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20 October 2023 | Story Samkelo Fetile
2023 UFS Thought-Leader Webinar Series

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to present a panel discussion titled, Student protest action, politics, and higher education, which is part of the 2023 Thought-Leader Webinar Series. Join Prof Adam Habib and Dr Max Price for a discussion about their respective experiences in leadership positions during the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protest movements, the lessons learnt during these tumultuous times, and how these events continue to influence the current landscape in the higher education sector in South Africa and further afield. The discussion will reflect on their recent books Rebels and Rage: Reflecting on #FeesMustFall, and Statues and Storms, and will be facilitated by Prof Francis Petersen, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS.

Date:   Tuesday 21 November 2023

Time: 13:00-14:30

Click to view document WATCH: vimeo.com/kovsies/tls23

For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za.

Some of the topics discussed by leading experts in 2022 included, Crime in South Africa – who is to blame; Are our glasses half full or half empty; What needs to be done to power up South Africa; A look into the future of South Africa. This year’s webinar series commenced with a discussion on Threats to South Africa’s stability and security challenges, followed by A culture of acceptance – is this South Africa’s greatest threat? and The need for a global and regional plan / approach to respond to the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Facilitator:

Prof Francis Petersen

Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UFS

 

Panellists:

Prof Adam Habib

Director: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

 

Dr Max Price

Emeritus Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town; academic and consultant

 

Bios of speakers:

 

Prof Adam Habib

Prof Adam Habib is an academic, researcher, activist, administrator, and well-known public intellectual. A Professor of Political Science, Prof Habib has more than 30 years of academic, research, and administration expertise, spanning five universities and multiple local and international institutions.

Prior to his appointment as Director of SOAS, he was Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa between 2013 and 2020. He has also served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Johannesburg, Executive Director of Democracy and Governance at the Human Sciences Research Council, and as Director of the Centre for Civil Society and Professor of Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is widely published, including his two well-received monographs, South Africa's Suspended Revolution: Hopes and Prospects and Rebels and Rage: Reflecting on #FeesMustFall.

Prof Habib’s academic contributions resulted in his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in addition to serving as a fellow of both the African Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Science of South Africa. He also serves on the Council of the United Nations University.

 

Dr Max Price

Dr Max Price was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town in July 2008, completing his ten-year term in June 2018. During the first seven years of his term, UCT experienced growth and success in research and teaching, as well as global recognition. This continued during the last three years but was overshadowed by the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall protests during 2015 to 2017. Dr Price led the university through these storms and back to safe harbour in 2018.

Dr Price studied Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), during which time he became deeply involved in student politics, becoming SRC president a year after the Soweto uprising. He subsequently did a PPE degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Following clinical work in academic and rural hospitals in South Africa, he gained a master’s degree in Community Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then worked as an academic in the areas of health policy and economics, rural health services, and health science education.

He was dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits for ten years. He now consults in public health, higher education, strategic leadership, and advises foundations on grant making. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Atlantic Institute. He is the author of Statues and Storms: Leading through change, published in 2023.

News Archive

Space-based information plays vital role in disaster-risk reduction
2017-02-28

Africa is one of the continents most affected by disasters triggered by natural hazards. The result of climate change is a reality that affects every human being, whether it is extreme heat waves, cyclones, or the devastation of drought and floods. Climate change can provoke injuries or fatalities and affects the livelihoods of people in both rural communities and urban areas. It triggers damage and losses in various sectors of development, such as housing, road infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, telecommunications, energy, and affects routine economic processes leading to economic losses.

According to Dr Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, President of the Association of Space Explorers Europe, space programmes have become an important force defining challenges of the 21st century. “Space observation is essential for climate-change monitoring,” he said.

Dr Prunariu was the keynote speaker at a two-day symposium on climate resilience and water that was hosted by the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC), at the University of the Free State (UFS). He participated in the Soviet Union’s Intercosmos programme and completed an eight day-mission on board Soyuz 40 and the Salyut 6 space laboratory, where he and fellow cosmonaut Leonid Popov completed scientific experiments in the fields of astrophysics, space radiation, space technology, space medicine, and biology. He is the 103rd human being to have travelled to outer space.

The focus of Dr Prunariu’s lecture was: Space activities in support of climate change mitigation and climate resilience.

Description: Dr Dumitriu Dorin Prunariu Tags: Dr Dumitriu Dorin Prunariu

Dr Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, the 103rd human
being in outer space and President of
the Association of Space Explorers Europe.
Photo: Charl Devenish

Space-based information, an extra eye that can detect a way out during disasters
“For governments to support communities affected by any disaster, precise and up-to-date information on its impacts is essential as a way to respond in a timely and effective way,” said Dr Prunariu.

Space-based information (derived using Earth observation, global navigation satellite systems, and satellite communications) can play a vital role in supporting disaster-risk reduction, response, and recovery efforts, by providing accurate and timely information to decision-makers.

“With space-based information, disaster management teams will be able to take note of recently established roads that may not appear in typical maps produced by National Geographic Institutes, but which could be used as emergency evacuation routes or as roads to deliver humanitarian assistance to those who require it in remote areas."

Space-based tools help decision-makers to improve planning
“Space-based tools and spatial data infrastructure is also crucial for policy planners and decision-makers in increasing the resilience of human settlements. Using geographic data and information collected before the occurrence of major disasters in combination with post-disaster data could yield important ideas for improved urban planning, especially in disaster-prone areas and highly-populated regions.

“In the recovery process, information on impact is used by governments to provide assistance to those affected, to plan the reconstruction process, and to restore the livelihoods of those affected,” said Dr Prunariu.

“Space observation is
essential for climate-
change monitoring.”

The symposium was attended by representatives from Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, with various international scientists from Europe imparting their expert knowledge on water and global resilience. The presence of these international experts strengthened global networks.

It isn't important in which sea or lake you observe a slick of pollution, or in the forests of which country a fire breaks out, or on which continent a hurricane arises, you are standing guard over the whole of our Earth. - Yuri Artyukhin: Soviet Russian cosmonaut and engineer who made a single flight into space.

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