Philosophy-Postgraduate-Students
| Honours | ||
| Student Name | Supervisors | Title Honours |
| Dyantji, ZU | Ms Zinhle Mncube | Addressing discrimination on the basis of race |
| Kum, Donatus Tegha | Prof Ben Smart | Epistemic Trust in Vaccines |
| Ledwaba, Malesela Wilfred | Prof Ben Smart | Scepticism around global pandemics and the causes of the aforesaid: A case of the Covid-19 pandemic |
| Makhubela, Nosipho | Prof Rafael Winkler | Dreams and the unconscious in Freud. The research explores the extent to which the study of dreams provides Freud with an insight into the working and structure of the unconscious. |
| Maqutu, L | Prof Ben Smart | Vaccine Hesitancy as a Socio-Political Issue |
| Marais, Klarise | Prof Veli Mitova | A Defence of Humean Constructivism |
| Mojela, T | Dr Asheel Singh | Anti-natalism and the good life |
| Morudi, M | Dr Asheel Singh | What is the appropriate punishment for psychopathic murderers? |
| Motlhatlhedi, Boitumelo | Ms Devon Bailey & Prof Catherine Botha | African Art and the Construction of Ethnic Identities in South Africa |
| Ngwane, Sfundo | Prof Rafael Winkler | Heidegger and Gadamer on hermeneutics. The research explores some of the fundamental concepts of hermeneutics and its transformation in the shift from Heidegger to Gadamer. |
| Ntsane, MP | Ms Zinhle Mncube | Whether lockdowns satisfy the precautionary principle |
| Punitharajakurukkal, A | Prof Rafael Winkler | Does empathy lie at the basis of human interaction between human beings? What are the limits of empathy? |
| Saul, PT | Prof Ben Smart & Dr Chad Harris | An analysis of the potential impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution on Mental Health in South Africa |
| Siobo, Khethani | Prof Veli Mitova | Emotion and rationality |
| Ukpaka, PU | Prof Hennie Lotter | Reinvention! The Answer or the Question [On post-truth] |
| Zwane, Gamelihle | Ms Dimpho Maponya & Prof Catherine Botha | The age of Robotic Ubuntu: The intersectionality of Artificial Intelligence and African Philosophy |
| Zwane, Lebohang E. | Prof Veli Mitova | What are the central epistemic virtues that should characterize an ideal African Statesperson in the 21st century? |
| Masters | ||
| Student Name | Supervisors | Title MA (Coursework, Y1) |
| Banda, T | Prof Ben Smart & Dr Chad Harris | Can the traditional African belief in Ancestors be justified? |
| Chibvongodze, B | Dr Chad Harris | What are the possibilities of having a peaceful co-existence between a successful Decolonisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the African continent? |
| De Rijk, S | Dr Asheel Singh | Human Values: An Obstacle to the Transhumanist Project? |
| Goeieman, EN | Ms Devon Bailey & Prof Catherine Botha | The Significance of the Ancestors in African Relational Ontology: A Hermeneutical Analysis of Four Major Theorists |
| Mabapa, T | Dr Chad Harris | Vaccine Hesitancy in Africa |
| Molokeloa, T | Prof Catherine Botha | Assessing the Role of the Ancestors in an African Intergenerational Environmental Ethics |
| Rapule, K | Prof Veli Mitova | Epistemic injustice and language |
| Terem, E | Prof Catherine Botha | Analysing Technological Colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Making a Case for a Communitarian Approach to 4IR |
| Vorster, E | Prof Ben Smart | Whether machines can reason counterfactually |
| Student Name | Supervisors | Title MA (Coursework, Y2) |
| Dladla, Bhekinkosi | Prof Veli Mitova | The Structural Marginalization of African Philosophers in Academia |
| Kubeka, Nomaswazi | Prof Veli Mitova & Ms Dimpho Maponya | African Indigenous Languages and Epistemic Oppression in African Philosophy |
| Lebakeng, Gontse J | Prof Alex Broadbent & Dr Asheel Singh | 4IR: a bridge or an even bigger gap? |
| Mackett, Damon | Prof Veli Mitova | Epistemic Injustice in Data Mining: Contracts 4.0 |
| Malele, Ntsumi | Prof Hennie Lotter | ‘Black Tax’: Option or Obligation for Young Professionals |
| Mlungwana, Yolanda | Dr Asheel Singh | A Self-realization Theory of Meaning in Life |
| Mlungwana, Yoliswa | Prof Rafael Winkler | The Origin of Violence |
| Sekumana, Mulalo | Dr Chad Harris & Ms Dimpho Maponya | Frantz Fanon and Structural Violence: Understanding Gender Based Violence in Post Colonial Societies |
| Student Name | Supervisors | Title MA Research |
| Azeez, Abiola Joseph | Prof Rafael Winkler & Prof Catherine Botha | Phenomenology and Naturalism |
| Edout, MR | Prof Ben Smart | An Assessment of the Medical and Pathogenic Implications of Animal Commercialization, and the Holistic Way Forward |
| Frenkel, J | Prof Ben Smart & Prof Catherine Botha | Philosophy of Mind |
| Harding, T | Dr Chad Harris | Paradoxes at the Limits of Expression |
| Nkomotje, Ernest Kabelo | Dr Chad Harris | Metaphysics of Causation |
| Setlaelo, Sarah | Prof Catherine Botha | Conceptions of Freedom in Contemporary South African Feminisms |
| PhDs | ||
| Student Name | Supervisors | Title PhD |
| Akpan, Andrew | Prof Veli Mitova | Decolonising Algorithms |
