Russel Viljoen is Dean of Humanities at Sol Plaatje University, Kimberley. He is Professor of History since 2008 and holds a PhD Degree in History from the Leiden University and an MA, BA Hons and BA majoring in History and Anthropology from the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He also completed an MBA at the School of Business Leadership, Unisa in 2013. He has been in Higher Education for more than three decades and is passionate about the Humanities and its place in society and Higher Education. He regards the Humanities as an essential building block in furthering the academic project across the University community, but also to unlock the vision and mission of Sol Plaatje University. He held academic fellowships at Leiden and Oxford Universities respectively and read academic papers at international and national conferences. He is the former editor of African Historical Review and a member of historical associations. His main area of research and expertise is Khoikhoi Studies, microhistory and the social history of medicine and disease in colonial contexts and its impact on indigenous communities. He has published extensively in these areas of research in the form of peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters and books. His second and latest monograph is titled: Khoikhoi, Microhistory and Colonial Characters at the Cape of Good Hope (Lexington, 2023) and an edited book with Poonam Bala, Epidemic Encounters, Communities and Practices in the Colonial World (Lexington, 2023), in which he contributed a chapter that deals with the impact of smallpox in 18^th century Cape colonial society. He aims to further the footprint of medical humanities and disease studies within the Humanities as an area of research.