On Monday 23 May 2016, Master’s and PhD students from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) competed in the faculty’s first 2-Minute Dissertation (2MD) and 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, presenting their exciting research.
Faculty of the Humanities 3MT winner
The winner of the 2016 competition was Ms Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian from the Department of Journalism, Film and Television with her presentation entitled ‘Talking Ubuntu: ‘Toward a Relational Talk Show Model’. She will compete in the UJ-wide thesis competition in August 2016.
She will also be entered into the national 3MT competition at the University of the Free State, with expenses paid, and will also submit a video entry into the global Universitas 21 3MT Competition.
3MT Runner-Up
The 3MT runner up was Mr Sifiso Mnisi from the Department of Communication and Media Studies, with his presentation ‘Burning to be men? An investigation of the social construction of masculine identities through excessive satorical expression in the activities of the Izikhothane’.
Faculty of Humanities 2MD winner
In first place was Ms Samukelisiwe Mthembu from the Department of Psychology, with her presentation entitled “Representation of weight loss in South Africa n women’s health magazine black women’s beautification practices in South African press reports: A discourse analysis”.
2MD Runner-up
In second place in the 2MD category was Mr Mpho Buntse from the School of Communications, with his presentation entitled “The state of LGBTI representation on the South African Broadcasting Corporation: The use of gay characters in SABC soapies”.
History of 2MD and 3MT competitions
Prof Craig MacKenzie, the Head of English Department at the University of Johannesburg explained that this competition was originally developed by the University of Queensland in Australia to develop students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports postgraduate students in their capacity to effectively explain their research in two or three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
More UJ Faculty competitions this year
The Faculty of Health Science competition will be on 2 June 2016.
The Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (FADA) competition will be on 8 June.
The Faculty of Education competition will be on 10 June.
The Faculty of Law competition will be on 13 August.
The date for the Faculty of Management competition is still being confirmed.
The inter-faculty UJ finals will be in mid-August, which will include the 2MD two-minute Master’s Dissertation and three-minute PhD thesis (3MT) categories.
In 2015, UJ hosted its first university-wide thesis competition for PhD candidates.
