Institute for the Future of Knowledge

The Future of Diplomacy Research Group, Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and UJ’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation will hold a Panel Discussion: The Future of Africa-EU Relations. Africa Day is observed on 25 May each year to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 and its transformation to the African Union (AU) in 2002. The Africa Dday is also celebrated against the backdrop of the independence of African states from European colonialism. The 1958 Treaty of Rome ignited the framework for postcolonial relations between Africa and Europe. This was followed by the 1963 Yaoundé, 1975 Lomé, 2000 Cotonou, and 2021 Post-Cotonou Agreements between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) aimed to strengthen relations between the regions. On 17 and 18 February 2022, the sixth European Union-African Union summit was held in Brussels, Belgium, with the EU welcoming more than 40 African leaders. The two-day meeting was held following the EU’s seemingly poor response to Covid-19 in Africa, and in the context of a wave of recent political instability and threats to security across the continent, particularly in the Sahel region. The imperative to reset the relationship in the face of common opportunities and challenges prompted the AU and EU to commit to a Joint Vision for 2030 during the 2022 summit. This webinar seeks to engage the future of Africa-EU relations amidst the new scramble for Africa. The event will be chaired by Ambassador Awad Sakine Ahmat, Permanent Representative of the African Union to the European Union, Brussels, Belgium. The speakers are: Ambassador Kaire Mbuende, former Namibian Ambassador to the European Union; Professor Patrick Bond, Department of Sociology, UJ; and Professor Jesper Bjarnesen, The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden.

Data Science Across Disciplines (DSAD), a research group within the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for the Future of Knowledge (IFK), and the Perception Robotics and Intelligent Machines Research Group (PRIME) at the University of Moncton (Canada) invite you to participate in the Ethics and Explainability for Responsible Data Science (EE-RDS) Conference which will be held from 2–3 November, 2022. This event brings together reflections on both the actual and potential impact of Data Science across disciplines and sectors. Submissions are welcome from any disciplinary background, with a focus on scientific contributions, conceptual themes, and reflections within the areas of: 1. Responsible Data Science: Reliable and Trustworthy approaches for data engineering, data science and modern machine learning; 2. Algorithmic Fairness, Transparency, and Explainability; 3. Social and Ethical aspects of Responsible Data Science; and 4. Use cases illustrating the cross-disciplinary nature of the field of Data Science. This conference provides presenters with an opportunity to submit a final article for publication in IEEE Xplore.