Researchers

Hester du Plessis

Hester du Plessis holds a PhD in Philosophy and a Masters Degree in Art (Theory and Practice). Her area of special interest is Epistemology (ways of knowing) that emerges through a Transdisciplinary approach to research. Her background in the Arts, Science Communication  and Philosophy lends itself to a creative understanding of knowledge being generated from different walks of society, especially in consideration and against the background of the current unstable climate and social challenges humanity is facing. She is a Research Associate in the School of Arts, Faculty of Humanities, and a Research Fellow at the International Institute for the Arts, University of the Free State. She is the co-ordinator of the Transdisciplinary Praxis committee at the Javett@UP gallery. She was seconded in 2024 as Senior Research Fellow to manage the Transformation through Transdisciplinarity Cross-cutting program at Future Africa, University of Pretoria. She is a Fellow at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA).

She previously served as Chief Research Specialist and Head of Science Communication at the Research Use and Impact Assessment (RIA) unit of the Human and Social Science Council (HSRC) in South Africa. She was the Head of Faculty: Humanity at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), a Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), University of Johannesburg (UJ) and acting Director for the Sustainable Energy Technology and Research (SeTAR) Centre, Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Research, Faculty of Science, UJ. She held a Research Chair in Design Education and Innovation in 2007 at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India in the Design Vision Centre (DVC).

She is the author/editor of 4 book publications, numerous chapters in publications and published in peer review journal papers. She is currently engaged in a research project Savours de la Précarité: knowledge from precarity in collaboration with the "Local Heritage, Environment and Globalization"(URM) research unit under the triple supervision of the Institute de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), the National Museum of Natural History (PALOC MNHN) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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