the 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Awards (HSS Awards) have been announced.
The awards, now in their fifth year, are run by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and are open to South African publishers, scholars based in South African universities and independent artists linked to universities.
Each winning entry receives R65,000 prize money.
The awards honour ‘outstanding, innovative and socially responsive scholarship, creative as well as digital contributions that enhance and advance fields in the humanities and social sciences’ and ‘recognise and celebrate those members of the Humanities and Social Sciences community who are undertaking the necessary work of creating post-apartheid and postcolonial forms of scholarship, creative production, and digital humanities outputs’.
The awards ceremony took place on 12 March 2020 at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
This is the third award for Gabeba Baderoon‘s poetry collection The History of Intimacy, which was awarded the University of Johannesburg Main Prize and the Elisabeth Eybers Poetry Prize last year.
Books: Fiction winner
- Lacuna by Fiona Snyckers, Pan Macmillan SA
Books: Poetry and Short Stories winner
- The History of Intimacy by Gabeba Baderoon, Kwela
Best Musical Composition/Arrangement
- Songs of Greeting, Healing and Heritage by Mantombi Matotiyana
Best Visual Art
- Asymmetries Exhibition by Nduka Mntambo
Best Public Performance
- Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) Live Art Festival 2018 by Jay Pather
Digital Humanities—Visualisation/Infographic winner
- Azimuth: An Experiment of Virtual Reality for the Fashion Film Genre by Nirma Dolly Madhoo
Books: Non-fiction Edited Volume winner
- Black Academic Voices: The South African Experience by Grace Khunou, Hugo Canham, Katijah Khoza-Shangase and Edith Dinong Phaswana, HSRC Press
Books: Non-fiction Biography joint winners
- A Political Biography of Selby Msimang: Principle and Pragmatism in the Liberation Struggle by Sibongiseni Mkhize, HSRC Press
- Sol Plaatje: A Life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje 1876–1932 by Brian Willan, Jacana Media
Books: Non-fiction Monograph winner
- Dance of the Dung Beetles: Their Role in the Changing World by Marcus Byrne and Helen Lunn, Wits University Press
