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28 June 2022
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Story Nonsindiso Qwabe
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Photo ALBERT VAN BILJON
In conversation: Prof Petersen and Leanne Manas.
An outward-looking, globally competitive university that ranks among the top-tier universities in South Africa and on the continent, driven by a strong human-centred, diverse social-justice approach. This is at the heart of the vision
Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, shared with multi-award-winning
news anchor
Leanne Manas during a sit-down conversation on Friday 22 July 2022.
Prof Petersen reflected on the great strides and difficulties faced during his first term, as well as navigating the UFS through the COVID-19 pandemic to position the institution in a strategic and focused manner as a university of choice on the continent
and in other parts of the globe.
Prof Prakash Naidoo, Vice-Rector: Operations, introduced Leanne Manas
Prof Francis Petersen
Leanne Manas and Prof Petersen In conversation
Leanne Manas
Leanne Manas meeting our staff members.
Leanne Manas meeting our staff members.
Leanne Manas meeting our staff members.
Prof Petersen with some of our staff members
From the left; Prof Prakash Naidoo, Leanne Manas, Prof Francis Petersen and Temba Hlasho, Executive Director: Student Affairs
Leanne Manas meeting our staff members.
From the left; Prof Prakash Naidoo, Prof Francis Petersen and Quinton Koetaan, Senior Director; HRA
Leanne Manas meeting our staff members.
Environmental sociologist from the USA visits the UFS
2009-12-03
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From the left are: Prof. Bell, Dr Nola Redelinghuys from the Department of Sociology at the UFS, and Prof. Wijnand Swart, Director of Strategic Academic Cluster 4.
Photo: Lacea Loader
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The Strategic Academic Cluster 4 (Technologies for Sustainable Crop Industries in semi-arid Regions) at the University of the Free State (UFS) this week hosted a seminar featuring Prof. Michael M. Bell, Chairperson of the Agroecology Graduate Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the USA. The title of his seminar was, “Thinking Like a Holon: A Post-Systems Approach to Agroecology”.
By using examples drawn from issues of agriculture, food, and the environment, Prof. Bell argued for moving beyond systems thinking’s emphasis on connections to the contextual awareness of “holon thinking.” He also argued that holon thinking encouraged an ontological humility that fostered openness to interdisciplinarity.
Prof. Bell is an environmental sociologist and a systems theorist with three central foci in all of his work: dialogics, the sociology of nature, and social justice. He is the author of seven books, three of which have won national awards in the USA. His visit to South Africa, and particularly the UFS, was to explore possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the UFS.
His seminar attracted numerous students and staff members from various departments in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Faculty of the Humanities. Follow-up discussions will hopefully encourage closer collaboration between researchers in Cluster 4 and Cluster 2 (New Frontiers in Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development). |