A Lifetime of Achievement

A Lifetime of Achievement

31 October 2024 - Wits University

Profe Garth Stevens was honoured with a prestigious lifetime achievement award from the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) on Friday, 8 October 2024

The Award was made to Stevens "in recognition of a person that has dedicated his life to psychology in South Africa" and is the most prestigious recognition of an individual's lifetime contributions to the discipline from the Psychological Society of South Africa.

A citation by one of his colleagues aptly describes why he was deemed a worthy recipient of this award. "He embodies the qualities that this honour represents. With steadfast commitment and dedication to the field, and trailblazing and visionary leadership, Prof. Stevens has made seminal contributions to psychology, demonstrating exceptional contributions to scholarship, research, education, praxis, community engagement, and academic citizenship. His lifetime of work is substantive and influential, and has undoubtedly advanced psychology in South Africa, the region and internationally."

In his address, Stevens emphasised the need to develop a psychology that addresses our common humanity. "Over the last 30 years, PsySSA, and the last 10 years, for the Pan-African Psychology Union, there have been enormous strides to build a psychology that is from Africa and for Africa, but also a psychology that speaks to the rest of the globe," says Stevens. "I think it is fair to say that the Society and the Union have been at the vanguard of championing a psychology that is more socially and politically inflected - attempting to be both internally critical as well as to deploy psychology in the service of all of humanity in understanding the vexing problems of our time and intervening expeditiously."

Members of the Psychological Society of South Africa describe him as being "loyal and consistent, and always working in the interest of members while simultaneously taking societal needs and concerns into consideration. This is but one example of his balanced and intellectual approach to psychology and societal issues". Another member lauded his longstanding and selfless service to the discipline and describes him as "one of the country's lodestars in shaping the success of psychology in South Africa, on the continent and indeed across the world."

A strongly committed activist who pursues social justice, Prof. Stevens contextualised the role of psychologists in society today. "The world that we occupy is one that is replete with intersecting and overlapping crises - crises that involve climate emergencies and a just transition, sustainability, inequality, poverty, unemployment, economic growth, war, human migration and displacement, technological divides, political instability, and our broad failures to address the many humanitarian catastrophes across the world today," he said.

"Now, more than ever, the world requires a new layer and a new type of leadership amongst individuals, collectives, organisations and institutions that can act as anchor points that are attuned to the fractures that plague our societies. This is critical in a moment where we have to lead from the front, set institutional and societal tones that reflect an ethics and integrity, in contexts of intense volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. But it also requires anchor points with a vision who can astutely identify possibilities and inspire hope through action and outcomes. If we are to build an active and advanced citizenry, we have to step up and lead, or we will be led by those least equipped to do so. And so we look to organisations such as PsySSA and PAPU, amongst others, to fulfil these tasks."

He joins a list of illustrious recipients who received the award in previous years including Professors Chabani Manganyi, Saths Cooper, Cheryl de la Rey, Norman Duncan, Ann Watts, Anthony Pillay, Kobus Maree, and Josephine Naidoo.

"Thank you to PsySSA, for this acknowledgement and to each and every family member, friend, student, colleague, collaborator and mentor from whom I have learnt and received support over the years. This is really testament to the fact that we never accomplish what we accomplish on our own, but always on the shoulders of others," he concluded.

Biography of Prof. Garth Stevens

Professor Garth Stevens, a clinical psychologist by training and a Professor of Psychology, is a Past-President of PsySSA. He is a member of the South African National Committee for the International Union of Psychological Science, a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and a member of PAPU.

He previously held the positions of Dean, Deputy Dean, Co-Assistant Dean (Graduate Studies), and Assistant Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Humanities at Wits. He currently serves as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: People Development and Culture at Wits. Prior to joining Wits in 2006, he lectured at the University of the Western Cape in the Psychology Department at the beginning of his career, conducted research at the University of South Africa's Institute for Social and Health Sciences, and worked as a researcher on the South African Medical Research Council-UNISA co-directed Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme.

An NRF B-rated researcher in his last review cycle, Stevens is a highly-cited academic who has made substantial scientific contributions over his career "demonstrated not only by the sheer volume of his publications but by the enduring impact of his work".

His research interests include foci on race, racism and related social asymmetries; critical violence studies; applied psychoanalytic theorising of contemporary socio-political issues; and historical/collective trauma and memory. He has published widely in these areas, both nationally and internationally, including co-editorships of A 'race' against time: Psychology and challenges to deracialisation in South Africa; Race, memory and the apartheid archive: Towards a transformative psychosocial praxis; and Decoloniality and epistemic justice in contemporary community psychology.

A critical thinker, he has published consistently in peer-reviewed, high-impact national and international journals, contributing significantly to our understanding of race, racism and related social asymmetries; historical/collective trauma and memory; and critical studies of violence. His papers reflect the depth of his knowledge and understanding of society, human behaviour and the world in which we live, paying testament to the words of a colleague who described him as "an intellectual doyen in his discipline".

He was the co-lead researcher on the Apartheid Archive Project, which was an international research initiative that aimed to examine the nature of the experiences of racism of South Africans under the old apartheid order and their continuing effects on individual and group functioning in contemporary South Africa. He is also the co-lead researcher on the Violent States, States of Violence Project, which aims to re-engage a theorisation of violence in the contemporary world.

Known for his commitment to educational excellence and encouraging robust academic Inquiry, Prof. Stevens continues to inspire generations of scholars and practitioners. He has mentored and supervised countless students and early-career psychologists. His efforts have helped to ensure that psychology in South Africa does not merely mirror imported frameworks but is instead a site of intellectual innovation, and epistemological and social change, from our vantage point in the Global South.

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