Projects & Collaborations
We collaborate with a number of top international universities so contact the ACEPS Director Prof Veli Mitova if you are interested in an African 欧美福利100000 that has the proven skills to deliver projects on time and to specification. We have experts in these areas of Philosophy: African Philosophy, Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Medicine, and Philosophy of Language. Most of which are related to Decolonisation of Knowledge broadly construed. We are running collaborative projects on Epistemic Injustice, Experimental Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Medicine funded by grants from National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Northwestern Buffett Institute, Newton British Academy, Templeton Foundation and Welcome Trust.
Ongoing Projects
Safeguarding Democracy In The Age of AI
PIs: (UJ) & Prof Veli Mitova (UJ)
This UJ GES-funded project investigates the overlooked harms of AI technologies in the South African context and provides policy recommendations for mitigating them. The project makes a timely and important contribution to addressing SDG goals by enabling inclusive policy frameworks that empower citizens, uphold democratic values, and navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by AI technologies
PIs: (Northwestern), (Brandon), and Prof Veli Mitova (UJ)
This project is funded by the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and聽sets out to explore and expand the UN Commission on Human Rights framework around the 鈥渞ight to know鈥� to also include the 鈥渞ight to be known鈥� and to create spaces for victims to share their stories with others as a form of epistemically reparative work.
Philosophy through Indigenous Knowledge in the Global South
PI: Prof Veli Mitova (UJ)
This is funded and聽 the project investigates how indigenous knowledges of various kinds and from various Global South locations can help us to decolonially reconceptualise central themes in core philosophical fields such as Epistemology, Ethics, and Philosophy of Science.
Decolonising Experimental Philosophy
PIs: Prof Veli Mitova (UJ) and (UJ)
This is UJ 欧美福利100000 Research Council funded and is a pilot study which aims to explore the impact that including local African (indigenous) knowledge has as the first step in decolonising experimental philosophy research..
Previous Projects
PIs: (Kent) and Veli Mitova (UJ)
The project grapples with the underexplored connections between epistemic injustice and other normative concepts such as reasons and agency. It is funded by a .
PIs: (Pitt), (Rutgers), and (UCLA)
This project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Veli Mitova (UJ) is the South African team leader of this Templeton-funded project with (UJ). The project studies diversity in people’s conceptions of understanding, wisdom, and knowledge around the world, and seeks to promote cross-cultural research in cognitive science. It includes teams in eight different regions: Eastern Europe, Ecuador, India, Japan, Morocco, Peru, South Africa, and South Korea.
Epistemology of the 4IR
PI: Prof Veli Mitova (UJ)
This is UJ 欧美福利100000 Research Council funded and run by Veli Mitova with the assistance of Abe Tobi and Caitlin Rybko.
The epistemology of 4IR is one of the newest and hottest fields of social epistemology worldwide today. It concerns all aspects of knowledge-production in a world permeated with 4IR technologies. These technologies have taken over our epistemic lives. For instance, online spaces have become both empowering through reaching out to previously isolated geographical spaces, and disempowering or even dangerous through phenomena such as epistemic bubbles, fake news and deepfakes. 4IR, in other words, has fundamentally transformed our epistemic lives, a transformation that the epistemologist is best placed to explore, given our expertise on testimony, epistemic exclusions, and so on. This project explores the ways in which 4IR technologies have transformed our epistemic lives and forges new means of capitalising on the potential of 4IR while redressing its more sinister consequences. This is a unique philosophical contribution, in line with UJ鈥檚 4IR mandate. Project runs from Jan-Dec 2022.
Philosophy Dictionary for Africa
PIs: Hennie L枚tter, Dimpho Maponya, Veli Mitova, (all UJ)
The project aims at compiling a Dictionary of Philosophy in several African languages, comprising core African and Western philosophical terms. It is funded by a Teaching and Innovation grant from the 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg’s 欧美福利100000 Research Council.
Epistemic Injustice, Decolonisation, and Rationality
PIs: Veli Mitova (UJ)
The project aims at bringing into conversation decolonial theory with two hot topics in analytic epistemology 鈥� epistemic injustice and rationality. This is a grant from the 欧美福利100000 of Johannesburg, which will sponsor four postgraduate students on a research visit to Switzerland.
International collaborations
欧美福利100000 of Basel
欧美福利100000 of Quebec @ Montreal
欧美福利100000 of Tilburg
欧美福利100000 of Zurich
Areas of Research
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
PIs: Mongane Serote, Chad Harris, Veli Mitova
This project concerns developing an IKS Portal. To initiate it, Mongane will embark on verifying and validating what they have called the IKS categories. These are: IKs social issues, institutions, technologies, biodiversity and bioprospecting and lastly, the liberation processes. When Mongane was CEO of Freedom Park, he initiated and commissioned the emergence of an IKS Incubation and Innovation Unit concept which he thinks should be further developed. It is Mongane’s intention to also use that as a reference point.
Rationality and Power
PIs: Chad Harris, Veli Mitova
This project focuses on two bundles of normative issues in epistemology 鈥� rationality and epistemic power. The rationality strand of the project compares Scientific rationality with Indigneous Knowledge Systems. In particular, it interrogates the notion that there is an inherent tension between traditional and contemporary African knowledge and the scientific worldview. The epistemic injustice strand of the project aims at connecting the dots of central issues in three current debates in epistemology 鈥� responsibility, ignorance, and epistemic injustice.