The Canon Collins Conference will take place from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June under the theme Voicing Resistance.
The Conference provides an essential opportunity for some of Southern Africa’s most promising young researchers and activists to come together for a weekend of networking, skills development and knowledge sharing in pursuit of social justice.
It is a truly interdisciplinary, international gathering of young academics from ten different countries, studying for degrees across fifteen fields.
In describing the Scholar’s Conference UCT Dean of Science, Maano Ramutsindela, says “it is a meeting place of very brilliant minds that are no longer isolated but able to share their findings.”
Following consultations with scholars, 2019’s conference will be used as a space to collectively explore the voices resisting social injustice. Scholars will be invited to consider what ‘resistance’ means for their field of research and themselves.
The Canon Collins Trust’s vision is to one day see an open and just society in Southern Africa. We achieve this by building a robust network of leaders, thinkers, activists, and social justice organisations; and support their efforts to bring about social change and equality in Southern Africa. This community of change agents create and use knowledge for positive social impact. Through higher education and research funding, project grants and an international events programme, the Trust cultivates a space where activism and research meet.
Since its beginnings out of the anti-apartheid work of the International Defence and Aid Fund, the Trust has treated education as its most powerful weapon of liberation and transformation. Today, its scholarships support knowledge-making in southern Africa that can demonstrably impact development and transformation of the region. Equally important is the networking of these scholars, who will become the future leaders and influencers of their respective countries, at the annual Canon Collins Scholars’ Conference. Bringing together these individuals allows for a fertile opportunity for new avenues of research, broader perspectives on research problems and a strengthened vision for social justice and openness.
