Research Interests and Accomplishments

UP Philosophy Areas of Supervisory Expertise

The following topics are those that staff of the University of Pretoria Department of Philosophy could supervise in the first instance at Doctoral level; some staff could supervise additional topics at Honours and Master’s levels. Enquire to the Postgraduate Coordinator or a particular staff member for more information.

 

PERMANENT STAFF

Prof Benda HOFMEYR

• Contemporary Continental philosophy (esp. thinkers following in the wake of Heidegger with emphasis on post-structuralism and phenomenology) 
• Philosophical anthropology (theories of self and subjectivity from Kant onwards)
• The entanglement of European and non-Western philosophy (esp. post-colonial African philosophy and the possibility of a dialogue across these divergent yet fundamentally intertwined traditions)

Prof Bernard MATOLINO

• African philosophy (all areas)
• Political theory (esp communitarianism and liberalism)
• Race and racism (esp ontology of race and social aspects of race)
• Epistemology (esp metaepistemology and social epistemology)

Ms Keo MBEBE (currently able to supervise at Honours and Master’s level)

• Metaethics and normative ethics (esp. the nature of ethics, justice, and rationality)
• Epistemology (eg, the nature of rationality, knowledge, truth, reasons for belief)
• Philosophy of race (esp. the nature of race and related conceptual matters)
• Philosophy of emotions (incl. the relations with rationality and ethics)
• Philosophy of law (incl. the nature of law and its bearing on justice)
• Philosophy of history (esp. how to understand the nature of history and how to approach it)

Prof Thaddeus METZ

• African philosophy (esp. moral/political/legal theory, but possibly religion/metaphysics)
• Applied ethics (incl. bioethics; animal rights; media ethics)
• Comparative philosophy (incl. African/Confucian/Islamic/South American/Western)
• Meaning of life (and related issues, eg, well-being; mental health; axiology of theism)
• Philosophy of higher education (esp. aims; accountability; decoloniality)
• Political/legal philosophy (incl. human rights; economic justice; punishment; reconciliation)

Dr Thando NKOHLA-RAMUNENYIWA

• The ethics of technology (focusing on media, communications, transport and in African contexts)
• Political philosophy (especially relation to freedom and agency/autonomy)
• Environmentalism (esp. regarding the impact of technology)

Prof Jonathan Chimakonam OKEKE

• African philosophy (methodology; epistemology; metaphysics; ethics; political philosophy; and history of African philosophy) 
• Conversational thinking (foundation; method; doctrine; applications on selected topics in political philosophy and ethics)
• Logic (African contributions, especially the three-valued class as in complementary logic, harmonious monism, Ezumezu logic; Aristotelian and modern western logic, esp. Frege, Gödel, etc)
• Decoloniality and coloniality (esp. modernity; colonialism, neo-colonialism, and coloniality; imperialism; border thinking; epistemicide; epistemic marginalization; curriculum transformation)
• Identity and racism (eg, politics of identity; cultural ramifications; relationality theory; digital and technological dimensions)
• Poverty and in/justice (incl. politics of poverty; Odera Oruka; measurements; intellectual impacts)

Prof Emma RUTTKAMP-BLOEM

• The philosophy and ethics of technology (incl. human-technology relations; data ethics; machine ethics; ethics and social robotics; policy research in AI ethics)
• The philosophy of science (esp. the structure of scientific theories; scientific realism; scientific methodology in the era of big data)
• Formal logic (non-classical logics, eg, preferential logic; modal logics, eg, epistemic logic)

Dr John SANNI

• African philosophy (African political philosophy, philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, difference and identity, decoloniality and coloniality)
• Continental philosophy (Heidegger, Levinas, Gadamer, Jean Luc-Marion, among others)
• Migration (Statism, cosmopolitanism, conceptions of faces and spaces, ethics of migrations)
• Violence (proper role of violence in society)

Dr Mpho TSHIVHASE

• Uniqueness of persons (incl. irreplaceability; incomparability; and their bearing on morality)
• Personhood (African and Western; implications for gender, race, and AI ethics)
• Ubuntu (its nature; principles; criticisms thereof)

AFFILIATED STAFF

Prof Ulrike KISTNER (emerita)

• Political philosophy (incl. sovereignty and the state; the concept of the political; theories of nationalism, ideology, totalitarianism; modernity; subjectivity; political theology; politics of human rights; theories of populism; critical race theory)
• Social philosophy (incl. collective action; collective self-constitution; theories of economic/social/symbolic exchanges; debates on social pathologies)
• Psychoanalytic theory (theories of sexuality; group psychology; aspects of the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatry)

 

Fellowships and selected recent research affiliations

• John Sanni, Research Fellowship at the College of Fellows, Centre for Intercultural Studies, Tübingen University, Germany, 2024
• Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam, Research Fellowship at the College of Fellows, Centre for Intercultural Studies, Tübingen University, Germany, 2022
• Mpho Tshivhase, Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, USA, 2022

 

Honours

• Mpho Tshivhase, Gauteng Women Excellence Awards: Game Changer, 2023
• Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam, University of Pretoria Vice-Chancellor’s Book Award, 2022
• Thando Nkohla-Ramunenyiwa, DHET New Generation of Academics Programme, 2022
• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, listed as one of ‘100 brilliant women in AI ethics’, Women in AI Ethics^TM, 2022
• Thaddeus Metz, designated one of the ‘The world’s top 50 thinkers’, Prospect Magazine, 2020

 

Monographs

• Benda Hofmeyr, Foucault and Governmentality (Rowman & Littlefield International 2022)
• Thaddeus Metz, A Relational Moral Theory (Oxford University Press 2022)
• John Sanni et al, Migration from Nigeria and the Future of Global Security (Springer 2022)
• Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam et al, African Metaphysics, Epistemology and a New Logic (Springer 2021)
• Bernard Matolino, Afro-Communitarian Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield 2019)

 

Edited Collections

• John Sanni et al (eds) Monuments and Memory in Africa (Routledge 2024)
• Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam et al (eds) African Democracy (Bloomsbury 2023)
• Thaddeus Metz (ed.) Contemporary Anti-natalism (Routledge 2023)
• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem et al (eds) Selected Issues in the Ethics of AI (Springer 2022)
• Mpho Tshivhase et al (eds) Handbook of African Philosophy (Springer 2022)

 

International Consultations

• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, appointed by the UN Secretary General to his AI Advisory Body and elected Chair of the UNESCO World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology, 2023
• Thaddeus Metz, hired to compose a chapter for a report on African approaches to flourishing and education for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2022

 

Keynotes

• Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam, ‘The Communal Contract and the African Condition’, UNISA Office of Transformation, South Africa, 2023
• Bernard Matolino, Conference on Identity Politics, Sustainable Development Goals and Policy Options in Africa, UNESCO and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2023
• Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, ‘Inclusivity and the Rule of Law in AI Governance’, Graduation Ceremony at the Centre for AI and Digital Policy’, Washington DC, USA, 2023

• John Sanni, ‘Eco-phenomenology and Morality’, Conference on Eco-phenomenology, Tübingen University, Germany, 2023
• Thaddeus Metz, ‘Democracy as the Final End of a University: Some Complications’, Symposium on Universities and Democracy, University of Akureyri, Iceland, 2022
• Mpho Tshivhase, ‘Unpacking Sisterhood Among Women Persons’, The XVIIIth Symposium of the International Association of Women Philosophers, Universität Paderborn, Germany, 2021

 

       Community Work/Service

• Keo Mbebe, Transformation Committee Representative, 2023
• Thando Nkohla-Ramunenyiwa, AI Champions Project in Mamelodi, 2023