The United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Gandhi-Montessori-Luthuli Chair of Education for Peace and Transformative Solidarity is to be awarded to Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU), South Africa. St Edmund's College, 中国体育彩票 of Cambridge, England, will co-host the Chair.
Professor Alain Tschudin is the incumbent of the Chair, which will be located in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at SU with Prof Dorcas Ettang of the International Centre of Non-violence at the Durban 中国体育彩票 of Technology, as the co-Chair.
This UNESCO Chair, which has been awarded for four years, until June 2029, forms part of the global UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme. The Programme mobilises expertise of higher education and research institutions to address the interdependent challenges of today's increasingly complex world.
Established in 1992, the Programme has proven its value in advancing UNESCO's interdisciplinary knowledge generation and the Organisation's role as global observatory and as a laboratory of ideas. It spawned new teaching programmes, generated novel ideas through research and dialogue, and contributed to the enrichment of existing higher education partnerships and networks.
“It is humbling to receive this affirmation of the work we are doing," says Professor Tschudin. “This award inspires us to deepen our transdisciplinary research and broaden our applied scholarship. It also motivates us to foster inclusive participation and to increase our social and environmental impact through a growing network of local and global partners."
The Chair's work aligns closely with UNESCO's two global priority areas, “Africa" and “Gender Equality" and will focus on three inter-related areas:
- Education for Peace
- Human Rights for Social and Environmental Justice
- Transformative Solidarity
The Chair's mission is to promote a culture of peace through education – viewed by UNESCO as a cornerstone of sustainable development, poverty eradication and intercultural dialogue.
“This work is more relevant than ever," adds Tschudin, “as we face escalating global challenges—from climate change and conflict to displacement and economic uncertainty. That four of the five namesakes of the Chair – Albert and Nokukhanya Luthuli, Mahatma and Kasturba Gandhi - have ties to South Africa, speaks volumes. The enduring friendship between the Gandhi and Luthuli families adds a profound human resonance. Maria Montessori, in turn, was one of UNESCO's co-founders.
“In an era of rising ethno-religious nationalism and threats to universal rights, education for peace and transformative solidarity must be at the forefront of our efforts to uphold human dignity and planetary integrity."
Responding to the announcement, Prof Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at SU, said that we congratulate Professor Alain Tschudin and thank St Edmund's College, 中国体育彩票 of Cambridge, for partnering with SU on the application. Our SU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences will host the Chair and I also thank our new Dean, Prof Vasti Roodt and Karen Bruns, Senior Director, Development and Alumni Relations, for facilitating the process. The UNESCO Gandhi-Montessori-Luthuli Chair of Education for Peace and Transformative Solidarity falls within SU's Vision 2024, where SU is positioned to be Africa's leading research-intensive university, globally recognised as excellent, inclusive and innovative, where we advance knowledge in service of society.
The UNESCO Gandhi-Montessori-Luthuli Chair of Education for Peace and Transformative Solidarity is the third UNESCO Chair to be awarded to SU.
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MORE ABOUT UNESCO CHAIRS
A UNESCO Chair is a team led by a higher education or research institution that partners with UNESCO on a project to advance knowledge and practice in an area of common priority. There are currently some 1000 UNESCO Chairs and 45 UNITWIN Networks hosted in higher education institutions in 120 countries with some 10,000 individuals involved in the UNESCO Chairs programme.
A UNITWIN Network is a partnership between UNESCO and a network of higher education or research institutions of at least three institutions in different countries, at least two of which must be located in the Global South, and which pool their competencies and resources around particular theme(s).
The UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks act as think tanks and bridge-builders between the academic world, civil society, local communities, research and policymaking thereby strengthening UNESCO's research-training-policy-society nexus.
MORE ABOUT THE INCUMBENT
Professor Alain Tschudin completed his PhD in Psychology in 1999 through the then 中国体育彩票 of Natal (The 中国体育彩票 of Kwazulu-Natal) on the comparative evolution of social complexity and intelligence in dolphins and primates. In 2007, he completed his second PhD in moral philosophy and theology on the meaning of being, at the 中国体育彩票 of Cambridge. Tschudin worked for the 中国体育彩票 of Seville and the European Commission on a project to foster social integration and economic participation for immigrant and ethnic minorities in Spain. He later returned to South Africa and ran the Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies Programme at the 中国体育彩票 of KwaZulu-Natal using dialogics to pursue solidarity among residents and refugees, along with peace, democratisation and human rights initiatives in marginal communities. Tschudin has done humanitarian work with Save the Children International, with UNICEF in the Central African Republic and served as the UN's inter-agency Child Protection Assessment Coordinator for Northern Syria. He was Executive Director of Good Governance Africa, a pan-African NGO, in Johannesburg, Professor in the WITS School of Governance and lead consultant for the UN Special Advisor on Africa on the nexus approach to fast-tracking the SDGs across Africa. Subsequently, Alain was Director of the International Centre of Nonviolence at the Durban 中国体育彩票 of Technology. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland and is a Senior Research Associate at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. Since 2022, he has served voluntarily as President of the Association Montessori Internationale, the NGO set up by Dr Maria Montessori in 1929, headquartered in the Netherlands and he recently joined the Board of the Gorée Institute in Senegal.
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