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15 March 2022
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Story Rulanzen Martin
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Photo Supplied
The keynote speakers are Dr Khabele Motlosa (right), Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at NUL, and leading Pan-Africanist scholar Prof Molefi Kete Asante(left).
The
Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) at the University of the Free State (UFS), together with the
National University of Lesotho (NUL) and the Academic Forum for Development of Lesotho, is hosting an online think tank on the transnational communities of the Lesotho-South Africa border from 19 to 21 March 2021. The theme of the conference is
Lesotho and South Africa: a clarion call for a Pan-Africanist future.
Dr Munyaradzi Mushonga, Programme Director: Africa Studies Programme in CGAS, is the convenor of the conference and is also leading the UFS borderlands panel. The borderlands project is jointly funded by the Office of the Dean: Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS).
For more information and to register for the conference, click here
Young academic receives BRICS research funding
2017-04-13

Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli and Dr Victor Okorie
from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning
at the University of the Free State.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin
“It means a lot to me, as I am a young academic embarking on my postdoctoral research project. To be able to lead a team of researchers from various research institutions in South Africa is humbling.” This is what Dr Thulisile Mphambukeli had to say on being awarded a research grant by the South African BRICS Think Tank.
The think tank, in collaboration with the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), awarded the lecturer in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State (UFS) R150 000. She will spearhead a research project between BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) universities. “They have awarded me a three-month grant to facilitate a process of combining various research projects under the BRICS Academic Cluster,” Dr Mphambukeli said.
Platform provides collaboration
“The academic cluster provides a platform for researchers and academics to engage in ongoing collaboration,” she said. The grant will enable her and her research partner, Dr Victor Okorie, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the UFS, to put together a research proposal to be submitted at the end of May 2017. If successful, her team will conduct a research study across BRICS countries over a period of three years. It will be done in collaboration with various South African universities, who will form a team to collaborate with researchers from BRICS universities.
Great accomplishment for UFS
“The funds we have received are quite a great accomplishment for the UFS and our department,” Dr Okorie said. The UFS has become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to emerging issues in BRICS politics and policies. “Our project looks at the provision of ecosystems, agriculture, and security and the UFS was chosen as the host institution.”