Prof. Shelby is a leading African-American writer, philosopher and intellectual. He is currently Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University in the United States. His critical work and research interests are located in critical race discourse, African American philosophy, philosophical perspectives on racism, social and political philosophy; and Marxist social theory. Shelby is a pioneer in his field and his work. He continues to appear in and contribute to a range of local and international journals, magazines and other publications.
Prof. Lucy Allais of the Wits Philosophy Department and Acting Director of the Wits Centre for Ethics, describes Shelby's book We Who Are Dark as “the first extended philosophical defense of black solidarity. Arguing for black solidarity without racial identity is a crucial intervention, and his work has extraordinary relevance to discussions around race in South Africa.”
Professor Shelby’s series of talks will include:
- The Ethics of the Oppressed: Lessons from Uncle Tom’s Children on Thursday, 11 March at 4.15pm at the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building, Lecture Theatre 2, East Campus.
- Justice, Self-Respect and the Culture of Poverty on Friday, 12 March at 4pm, at the Faculty of Humanities Graduate Seminar Room, South West Engineering Building, East Campus.
Prof. Pogge is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, and Professorial Fellow, at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australian National University. His book World Poverty and Human Rights is widely regarded as one of the most important works on global justice. Both an academic and an activist, he is involved in the pioneering Health Impact Fund http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/igh/ which aims to make medicine more widely available to poor people by supplementing the rules that govern pharmaceutical innovation.
Pogge’s work on global justice analyzes the ways in which global institutions and policies exacerbate poverty, and introduces feasible solutions which could greatly reduce poverty and its effects.
Professor Pogge’s series of talks will include:
- The Health Impact Fund: a new way of making medicine available to the poor, at the same time as funding and incentivising pharmaceutical innovation, hosted by WiCE and the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics. Friday, 12 March at 10am at Umthombo 2, East Campus
- Poverty and justice on Sunday, 14 March at 3:40pm, at CB8, Central Block, East Campus.
For more information on the lecture series email Lucy.Allais@wits.ac.za or Dee.Marco@wits.ac.za