The Department of Leadership and Transformation biannual conference Shaping Global Change: Transforming theories and centring Difference is taking place at a time when the world is experiencing rapid change with devastating effects. These changes are characterised by crude violation of humanity which has become the global endemic pronounced through forced migration and displacement, scourge of gender-based violence, exclusion and degrading of people with disabilities and different sexual orientation.
There is a need to change world’s trajectory by shaping global change through transformative theories that foreground difference. Additionally, foregrounding transformation is to rethink new ways to imagine the world as the prevailing approaches have not adequately addressed the global challenges. In fact, according to Ndlovu-Gatsheni “the whole world is experiencing the deep and catastrophic effects of double crisis. The crisis is both systemic and epistemic. The epistemic part has led to the reopening of the basic epistemological question and set in motion planetary epistemic struggles that are simultaneously unmasking what has been concealed by Eurocentric epistemology while searching for new knowledges capable of taking the world out of the epistemic crisis.” (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2018: 37)
It is worth noting that this crisis is a result of Western epistemological dominance that marginalised other epistemologies. There is an urgent need to reverse this unjustifiable dominance such that other knowledges contribute meaningfully to reimagining the better world. So, the emphasis on epistemic justice foregrounds the voices of those historically marginalised to dismantle Eurocentric approaches and create pluralistic approaches that will integrate indigenous epistemologies. While transformation responds to the ever-changing environment, it also redresses the past injustices. As such, to transform is to respond to these global changes while responding to the colonial legacy that continues to inform what and how to be in the world. The conference thus calls for the overhaul of epistemological paradigm that has been largely Western to open for other ways of knowing. It seeks to not only interrogate the past but to envision a future in which all humanity can co-exists.
Ensuring that the future we are envisioning is materialised necessitates investing and nurturing a new generation. The institutions of learning should recentre students and their needs and involve a systemic shift from a traditional teacher-centered model to an approach that prioritizes active student participation, personalized learning paths, and a supportive, inclusive environment. This inclusive environment is pivotal as it speaks to inclusions of epistemologies, pedagogies and languages in learning and teaching. Additionally, technological approaches such as the use of AI need to be imagined in inclusionary manner so that innovation becomes part and parcel of student support. This transformative student support should produce a new generation that is not just certificated but immersed in critical thinking and innovation. A generation that will be rooted in their environment while having a global outlook that will shape the global change.
This interdisciplinary conference is aimed at working towards transcending the logic that created the global challenges as we are witnessing them today to usher new logics that can serve humanity by creating safe space for all. It is creating a platform for collaborative initiatives that can create new knowledges to shape the global change and construct a future for all here in all our differences. It is a gathering to shape the change that will transcend colonial logic and usher different ways of being in the
world. It is against this backdrop that we invite scholars, students, activists and practitioners to contribute to the conversations as we shape global change while transforming theories and centring difference.
- Difference as a site of knowledge
- Transformative student support
- Language as transformation
- Gender equality and interconnectedness of gender outside colonial logic to respond to femicide, misogyny and homophobia
- Dialogue between different epistemologies to anchor epistemic diversity
- The politics of migration and their effects on the body
- Science innovation at the service of humanity
- Restoration of humanity.
- Ethical leadership
- Epistemic justice: inclusivity and representation in knowledge production
- Global challenges, local realities
- Migration and Mobilities: Dynamics of Displacement and Belonging
In addition to traditional papers and panel presentations, the conference welcomes roundtables, performances, exhibitions, posters, and experimental formats. The conference aims to forge the intellectual dialogue with scholars, students, practitioners, activists to advance full participation of diverse groups from various backgrounds.