Keynote Speakers
Nelson Mandela Legacy Lecture Speaker
Prof. Heila Lotz-Sisitka
Heila Lotz-Sisitka is a Distinguished Professor of Education, a Tier 1 South African DSI/NRF Chair in Global Change and Social Learning Systems, and Director of the Environmental Learning Research Centre at Rhodes University. Her research focuses on environment and sustainability education in the global South, transformative learning, skills for just transitioning to sustainability, and education system change. In addition to authoring over 250 publications and supervising over 130 Masters and PhD scholars, she has delivered 110 keynotes in 35 countries, and has served in 21 national and international scientific and policy committees advancing Environment and Sustainability Education policy and practice globally, most recently as member of the international expert group developing the 2023 UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the SAERA Research Honours Award, and is a Member of the South African Academy of Sciences.
International Keynote Speaker
Prof. Joel Samoff
Educator, researcher, and evaluator, Joel Samoff combines the scholar’s critical approach and extensive experience in international development. From Tanzania coffee farmers to militant Michigan bus drivers to Namibian and South African education activists, his orienting concern has been understanding how people organize themselves to transform their communities. He studies the links among research, public policy, and foreign aid. At Stanford University since 1980, he was on the faculty of the Universities of California (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara), Michigan, and Zambia and has taught in Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Pretoria and the University of the Free State. Advisory Editor at the International Journal of Educational Development and editorial board member at the Journal of Educational Research in Africa and the Southern African Review of Education. His most recent book is Challenging the Research Complex: Education, External Influence, and Disrupting Dependence in Africa (2025).
National Keynote Panel Member
Prof. Emmanuel Mgqwashu
Emmanuel Mfanafuthi Mgqwashu’s scholarly work includes a collaborative research project called Access and Inclusion in Higher Education with a focus on ways in which disciplinary discourses and pedagogic practices across disciplines in higher education serve to include and exclude students. His latest international project, in which he was one of the lead researchers in South Africa, involved 5 institutions: University of Johannesburg, University of Bristol, University of Fort-Hare, the University of Brighton and Rhodes University. The project is called Southern African Rurality in Higher Education (SARiHE) that began from 2017 – 2020. The project was investigating how students negotiate the transition from school and home in rural contexts to ‘university learning’. A book entitled Rural Transitions to Higher Education in South Africa: Decolonial Perspectives (2021) was published by Routledge.
National Keynote Panel Member
Prof. Shireen Motala
Prof Motala is NRF/DHET SARChI Chair: Teaching and Learning (Tier 1) at the University of Johannesburg. She was the Head: Postgraduate School (PGS), University of Johannesburg (UJ) until September 2020. In October 2024 she was appointed as a member of the Council of the Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf). Prior to joining UJ in 2010, Prof Motala was the Director of the Education Policy Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prof Motala has held numerous leadership roles related to higher education including Chairperson of the Education Policy Consortium (2006-2010), Chairperson of the UNESCO South African Commission (2001-2006) and first inaugural president of the South African Research Association (SAERA) (2013-2014). She was appointed by the Minster of Higher Education and Training to serve on the Council of Higher Education (CHE) for two terms from 2010-2018, and on the executive committee of the CHE. An NRF rated researcher, her research record is substantial. Her research interests and expertise are in the areas of education financing and system reform, access and equity, and decolonisation in higher education.
National Keynote Panel Member
Prof. Yunus Ballim
Yunus Ballim holds B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD degrees in civil engineering from University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (WITS). He spent six years in the construction industry and has been a full time academic since 1989. His research is mainly in cement and concrete materials science and he held a NRF rating as a researcher between 1994 and 2024. He is currently an Emeritus Professor in Civil Engineering at WITS. He was the founding President of the African Materials Research Society, Deputy Vice Chancellor – Academic at Wits for 7 years and the founding Vice-Chancellor of the Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley. He served on the Council on Higher Education and was Chair of the Higher Education Quality Council. He presently chairs the Council of Umalusi and is a member of the Board of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
National Keynote Panel Member
Prof. Petro Du Preez
Petro Du Preez is an Extraordinary Professor in Curriculum Studies at Stellenbosch University. Her scholarly intra-actions concern topics around Curriculum Studies, Higher Education, and new materialism/s / posthumanism, particularly concerning questions of social justice and ethics. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed works in these areas. Among her recent publications is the co-edited book Curriculum Studies (in the) Now: Transformations and Possibilities, which explores contemporary shifts in curriculum theory and practice, with a particular focus on the South African context.
Prof. Jonathan Jansen
Prof. Jonathan Jansen is a Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University and the immediate past Academy of Science of South Africa President. He started his career as a high school Biology teacher in the Cape and holds a PhD from Stanford and honorary doctorates from four universities, including the University of Edinburgh.
He is the author of the award-winning book Knowledge in the Blood (Stanford University Press), and his recent books include Corrupted: a Study of Chronic Dysfunction in South African Universities (2023, Wits University Press) and The Decolonisation of Knowledge (2022, Cambridge University Press).
He was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and will be the Chin Yidan Global Fellow at Harvard University in 2024.