By JOHN SAKALA
The University of Zambia (UNZA) Lecturer and Researcher Hamamba Jimaima has been elected President of the Linguistics Association of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Universities (LASU) which has been in existence since 1984.
Dr Jimaima was elected at the 15th Conference of LASU hosted by UNZA School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) in conjunction with the Confucius Institute from the 5th – 7th August 2019 in Lusaka, under the theme, Digitising Indigenous Languages: Productivity, Accessibility and Mobility in the Global South
The election of Dr Jimaima means that he will preside over hundreds of academics involved in teaching and research in the area of language and linguistics in the SADC region.
Meanwhile, UNZA Vice-Chancellor Luke Evuta Mumba has congratulated Dr Jimaima and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, particularly the Department of Languages and Linguistics, for achieving a huge milestone of having one of their own elected to a prestigious body of academics such as LASU.
Prof Mumba expressed UNZA Management’s confidence in Dr Jimaima’s proven track record of leadership.
“Dr Jimaima’s huge experience in the field of languages and linguistics will come handy in helping LASU foster, promote, strengthen and maintain high standards of linguistic education and research in Universities and language research institutions of the SADC region,” he said.
He will serve in the position for a re-electable term of two years.
Dr Jimaima is Head of Department, Literature and Languages in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zambia.
He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
His research interests revolve around semiotics, sociolinguistics, syntax and the extended view of multimodality, predicated on language production and consumption in the public spaces.
This is according to media statement to The Independent Observer by UNZA Spokesperson Brenda.
