Announcement of the new Dean – Faculty of Arts and Humanities It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Fiona Moolla as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, effective 1 August 2025.

Dear Campus Community

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Fiona Moolla as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, effective 1 August 2025.

Prof. Moolla brings a wealth of leadership experience to the role, having served as a Professor in the English Department, Chairperson of the Arts Higher Degrees Committee, Chairperson of the Arts Research Committee, as well as the Deputy Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities where she has made significant strides in advancing research and academic excellence. 

Prof. Fiona Moolla

An NRF-rated researcher, Prof. Moolla’s research interests include Emotions in African literature and culture; and her literary publications include Reading Nuruddin Farah: The individual, the novel & the idea of home (James Currey, 2014); Natures of Africa: Ecocriticism and animal studies in contemporary cultural forms (WITS UP, 2016), among numerous other academic and non-academic publications. 

Prof. Moolla has won many research and creative writing awards.

She is on the editorial boards of prestigious national and international journals; and she is a member of a university international advisory committee. 

She is the coordinator of Mellon projects and an EU-funded intra-Africa mobility project. She was part of the task team that drew up the UWC Institutional Operating Plan 2020-2025 and was a panelist on a CHE national PhD review panel.

Prof. Moolla is an experienced award-winning undergraduate and postgraduate teacher and has supervised numerous students from Honours to PhD. 

I invite you to join me in congratulating Prof. Moolla on her appointment. I am confident that she will bring engaged and thoughtful leadership to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and I am sure that she will enjoy your support.

On behalf of the University leadership and community, I would like to express our gratitude to Prof. Sarojini Nadar who, as Acting Dean, served the faculty as well as the University with distinction during the recruitment and selection process.

Prof Monwabisi Ralarala
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic