Inaugural Lecture: Professor Karin Murris

Dear colleagues and students

I write to invite you to the next lecture in the 2018 Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture Series, which will be presented by Professor Karin Murris, professor of Pedagogy and Philosophy at the University of Cape Town’s School of Education. The lecture is titled “Posthuman Child: Reconfiguring the human and educational relationality in all phases of education”.

Professor Murris is an internationally renowned scholar in the field of philosophy with children, childhood studies and philosophy of education. Her current early years (0–8) research and work as teacher educator is grounded in academic philosophy as her discipline. She is the principal investigator for the National Research Foundation-funded Decolonising Early Childhood Discourses: Critical posthumanism in higher education research project.

During the lecture, Professor Murris will present a manifesto for a posthuman reconfiguration of the human through the child. An animated cartoon will illustrate how Western ontologies, linear time and a binary logic of progression have positioned education at the heart of a civilising process (‘culture’) to develop the wild and ignorant young human (‘nature’) into becoming ‘fully human’, whether as individuals or as species.

She will then be joined by colleagues Rose-Anne Reynolds and Joanne Peers to demonstrate some implications for decolonising teacher education.

Professor Murris was born in Amsterdam and studied philosophy at Leiden University, the University of London and the University of Hull. Before joining UCT, she worked at the University of the Witwatersrand and as visiting professor of philosophy and applied ethics at the University of Wales in Newport. She is currently the Atkins Visiting Professor in philosophy at the University of Queensland, Australia. Before her arrival in academia, she was co-director of an educational consultancy.

In 2015 she was nominated by her students for UCT’s Distinguished Teacher Award.

Her academic publications include four books and 54 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, many of which she has presented as keynotes in research seminars and at conferences worldwide.

When: Wednesday, 5 September 2018

Where: Lecture Theatre 2, Kramer Law Building, Middle Campus, University of Cape Town

Time: 17:30 (doors open at 17:00)

RSVP: Please confirm your attendance online by Monday, 3 September 2018.

For further information, please email or phone 021 650 4847.

Please note: Due to limited space, seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sincerely

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng
Vice-Chancellor

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