About the Guest Speaker

Timothy K. Eatman, Ph.D., an educational sociologist and publicly engaged scholar, serves as the inaugural dean of the Honors Living - Learning Community and Associate Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark. From 2012 – 2017, his primary network of operation and leadership was with the national consortium Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life serving as Faculty Co-Director. Tim currently serves as national co-chair of the Urban Research Based Action and immediate past chair of the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement board. Tim is in his second term on the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) serving as Chair of the membership committee. Also with AAC&U, Tim serves as a faculty member of the Institute on High Impact Practices for Student Success. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Engagement Classification for Community Engagement and the National Advisory board for Bringing Theory to Practice.

About the Co-host

Jonathan Jansen is a distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University and the immediate past president of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He completed his BSc at the University of the Western Cape and his teaching credentials at Unisa before doing an MS at Cornell University and a PhD at Stanford University. In 2023, Professor Jansen was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was the Chin Yidan Global Fellow at Harvard University in 2024.

Professor Jansen is a luminary in the field of education with over 30 books to his name, including the acclaimed Leading for Change (Routledge, 2016), As by fire: The end of the South African university (Tafelberg, 2017), Song for Sarah: Lessons from My Mother (Bookstorm, 2017), and The Decolonization of Knowledge (Cambridge, 2022). He is known for his seminal contributions over four decades to the advancement of education scholarship through advanced research and publication, scholarly teaching, university management, science leadership, school improvement, educational innovation, capacity development, public engagement, and science advocacy.

Professor Jansen’s insights into race, leadership, and personal growth as well as his tireless advocacy for tolerance and human rights has earned him accolades including a Lifetime Achiever Award for Africa at the Education Africa Global Awards in New York, and the University of California's Spendlove Award for his contribution to tolerance, democracy, and human rights.

About the Co-host

Since April 2025, Thierry M. Luescher is the Director: Postgraduate Studies and Researcher Development of the University of Cape Town. Before he was Research Director: Higher Education and Strategic Lead: Equitable Education in the Human Sciences Research Council. He is also an Adjunct Professor in critical studies in higher education transformation at Nelson Mandela University and a Research Fellow of Higher Education of the University of the Free State, South Africa. Thierry holds a B.A. in History, Politics and African Languages and Literature as well as a PhD in Political Studies from the University of Cape Town and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education Studies from the University of the Free State.

Thierry researches and publishes widely on international comparative higher education, the student experience of higher education, student politics and student affairs in Africa. Current projects include research into the South African student movement and a study on reimaginations of the African university (funded by the MasterCard Foundation). His recent publications include: The book and exhibition #FeesMustFall and its Aftermath: Violence, Wellbeing and the Student Movement in South Africa and the related student affairs manual Restoring Wellbeing after Student Protests: Lessons from #FeesMustFall (with A. Wilson Fadiji, K. Morwe and others, HSRC Press, 2022); Reflections of South African Student Leaders, 1994-2017 (with D. Webbstock and N. Bhengu, African Minds, 2022), and Innovation Policy at the Intersection (with MBG Cele and others, HSRC Press, 2020). Thierry is an NRF-rated researcher.

We will be starting with refreshments, followed by discussion and a networking session.

To RSVP, click Begin Registration below.

Queries can be directed to fazeela.felton@uct.ac.za.