Matthias Pauwels is an extraordinary researcher (NRF rated) at North-West University’s School of Philosophy. His highly engaged and interdisciplinary work of the past ten years has focused on the intersections between aesthetics, culture and politics, mainly in the contemporary South African context. Published work in academic journals and edited volumes addressed diverse contemporary topics such as decolonial iconoclasm, protest against artworks, racial stereotype humour, queer artivism in indigenous African contexts, black identity politics, and the aesthetic politics of left-wing populism. Pauwels’ earlier work as part of the Rotterdam-based activist-theoretical research office BAVO includes the edited volumes Cultural Activism Today: The Art of Over-Identification (2007) and Urban Politics Now: Re-Imagining Radical Democracy in the Neo-Liberal City (2007) as well as the monograph Too Active to Act: Cultural Activism after the End of History (2010).
Dr Yolandi M. Coetser is a senior lecturer in at North West University’s School of Philosophy. She graduated with a Dlitt et Phil in Philosophy from the University of Johannesburg in 2018. She has worked at various private and public institutions and spent several years teaching at the University of South Africa, before beginning with a Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has been at the North West University since 2020. She is an environmental philosopher, and, as such, she investigates various dimensions of the human’s relationship with both the environment and its inhabitants. There are many ethical dimensions that she investigates – from the ethics of specific uses of animals (like animals in art or circuses) to more abstract ethical notions of relationality.
Anné Hendrik Verhoef is a professor in philosophy, and director of the school of philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities at the North-West University. He studied at the University of Stellenbosch and at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. His interests are in metaphysics, religion, ethics, the philosophy of happiness, and the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. His research focuses mainly on transcendence and the transcendent in contemporary culture, and its relation to ethics, politics, meaning of life and happiness. He is a NRF rated researcher and the author of various articles in national and international scientific journals.
Aïda C. Terblanché-Greeff is a senior lecturer at the School of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, at the North-West University (South Africa). She holds degrees in various academic fields obtained from this institution. More specifically, she has a BA in Humanities, BA (Hons.) in Psychology, and a MA in Development and Management (specialising in disaster studies). She also has a PhD in Philosophy obtained from the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). In general, her research is interdisciplinary and empirically engaged. Her research interests include African philosophy, social philosophy, cross-cultural studies (viz., psychology and philosophy), and environmental ethics. She has published academic articles and book chapters with reputable national and international journals and publication houses.
Jean du Toit is an Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy at the North-West University (in the Faculty of Humanities). He is a Doctor in Philosophy and studied Biochemistry up to Master’s level – studying at both the North-West University in South Africa and at Gent University in Belgium. His research focuses on the question of embodiment in relation to digital technologies – tracing the ethical and political implications thereof. His research interests are Phenomenology, Philosophy of Technology, Critical Theory, Existentialism, and Ethics.
Glender Amantle Mothelesi is a lecturer in the School of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, at North-West University, South Africa. She studied all her degrees at the North-West University’s Mahikeng Campus. Her fields of interest are contemporary philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of technology. Her research is dedicated to exploring the intersection of technology and philosophy, especially in African contexts. She has co-authored various articles and presented papers at numerous conferences.
Chantelle Gray is a contemporary South African philosopher whose interests span critical algorithm studies; queer theory and gender studies; experimental and exploratory studies in music; anarchism and political theory; environmental studies and animal liberation; and African, Caribbean and Continental philosophies. The interdisciplinary nature of her work allows her to ask critical questions about how to take care of humans, technologies and ecologies in the digital age. She is the author of Anarchism after Deleuze and Guattari: Fabulating Futures (2022), and the co-editor of Deleuze and Anarchism (2019).