Honorary Degrees UHasselt 2022 Stella Nkomo and Annemarie Mol
This year’s honorary doctoral degrees at UHasselt are framed in the theme of Kindness, exploring caring relations between people, and between people and their environments in challenging times. In this framework we have invited two keynote speakers: Stella Nkomo and Annemarie Mol, followed by a panel debate.
* Update June 2022: You can now rewatch the lectures and debates by clicking on these video links:
the Faculty of Architecture and Arts and de School voor Sociale Wetenschappen,
with the help of Luca School of Arts and Z33, House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture proudly present:
Honorary Degrees UHasselt 2022: Stella Nkomo and Annemarie Mol
Faculty programmes:
- Monday May 23rd 2022: Lecture by Stella Nkomo
- 10h00 - 10h15: Welcome by rector Bernard Vanheusden and Patrizia Zanoni
- 10h15 - 11h00: Lecture by Stella Nkomo
- 11h00 - 12h00: Moderated panel and Q&A with the audience
- 12h00 - 13h30: Lunch
- 13h30 - 16h00: Visit of Hasselt
- Tuesday May 24rd 2022: Conversation with Annemarie Mol
- 10h00 - 10h30: Welcome by Liesbeth Huybrechts and Virginia Tassinari
- 10h30 - 11h30: Conversation with Annemarie Mol
- 11h30 - 12h30: Book presentation
- 12h00 - 13h30: Lunch
Practical information
for both days:
- Location: Z33, House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Bonnefantenstraat 1, 3500 Hasselt
- Language of the lectures is English
Re-watch this programme online:
Monday May 23rd 2022
Stella Nkomo: A Personal and Intellectual Journey
When I first started doing research on ‘race’ in management and organisation studies, I wrote in my diary, “I am on an agenda that I cannot escape until it is finished.”
Although there have been political, social, and theoretical efforts to silence ‘race’ (and its intersections with other minoritized identities), it continues to structure organisations and the possibilities for equality.
In my lecture, I will reflect upon the inextricable links between challenging the denial of ‘race’ in the mainstream and being in a space of marginality. I will close with some thoughts about the future of racial equality in management and organisation studies.
Programme at Z33
- 10h00 - 10h15: Welcome by rector Bernard Vanheusden and Patrizia Zanoni
- 10h15 - 11h00: Lecture by Stella Nkomo
- 11h00 - 12h00: Panel with Dounia Bourabain (VUB), Sibo Kanobana (UGent), Stephanie Koziej (independent artist scholar) and Koen Van Laer (UHasselt), moderated by Patrizia Zanoni
- 12h00 - 13h30: Lunch
- 13h30 - 16h00: Visit of Hasselt (exhibitions: Charging Myths: On-Trade-Off over lithium in Congo in Z33 and DressUndress in Modemuseum Hasselt, followed by a visit to the old prison building of UHasselt)
About Stella Nkomo
Stella M. Nkomo is a Professor in the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her academic career spans two continents. She holds a PhD in Human Resource Management from the University of Massachusetts in the USA. Her research focuses on diversity, difference, and race and gender in organisations, particularly the exclusion of marginalized voices in management and organisation studies. She has received numerous awards for her scholarly contributions and is founding President of the Africa Academy of Management.
Tuesday May 24th 2022
Annemarie Mol: The Politics of Nature
In this “DESIS Philosophy Talk #7.6 The Politics of Nature - A Conversation with Annemarie Mol”, organised by UHasselt, LUCA School of Arts (EMA Genk)/KU Leuven, PXL-MAD and Z33, we explore the idea of “Valuing in Practice”. It re-frames the idea of values in design and artistic research as being closely connected to the situated context in which one operates, as proposed by Mol in her paper “Not quite clean: Trailing schoon and its resonances” (2020).
The question we put forward concerns how designers and artists can engage with the complexity of meanings, values, and different forms of materiality, embodiments and wordings belonging to different actors that together shape the situated context in which they work. How can they shape processual, open-ended, situated, embodied, patchy forms of knowledge?
The debate will be followed by a presentation of the newly released book “Reframing the Politics of Design”, published by Public Space with support from the Flemish Government, UHasselt, the cities of Hasselt and Genk (BE) and LUCA School of Arts.
Programme at Z33
- 10h00 - 10h30: Welcome by Liesbeth Huybrechts (ArcK, UHasselt) and Virginia Tassinari (EMA, LUCA School of Arts)
- 10h30 - 11h30: Conversation with Annemarie Mol, followed by a debate with: Griet Verbeeck (Sustainability, ArcK, UHasselt), Andrea Wilkinson (LUCA School of Arts, EMA), Francesco Vergani (POLIMI DESIS Lab, Politecnico di Milano), Anneleen Swillen (PXL MAD), Ils Huygens (Z33), Breg Holemans, PhD candidate (RAAD/KU Leuven), Patrizia Zanoni (Faculty of Social Sciences, UHasselt)
- 11h30 - 12h00 Launch of book: "Re-framing the politics of design"
- 12h00 - 13h30: Lunch
About Annemarie Mol
Annemarie Mol is professor of Anthropology of the Body at the University of Amsterdam. With a background in medicine and philosophy, she takes inspiration from original ethnographic research to address philosophical concerns in novel ways.
Her most recent books are Eating in Theory (Duke, 2021) and On Other Terms: Interfering in Social Science English (co-editor; Sociological Review Monograph, 2020).
Foto: Olaf Posselt
Both programmes will take place at Z33, House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture in Hasselt.
On Tuesday May 24rd 2022, in the afternoon, the programme is followed by the Dies Natalis Ceremony awarding the honorary PhD degrees at UHasselt Campus Diepenbeek.
Header picture by Iwert Bernakiewicz.