| Ani, Amara Esther | Dr Asheel Singh & Dr Chad Harris | Contending with Choice in A Transhumanist Future: Is The Normative Conception of Personhood under Threat? |
| Bailey, Devon | Prof Catherine Botha | The Black African Female Dancer: An Investigation of the Somaesthetic and Sarkaesthetic Dimensions of Identity Formation and Representation. |
| Dladla, Monalisa | Prof Catherine Botha | Provisional Title: On Technological Essence and Eudaimonia: Finding the Best Way to Live with Technology through Heidegger and Aristotle |
| du Plessis, Jessica (nee Van Jaarsveld) | Prof Hennie Lotter | The Role of the Environment in Human Flourishing |
| Dufek, D | Prof Rafael Winkler | TBA |
| Geyer, Wesley | Prof Ben Smart | An analysis and redefinition of health concepts: Theories of health as defined though a process of evolution |
| Henley, M | Prof Hennie Lotter | Elephants and Ethics |
| Kachembere, Taurai | Prof Hennie Lotter | Ubuntu/Hunhu and Justice as Fairness: Towards a Just Society in Zimbabwe. |
| Madavo, Garikai | Prof Hennie Lotter | Do we have a moral responsibility to trust ex-prisoners? |
| Maponya, Dimpho | Prof Veli Mitova & Dr Chad Harris | Decolonisation, African Feminism and the Contradiction of African Praxes: Pragmatism as a Mediating Force |
| Masuleke, Reneilwe | Prof Rafael Winkler & Prof Catherine Botha | TBA |
| Mbozi, Austin Moonga | Prof Hennie Lotter & Prof Thad Metz | Constructing an African Theory of Global Justice |
| Ncube, Likhwa | Prof Alex Broadbent & Dr Chad Harris | Evidence based policy in the fourth industrial revolution |
| Rybko, Caitlin | Prof Veli Mitova | Towards an Epistemology of Google’s Knowledge Graphs |
| Shabangu, Tony | Prof Thad Metz | The Implications of Ubuntu for Prison Reform; A close look at relationships and harmony in and out of prison |
| Terrblanche-Botha, Aida | Prof Thad Metz | Relations between Time Orientation and Social Self-construal: A South African Perspective |
| Thrupp, Craig | Prof Ben Smart & Dr Asheel Singh | Toward a Definition of the ‘Spirit of the Game’: A Philosophical Revaluation of Sport in Light of 4IR |
| Tobi, A | Prof Veli Mitova | Knowledge in an Online World |
| van der Merwe, Ragnar | Prof Ben Smart | Towards a unified account of Big History, complexity and truth |
| Weiffenbach, M | Prof Hennie Lotter | Disentangling the Problem of Animal and Environmental Justice: Land, Poverty, and Denial |
Our postgrads are getting published!!!
2019, 2020, 2021 and Forthcoming
Azeez, Abiola & Adeate, Tosin. 2020. Second-wave AI and Afro-Existential Norms. Filosofia Theoretica.
Maponya, Dimpho Takane. 2021. The African woman’s plight of reproduction: A philosophical analysis of marriage, procreation and womanhood. Taylor & Francis doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2021.1972598 Mlungwana, Yolanda. Forthcoming. An African Approach to the Meaning of Life. South African Journal of Philosophy.
Mlungwana, Yoliswa. Forthcoming. An African Response to Absurdism. South African Journal of Philosophy.
Ncube, Likhwa. Forthcoming. What is the Nature of Medicine? An Attempt to Decolonise the Language of Medicine. HSRC Press.
Segun, Samuel. 2021 From Machine Ethics to Computational Ethics. AI & Society Journal. 36 (1):263-276
Swanepoel, Danielle M. 2020. The possibility of deliberate norm‑adherence in AI. Ethics and Information Technology. doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09535-1
Tobi, Abraham T. 2020 Towards A Plausible Account of Epistemic Decolonisation, Philosophical Papers, 49:2, 253-278, DOI: 10.1080/05568641.2020.1779602
Van Jaarsveldt, Jessica. 2020. Nussbaum’s capability approach and African environmental ethics: is the African voice heard? Oxford Development Studies. doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2020.1759037
Bailey, Devon. 2020. Self-knowledge through Dance: Considering the Female Break Dancer in South Africa. In African Somaesthetics: Cultures, Feminisms, Politics (Ed.) C. Botha (Brill) doi.org/10.1163/9789004442962
Anderson, Jane. 2019. Damasio’s body-map-based view, Panksepp’s affect-centric view, and the evolutionary advantages of consciousness. South African Journal of Philosophy, 38 (4): 419– 432.
Terblanché-Greeff, Aïda C. 2019. Ubuntu and Environmental Ethics: the West can Learn from Africa when Faced with Climate Change. In African Environmental Ethics: A Critical Reader, ed. Chemhuru, M. Switzerland: Springer. doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2020.1759037
Our postgrads are getting prizes!!!
2020
Philosophy Honours student Shené de Rijk received the Faculty Prize, an award presented annually to one student in the Faculty of Humanities, as the top achiever at their graduation ceremony.
Philosophy Doctoral student Jessica van Jaarsveld was the 1st Runner-Up at the UJ 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition which requires condensing three-plus years of research into a speech of 180 seconds!
Philosophy Doctoral student and assistant lecturer Dimpho Maponya wins Humanities Most Promising Teacher award