Annual Dr Stuart John Saunders Lecture

Dear colleagues and students

It gives me great pleasure to invite you to the third edition of the annual Dr Stuart John Saunders Lecture, to be presented by Distinguished Professor Philippe-Joseph Salazar, a professor of rhetoric in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This year’s lecture is titled “The Nine Circles of Scholarship”.

The lecture is held in honour of the former vice-chancellor and chair of medicine at UCT. It was made possible by his late wife, Anita Johanna Saunders, whose intention was to pay tribute to the values demonstrated during Dr Saunders’ 15 years as vice-chancellor and his impactful medical research.

The first two editions of this lecture took place in 2018 and 2019 and we look forward to the third edition to be held post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Distinguished Professor Salazar was appointed as chair of French at UCT in 1986, and later as dean of arts in 1993. He was elected to the College of Fellows in 1995. That year he founded the Centre for Rhetoric Studies, pioneering the discipline in Africa. In 1998 he was elected director in rhetoric and democracy at Jacques Derrida’s Collège International de Philosophie. A year later, he was appointed to a French professorial chair, and to a distinguished professorship in rhetoric and humane letters at UCT.

The National Research Foundation (NRF) promoted him from an A- to an A1-rating in 2002, which he has held since. In 2008 he was awarded the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship. He has been a board member of 30 scholarly journals and learned societies, and led 15 international projects in rhetoric in Argentina, China, France, Hungary, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia and Sweden. Since 2000 he has delivered 110 plenaries, keynotes, and guest lectures world-wide.

He is also a recipient of the 2021 UCT Book Award, which recognises outstanding and/or influential books written by UCT staff members.

Since his first scholarly article in 1978 on power and preaching in 15th century Florence, he has published 25 book-length monographs, 15 co-authored volumes or scholarly editions, 110 chapters and 165 articles in English, French, German, Italian, Slavic languages, Spanish and Arabic.

Distinguished Professor Salazar is an alumnus of Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. He holds three master’s degrees, a doctorate, and a senior doctorate, all from the University of Paris. He studied semiology with Roland Barthes, metaphysics with Emmanuel Levinas and rhetoric with Marc Fumaroli.

He has earned acclaim for extending the reach of rhetoric to topics ranging from nation-building to separatism, from political reconciliation to religious extremism. In 2022 international rhetoricians under the editorship of Professor J Barnard-Naudé presented him with a jubilee book, The Critical Rhetoric of Philippe-Joseph Salazar (Juta), to celebrate his 40th year at UCT, and in rhetoric.

To hear more from Distinguished Professor Salazar, please join us for the Dr Stuart John Saunders Lecture.

• Please register to attend the lecture.

Sincerely

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng
Vice-Chancellor

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