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UFS student attends COP27 Simulation Model in Egypt

26 September 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied

Letsatsi Lekhooa, a UFS student who was selected to be part of the COP27 Simulation Model.

Nearly 150 students from across the world will gather in Egypt for the COP27 Simulation Model from 9 September to mid- October 2022. Among them will be Letsatsi Lekhooa, a Master of Science student specialising in Climate Change from the University of the Free State (UFS).

Lekhooa was one of 150 students from a pool of more than 1 800 applicants across the world who were selected to be part of this prestigious initiative. “This opportunity is appealing, because as young people we need to work hard to not only ensure that we break through walls, but to also represent our university well everywhere we go,” Lekhooa indicated.

The COP27 Simulation Model

The COP27 Simulation Model, which is organised by the British University in Egypt along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is a worldwide climate conference led by and targeted at the youth. The conference is important for several reasons, such as encouraging conversations around climate action among the youth. As it stands, the initiative is split into two categories, which include the hybrid capacity-building programme that started in September, and the COP27 Mock Conference set to begin in October. Lekhooa is currently engaged in the online capacity-building programme, which he describes as a learning curve. “Every day I learn something new, and I enjoy it because the process is assisting me in learning more about this climate change issue,” Lekhooa expressed.

The benefits of attending the COP27 Mock Conference

Although the first leg of the COP27 Simulation Model is online, Lekhooa will get the opportunity to travel to Egypt and physically be part of the COP27 Mock Conference on the campus of the British University in Egypt. As such, he hopes to take away as much as possible from the experience. “I hope to learn about the ways in which I can better communicate this climate change issue, not only in my home country of Lesotho, but generally in Southern Africa,” said Lekhooa. Furthermore, through his interactions with international scholars, he hopes to create and encourage a collaborative spirit to battle climate change.

The experience does not only serve as a learning curve for Lekhooa, but it is also one of the key steps that will allow him to reach a life goal. “I would like to be an international consultant in bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as they play a key role in making decisions on climate change,” Lekhooa highlighted.

News Archive

Prof Marais awarded the first UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship

2015-03-19

Prof Kobus Marais

Prof Kobus Marais, from the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice, was recently awarded the UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship for 2014.

The prize, awarded for its first time in 2014, consists of an inscribed certificate of honour with a monetary award of R50 000 paid into Marais’s research entity. The book for which Marais received this award is Translation Theory and Development Studies: A Complex Theory Approach (2014, Routledge, New York).

“It falls within the discipline of translation studies, but it is actually an interdisciplinary approach, linking translation studies and development studies,” says Marais.

Therefore, it aims to provide a philosophical underpinning to translation, and relate translation to development.

“The second aim flows from the first section’s argument that societies emerge out of, amongst others, complex translational interactions amongst individuals,” Marais says. “It will do so by conceptualising translation from a complexity and emergence point of view, and by relating this view on emergent semiotics to some of the most recent social research.”

It fulfils its aim further by providing empirical data from the South African context concerning the relationship between translation and development. The book intends to be interdisciplinary in nature, and to foster interdisciplinary research and dialogue by relating the newest trends in translation theory, i.e. agency theory in the sociology of translation, to development theory within sociology.

“Data are drawn from fields that have received very little if any attention in translation studies, i.e. local economic development, the knowledge economy, and the informal economy, says Marais.”

The UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship was initiated in 2014 to bestow recognition on any permanent staff member of the UFS for outstanding publications which consist of research published as an original book, on the condition that the greater part (50% or more) of the book has not been published previously. This stimulates the production of significant and original contributions of international quality by our staff. In this way, the UFS is striving, through a series of award-winning books, to enhance the quality of specialised works published by our staff members.

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