HSRC's 50/90 Anniversary Commemoration 2018-2020

In 2019, the Human Sciences Research Council commemorates its 50th anniversary. Act 23 of the Parliament that established the HSRC was assented to on 15 March 1968 and came into effect on 1 April 1969. It defined ‘human sciences’ as “those sciences concerned with the study of the creations and the manner of mental activity of man, human development, or mutual relationships, institutions or conditions in society.”

The organisational predecessor of the HSRC as an educational and social science public research organisation in South Africa was the National Bureau of Educational and Social Research (NBESR), which was established in 1929.

Given this conjuncture the HSRC has decided to initiate a series of critical engagements around the social and human sciences in the period April 2018 to May 2020. The engagements will enable documentation, the building of the HSRC archive, reflection, learning, appreciation, promotion in the public domain, and critical debate on the relationship between social and human science research, the state and society at large.

Enquiries can be forwarded to: Gerard Hagg, tel 012 302 2626, cell 0825606209, or email: ghagg@hsrc.ac.za.