PG Conference 2018, Rhodes University

Postgraduate Education is a Public Good

"Knowledge is a public good and increases in value as the number of people possessing it increases." - John Wilbanks

Register to attend here

26 & 27 July 2018

This conference is interdisciplinary and abstracts are encouraged from every faculty

ABOUT

Our research contributes to the public at large in many ways. For example:

it addresses concerns about ecological degradation,
it tackles persistent social problems,
it builds our understanding of the planet and the cosmos,
it nurtures us as critical citizens
and it adds to the very boundaries of knowledge fields.

This conference is a celebration of the postgraduate research being undertaken at our university. It is an opportunity to share your work and to consider how our research offers a contribution beyond the university walls.

All postgraduate scholars are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract - whether it be to share the key arguments in the literature related to your topic, to reflect on the methodological choices you have made, or to share the findings that have emerged.

ABOUT

SUB-THEMES

Climate Sustainability

We are living in an era of environmental deterioration with potentially disastrous consequences for our planet and our societies. We live in an era of hyper-capitalism where success is understood to be the acquisition of goods. We live in an era of pollution and mass-production. We need careful research that makes sense of how we got here and how we can make our way out of it.

The 4th Industrial Revolution

We have moved beyond the digital revolution of the last few decades into an era where the dividing lines between the physical, biological and technological are blurring. We need to provide cutting-edge research into the implications of these disrupting effects and how they might be harnessed for the public good.

Socio-economic development

Around the world, different parts of the population have vastly different levels of access to health care, education, food and security. South Africa has the worst Gini-coefficient on the planet suggesting that our gap between the lives of the rich and the poor is the largest. We need thoughtful research that strives to ensure a socially just world where basic human rights are met for all.

To Register to attend click here

Blue sky research

It is often difficult to draw a line from research that builds abstract disciplines to social concerns and the public good. But it is through such ‘Blue Sky’ research that disciplines expand and grow and new ideas and concepts emerge which others can use to change the world. We need to invest in research that can take us into unknown spaces and which can build our knowledge in directions not yet imagined.

SUB-THEMES

GUEST SPEAKERS

Mfundiso Dladla

Politics Department

Unisa

Dr. Sizwe Mabizela

Vice Chancellor

Rhodes University

Ndumiso Dladla is lecturer of philosophy at Unisa. His research interests include philosophy education and

African social and political philosophy. He is the author of Here is a Table: A Philosophical Essay on the History of Race in South Africa (2018). He is a member of the Azanian Philosophical Society.