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11 March 2022 | Story NONSINDISO QWABE | Photo Supplied
Dr Ralph Clarke
Dr Ralph Clark, Director of the Afromontane Research Unit.

The African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), in association with the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) of the University of the Free State (UFS), and the Global Mountain Safeguard Research Programme (GLOMOS), is hosting the first-ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022). The theme of the conference is Southern African Mountains – their value and vulnerabilities.

The conference will bring relevant people together into one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity and academic outputs that feed into policy and action. 

The conference will take place from 14 to 17 March 2022 in the majestic Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho. 

According to the SAMC2022 website, this is a truly Southern African regional mountain conference, targeting the African region south of the Congo rainforest (DRC) and Lake Rukwa (Tanzania), but including Madagascar, the Comoros and the Mascarenes (i.e., Angola, the Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [southern mountains], Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, La Réunion, South Africa, southern Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).

Dr Ralph Clark, ARU Director, said the conference would be a high-level international event with UNESCO patronage and very valuable sponsors.

“The programme will have six parallel tracks (one being dedicated to postgraduate students), with about 200 papers being delivered. In addition, we have some very high-profile special sessions, such as an MRI special session on long-term monitoring activities and associated data availability for climate change-related applications across Africa’s mountains, as well as a UNESCO special session on regional collaboration. We also have Prof Julian Bayliss, described as the man who discovered an unseen world, as the guest speaker at the closing event.”

The conference will bring together relevant people in one space for networking and information sharing, leading to more robust regional and international collaborations and comparative mountain studies, with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity, and academic outputs that feed into policy and action.

The GLOMOS team, one of the long-term partners of the ARU, spent the week of 8 to 11 March 2022 on the Qwaqwa Campus to strengthen collaboration and pave the way for new research opportunities in Phuthaditjhaba and the Maloti-Drakensberg.
GLOMOS represents an interface between the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and Eurac Research. Postdoctoral fellow, Dr Stefano Terzi, said: “It’s very interesting for us to look at the Maloti-Drakensberg area because of its diversity. We are in the process of really exciting collaborations.”
Their projects include an understanding of the root causes of land degradation and improving decision-making processes for current water management within the context of water scarcity in the Maloti-Drakensberg.
• For more information on the speakers and the programme, click here 


News Archive

UFS awards honorary doctorate to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
2011-01-01

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

The University of the Free State (UFS) will reach a milestone in its history today when an honorary degree, the Doctor of Theology, will be conferred on Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

At the same event Archbishop Tutu will launch the university’s International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice.
 
The idea of the establishment of such an institute originated after the Reitz incident in 2008. In 2009, during his official inauguration, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, embodied this idea when he stated that the university would be an example of a place where reconciliation, forgiveness and social justice would not only be studied, but where it would also be applied in practice. “Students and scholars from across the world will come to the UFS to study the theory and practice about the building of societies across the boundaries of race, as well as religion, gender, disabilities and national origin,” Prof. Jansen said.
 
The institute is a critical intellectual space where engaged scholarship, public discussion, community engagement and contextually relevant teaching are innovatively harnessed towards exploring and finding solutions to the complex and challenging work of social transformation in South Africa,” says Mr John Samuel, Interim Director of the institute. Mr Samuel was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
 
According to Mr Samuel, the institute seeks to establish itself as a premier international site for research on race, reconciliation and social justice. “We want to link the manifestations of race in higher education, to the related matters of reconciliation and social justice in the South African context against the backdrop of racial and ethnic conflicts elsewhere in the world,” says Mr Samuel.
 
The institute will, amongst others, publish groundbreaking research, organise national and international conferences about reconciliation and social justice, as well as contribute to the establishment of national and international networks that are actively involved in matters relating to race, reconciliation and social justice. Through its research, the institute will endeavour to understand the challenges facing the UFS better, as well as how to address these challenges. For this reason, the concept of the UFS as a “live laboratory” and the use of evidence-based practice remain important for the university.
 
By honouring Dr Tutu, the UFS recognises the contribution that Dr Tutu has made in the field of Theology through his teachings and the books he has written. However, the UFS is not only honouring him as a moral and religious leader who has maintained his integrity as a Christian. “We honour a great son of South Africa who has made a huge contribution to peace, reconciliation and justice in South Africa and in the world,” says Prof. Jansen.
 
The unveiling of the new corporative brand of the UFS will render further lustre to the day.

Media Release
17 January 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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