Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

The research theme of ethics, social justice, and human rights examine the moral and ethical dimensions of social and political life. Research in this area examines a wide range of topics, including ethical decision-making, moral reasoning, and the role of ethics in different spheres of life, such as artificial intelligence, the medical sphere, law, politics, the military etc. It also examines issues related to social justice, such as inequality, discrimination, and marginalization. A key theme is the study of human rights and how they are protected and violated. This includes an examination the challenges associated with the implementation and enforcement of human rights protections in different contexts. Many of the researchers in the faculty focus on ethics management and governance, related to various spheres of human life and engagement.

Research Clusters

Poverty, Inequality, and Development

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist studies

Race, Culture, and Identity

Language and Society

Health, Welfare, and Human Security

Politics, Governance, and Citizenship

Ethics, Social Justice, and Human Rights

Land, Environment, and Sustainable Development

Conflict, Violence, and Reconciliation

Science, Technology, and Communication

Performance and Visual Arts

Department	Researcher	Areas of focus
Afrikaans & Dutch	Prof Mark Sanders	Ethics in literature.
Ancient Studies	Prof Phlip Bosman	Ancient Ethics.
CEBITA	Prof Marius Nel	Theology and ethics of the Gospel of Matthew and the Pastoral Epistles
Centre for Applied ethics	Dr Schalk Engelbrecht Need hyperlink	Developing ethics programmes; assisting client organisations in assessing ethics risk; developing codes of ethics; facilitating ethics training and monitoring and reporting on ethics performance, ethics management, governance.
Centre for Applied ethics	Dr Tanya de Villiers-Botha;	Ethics of AI, moral responsibility, machine ethics, philosophy of technology.
English	Dr Eckard Smuts	Environmental humanities (including environmental justice).
Geography & Environmental Studies;	Prof Ronnie Donaldson	Gentrification and social (in)justice in urban planning and development.
Geography & Environmental Studies;	Ms Lodene Willemse	Urban liveability or quality of life; social/human systems of space-place.
Information Science; Centre for Knowledge Dynamics and Decision Making	Ms Tania Gill	Decision-making, resource management, knowledge management, development economics and the role of values in decision-making.
Journalism	Prof Herman Wasserman	Media Ethics, Media, Conflict and Democracy in Africa, Media and Disinformation
Journalism	Dr Marenet Jordaan;	Journalism ethics
Music	Karin Maritz	Business ethics in music.
	Mrs Pamela Kierman	Band Conducting, Brass Pedagogy, Community Music with core focus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
	Dr Martin Berger	Philosophy of music education; Sociology of Music Education.
Philosophy	Dr Susan Hall	Philosophy of ethics; bioethics; ethics of technology; ethics of biotechnological human enhancement; bioethical issues related to participation of intersex athletes in sports.
	Prof Johan Hattingh	Applied ethics; ideology critique; development ethics; environmental ethics; climate change ethics.
	Dr Andrea Palk	Moral Philosophy, Applied Ethics (Bioethics).
	Prof Vasti Roodt	Moral and political philosophy; theories of justice; happiness and well-being; social and political ethics; conceptual engineering and conceptual ethics.
	Prof Anton van Niekerk	Philosophy of ethics; bioethics; ethics of technology.
	Prof Minka Woermann	Normative philosophical ethics.
	Dr Tanya de Villiers-Botha	Meta-ethics and the epistemology and ethics of AI.
	Prof Louise du Toit	Rape law in SA and elsewhere; the role of consent in rape law; human rights and international criminal justice in relation to GBV in SA; human dignity; feminist jurisprudence.
CREDO	Dr Lloyd Chigowe	Human rights issues; issues relating to access to justice and enforcement of rights and social justice; uplifting of the disadvantaged members of society such as women, and children as well as minority groups.
RADAR	Dr Robyn Pharoah; Dr Patricia Zweig	Training in communication practices that enhance social justice and human rights and promote agency.
Social Work	Prof Marianne Strydom	Rights of children to care and protection.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Dr Shaheed Tayob	Politics of ethics.
Sociology & Social Anthropology	Dr Claire Lester	Theories of rights and justice.
Ton & Anet Vosloo Research Chair in Afrikaans Language Practice	Prof Ilse Feinauer	Ethics in Translation.
	Dr Amanda Marais	Ethics in (Academic) Writing.
Visual Arts	Dr Karolien Perold-Bull	Design for social innovation and future change.