Professor Sarah J Howie is a Co-Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence at Stellenbosch University. She completed her PhD in Education at University of Twente in the Netherlands. She is the founding Director of the Africa Centre for Scholarship and Professor in the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University. She has almost 30 years of research experience in international comparative studies in education while leading many research project teams. She has published extensively internationally in eighty-five peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and five books. During the past 20 years she has facilitated research capacity development across the continent and beyond at doctoral level. She has advised international organisations such as the International Energy Agency, OECD, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), UNESCO and World Bank. She has a passion for education and the development of researchers on the African continent.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Divinia Jithoo is a Specialist in International Education at the Durban University of Technology. She has extensive experience in higher education internationalisation with a keen focus on internationalisation of the curriculum. She has developed specialised expertise in International Virtual Engagement, and specifically, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a approach to inclusive internationalisation. She holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies from the University of Western Cape. Her research has highlighted global structural dynamics of academic cross border collaboration.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Werner de Wit is the Senior Programme Manager of the Unit for Student Mobility at Stellenbosch University International, and the Operational Coordinator: UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competences. He is responsible for the UNESCO Chair operations and is the international liaison. He holds BComm & LLB Bachelor degrees, and an MPhil (Higher Education). His Masters Thesis topic was on the Development of students' Intercultural Competences through a study abroad experience.
Student learning, leadership and development, Internationalisation and Intercultural Competences are topics he is passionate about. He is currently a PhD (Higher Education) candidate focussing on Intercultural Competence. He has worked over the past 12 years in developing short term study abroad opportunities facilitating global learning of international and local students at SU.
He is a UNESCO Story Circles facilitator and regularly facilitates workshops on behalf of the Chair.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Yenziwe Mbuyisa is a dedicated advocate for sustainable development with a background in Environmental Science, earned from Rhodes University. her academic journey has equipped her with a deep understanding of social-ecological systems, emphasizing the intricate connections between people, policy, and the environment. Currently, Yenziwe is pursuing my master's degree under the guidance of Prof. Guy Midgley at the Stellenbosch University School for Climate Studies. This academic pursuit has further fueled her passion for climate studies, prompting her to actively engage in the realm of climate negotiation and policy making. As a Youth Ambassador for the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, she proudly represented Stellenbosch University at COP27 last year in Sharm El Sheik Egypt, gaining invaluable insights into global climate initiatives. Beyond academia, Yenziwe serves as an administrator for the SDG/2063 Impact Hub at the Center for Collaboration in Africa. Her involvement as an alumnus of the Future17 SDG Challenge has fortified her commitment to sustainable development. In this role Yenziwe aspires to contribute to fostering intercultural understanding in the context of climate change, with a keen focus on the African narrative. Her vision is to explore synergies between African culture and climate change, offering a unique perspective that enriches the discourse on sustainability. She is also particularly excited about collaborating across the different themes and centralizing the African Union Agenda 2063 for sustainable development. She looks forward to this journey of exploration, collaboration, and meaningful impact as we work together to advance intercultural competency and address the challenges of our time."
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sarah Richmond is a core member of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence team at Stellenbosch University. She is currently the Senior Programme Manager of the Unit for Global Learning at Stellenbosch University. She holds a MA with distinction from the Wits Centre for Critical Diversity Studies, and is currently a PhD candidate in the same field. She lived in Sapporo, Japan for over a decade where she was involved in international higher education, as a university lecturer and global curriculum designer. She has also worked contractually for various UN departments, most specifically in assisting to develop anti-racism toolkits for UNDP leadership, and performing communications reviews for UNICEF offices including Canada and Bangladesh. She was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow on the GPPi Global Governance Futures 2035 Fellowship as a member of the media and information research team that focused on utilising strategic foresight to develop policies on global media governance.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
rabia.png)
Rabia Abba Omar is a researcher, curator, and facilitator. She is the Coordinator: Citizenship Engagement at the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute and a core member of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence team at Stellenbosch University. She is currently completing an MA in Visual Studies at Stellenbosch University as a joint fellow between Stellenbosch University's Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence (AVReQ) and Exeter University's Imagining Futures of Un/Archived Pasts project. Rabia holds an MA in Heritage Studies, with distinction, from University of the Witwatersrand, where she was a part of the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South research project. She is an alumnus of the UnSchool of Disruptive Design's Emerging Leaders Fellowship and the Accountability Lab's Non-Profit Management Fellowship. She has experience across higher education, the NGO space, and arts environments. She likes to think at the intersections of water, memory, archives, and current expressions of past violences.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
