{"id":12853,"date":"2026-08-21T13:46:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/?p=12853"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:58:18","slug":"sadilar-inaugurated-new-honorary-fellows-strengthening-a-growing-network-of-expertise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/sadilar-inaugurated-new-honorary-fellows-strengthening-a-growing-network-of-expertise\/","title":{"rendered":"SADiLaR inaugurated new honorary fellows, strengthening a growing network of expertise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

21 August 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Honorary Fellows of SADiLaR at the SADiLaR HUB following the official Fellows’ Inauguration Dinner on 7 August 2026. From right to left: Prof Langa Khumalo (Chief Director: SADiLaR), Ms Brigitte Le De (fellow), Prof Justus Roux (Honorary Fellows Programme Chairperson), Dr Karen Calteaux (fellow), Prof Sonja Bosch (Honorary Fellows Programme Deputy Chairperson), Prof Rufus Gouws (fellow), Prof Laurette Pretorius (fellow), Prof Theo Bothma (fellow), Mr Juan Steyn (Operations Director: SADiLaR), Ms Thatohatsi Bambo (Senior Admin Officer (SADiLaR), In absentia: Prof Frieda Steurs (fellow)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) inaugurated four distinguished scholars as honorary fellows on 17 August 2026, marking an important milestone in strengthening collaboration, knowledge exchange and innovation in digital language resources and the digital humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a national research infrastructure, SADiLaR supports research and development relating to South Africa\u2019s official languages, digital language resources, language technologies and broader humanities and social sciences research. The Centre\u2019s work covers a broad range of areas, including local languages and language resources, language-related technologies, language policy planning, development and management, as well as disciplines in the digital humanities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a network of expertise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The SADiLaR honorary fellowship programme provides an opportunity for accomplished academics and experts to contribute their knowledge, experience and networks to the Centre\u2019s mandate. According to the honorary fellow\u2019s charter, the programme enables experts to participate in SADiLaR projects and activities in areas such as digitisation, digital humanities and the higher education support programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme aims to recognise the expertise of leading scholars while creating opportunities for them to share their knowledge and experience for the broader benefit of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SADiLaR\u2019s existing honorary fellows include Prof Justus Roux of Stellenbosch University, Prof Sonja Bosch of the University of South Africa (UNISA), and Prof Rufus Gouws of Stellenbosch University. They also play a leadership role within the honorary fellows\u2019 programme of the SADiLaR committee, with Prof Roux serving as chairperson, Prof Bosch as deputy chairperson and Prof Gouws representing the honorary fellows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcoming new honorary fellows<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 inauguration formally welcomed four new honorary fellows to the SADiLaR community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Prof Frieda Steurs \u2013 KU Leuven<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Prof Theo Bothma \u2013 University of Pretoria<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Ms Bridgitte le Du \u2013 Rhodes University<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Prof Laurette Pretorius \u2013 University of Pretoria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Their appointment expands SADiLaR\u2019s network of expertise and creates further opportunities for collaboration across institutions, disciplines and national borders. The fellows charter provides for both national and international experts to participate in the fellowship programme, reflecting SADiLaR\u2019s commitment to building meaningful scholarly networks around digital language and humanities research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fellows as ambassadors for digital language innovation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The role of an honorary fellow extends beyond recognition. Fellows contribute to SADiLaR workshops and training initiatives, provide expert input on projects and proposals, contribute to strategic discussions, share developments in their fields, participate in think tank activities, and help connect SADiLaR with relevant national and international organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fellows also serve as ambassadors for SADiLaR, representing the Centre at national and international conferences and sharing developments in language technology and digital humanities with wider scholarly and professional communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The programme brings together expertise spanning areas such as language planning and development, digitisation, corpora development, computational Humanities, lexicography, forensic linguistics, education and other digital humanities applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    SADiLaR\u2019s chief director, Prof Langa Khumalo, stated: \u201cThe inauguration of Prof Frieda Steurs, Prof Theo Bothma, Ms Bridgitte le Du and Prof Laurette Pretorius represent more than the recognition of four individual scholars. It marks an important step in SADiLaR\u2019s continued investment in collaboration, knowledge exchange and the collective expertise needed to shape a sustainable digital future for South Africa\u2019s languages. Through the expanded network of honorary fellows, SADiLaR strengthens the bridge between established scholarship, emerging technologies and its broader vision for advancing multilingualism and digital humanities in the digital age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Written by: Lihle Sosibo<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    21 August 2026 The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) inaugurated four distinguished scholars as honorary fellows on 17 August 2026, marking an important milestone in strengthening collaboration, knowledge exchange and innovation in digital language resources and the digital humanities. As a national research infrastructure, SADiLaR supports research and development relating to South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[741,733],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12860,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions\/12860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}