University of the Free State Professor awarded coveted ATKV prize for best Afrikaans research paper
A research article titled Intervroulike seksualiteit in die latere Middeleeue: ʼn Ideëhistoriese oorsig by Professor Johann Beukes, a research fellow in the University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Philosophy and Classics, has received the 2022 ATKV South African Academy for Science and Arts (SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns) award for Best Afrikaans Research Paper in the Humanities.
Prof Beukes says the achievement is not only about winning, but also about the restrained attitude all philosophers should have. “Given the company I find myself in, I’m very modest about it. There are highly competent Humanities scholars in South Africa who often publish peer-reviewed articles in Afrikaans.” He also received the prize in 2020 for his article Die Arabiese trajek in die Karolingiese periode van Middeleeuse filosofie.
He considers local accredited journals like Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe as “conforming to the highest criteria for internationally recognised research, and I am proud to be associated with the several local journals I publish in, whether in English or Afrikaans.”
‘Competition is good, but philosophers works best together’
Although he is happy to have received the prize for a second time, Prof Beukes says all philosophy should start and end with a good demeanour and a restrained attitude. “I don’t think any serious scholar would present a manuscript for peer review, thinking about a prize somewhere in the future: if that happens, good, if not, that’s quite alright.”
Prizes like this one are an important barometer, since they are based on peer evaluations and editor recommendations. “They do provide a sort of benchmark for what a particular research community considers to be solid, original research,” Prof Beukes says. Although the criteria for peer reviewing is tough, he never felt he was in competition with other scholars. In fact, he experienced the opposite: “I have always felt part of the local philosophical community, where if one of us does well, the others are happy for them.”
He thinks competition might work well in other disciplines, but not in philosophy. “Philosophers typically stand on each other’s shoulders: that’s how we work, and how we do our best work… On the other hand, that is how proper science works: very rarely is it the brilliant insight of a lone ranger that makes scientific progress possible, but rather the cumulative and restructuring work of many.”
Article aims to contribute to work on interfemale sexuality
Prof Beukes’ research specialty is Medieval Philosophy and Foucault Studies, which is based on the ideas of French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault: to consistently address questions of how sexually became a “seismograph for our subjectivity” in Western cultures. “In other words, how did it come about that a person’s whole being-in-the-world was typically reduced to their attitudes and preferences towards sex and sexual behaviour?”
Given that Foucault’s work influences much of his academic work, Prof Beukes based his article on Foucault’s posthumously expanded four-volume The History of Sexuality, which briefly touches on certain aspects of medieval sexuality. “This article attempted to address the ways sexual relations between women, as such, were thought and spoken of during the central and later Middle Ages.”
His article also contributes to the small but growing body of research work done on the topic of interfemale sexuality in the Middle Ages.