WSU VICE-CHANCELLOR CALLS RESEARCHERS TO COLLABORATE ON AFRICAN ISSUES

WSU Vice-Chancellor & Principal, Professor Rushiella Nolundi Songca, has compounded her efforts to solve Africa’s challenges of violence and poverty through a conference exploring Multi-Inter-Transdisciplinary research approaches.

Songca said that grand challenges such as violence and poverty compel academics to deal with phenomena differently and adopt creative ways to manage these problems.

“As researchers, we take cognisance of the fact that grand problems, because of their complexity, cannot be solved merely with the subject knowledge of a single discipline. Thus, we need to be mindful of the link between complexity and interdisciplinarity,” said Songca.

Walter Sisulu University Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Rushiella Nolundi Songca, has started engaging academics and established ten niche research areas with the objective to build collaborations between colleagues and communities through targeted investment of resources in the faculties of engineering; health sciences; natural sciences and education.

She added that the philosophy that underpins the conference is based on a problem-solving approach, and as such, interrogates Africa’s challenges from different disciplinary perspectives.

“By working together, these researchers can identify solutions that consider the needs of vulnerable communities in the region,” said Songca.

We need to be aware of the conditioning and assumptions that underpin how we acquire knowledge, disseminate the knowledge, and of particular importance, the different layers of reality,” said Songca.

According to Songca, interdisciplinary research is also gaining traction in Africa, particularly in the field of health. For example, the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI) brings together researchers from a range of disciplines, including psychiatry, psychology, public health, and anthropology. 

“We will be hosting this conference for the next two years, buttressed by our Scholar Exchange Programs, seminars and other research activities to keep interdisciplinary conversations and ultimately publications ongoing,” she said.

Professor Songca is a founding member of an Editorial Board for the International Journal of African Renaissance Studies that focuses on Multi-Inter-Transdisciplinary research.

By: Sinawo Hermans