Vita
Prof. Dr Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis is Professor and Director of the Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies (AMCHES) at the University of Johannesburg. He holds a PhD in Higher Education from the University of Bayreuth and a joint Master’s degree in Higher Education Studies from the University of Oslo, Tampere University, and the University of Aveiro. An NRF-rated researcher, he has authored more than 55 peer-reviewed publications focusing on higher education transformation, internationalisation, decolonisation, governance, and social justice in Africa. He serves as Chair of the World Council for Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) Peace Education Task Force, as an Advisory Board Member of the Finnish Higher Education Partnership Programme (HEP) representing the African continent, and as a member of the Selection Committee for the Knowledge and Innovation Programme of the Danish Danida Fellowship Centre.
Projects at LCSS
This research examines the mobility of academic disciplines within African higher education and its implications for knowledge production in a rapidly changing global academic landscape. While the international circulation of ideas, scholars, and institutions has significantly shaped the development of universities across Africa, less attention has been paid to how academic disciplines themselves travel, adapt, and transform across different historical, political, and institutional contexts. Drawing on perspectives from the sociology of knowledge, higher education studies, and comparative education, the study investigates the processes through which disciplines are transferred, localised, contested, and reconfigured within African universities. Particular attention is given to the influence of global knowledge hierarchies, internationalisation, and contemporary pressures associated with neoliberal reforms and digital transformation. The research further explores how these dynamics shape the conditions under which knowledge is produced, validated, and disseminated within African higher education systems.
