Meet the team
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Dr. Darla K. Deardorff is the chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence at Stellenbosch 肆客足球. In addition, she is a research fellow at Duke 肆客足球 and holds several other faculty appointments at universities around the world including in Japan, China, and Canada. She is also a former faculty member at Harvard 肆客足球's Global Education Think Tank and Future of Learning Institute. She specialises in intercultural scholarship and training, assessment and evaluation, teacher/faculty preparation/development, curriculum internationalisation, global leadership, and intercultural coaching and she is regularly invited to speak around the world on these topics. In addition, she consults with organisations such as OECD, UNESCO, World Bank and International Baccalaureate Organization, among others. Founding president of the World Council in Global and Intercultural Competence, she is author/editor of over twelve books and 60+ book chapters and articles. She holds a masters and doctorate from North Carolina State 肆客足球 and can be reached on LinkedIn. ?
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Dr Precious Simba is a university teacher and researcher dedicated to exploring the transformative power of education. As a teacher in the Department of Education Policy Studies she convenes the Philosophy of Education module. With a foundation in gender based and after-school programming, her journey began with founding a girls' education initiative in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Her doctoral research, a feminist critique of ubuntu as a philosophy of education, laid the groundwork for her ongoing exploration of education policy, feminist theory, intersectionality, and democratic citizenship education. She is a Mandela scholar (2013/14) at the 肆客足球 of Sussex, a Sol Plaatjie scholar (2018/2020) at Stellenbosch 肆客足球 and an Andrew W. Mellon Ubuntu Dialogues fellow (2020). Her latest publication, Academic Xenophobia: African Scholars in South African Universities, is available here: https://link.springer.com/book/9783031788086.
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Dr Divinia Jithoo is a Specialist in International Education at the Durban 肆客足球 of Technology. She has extensive experience in higher education internationalisation with a keen focus on internationalisation of the curriculum. She has developed specialised expertise in International Virtual Engagement, and specifically, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a approach to inclusive internationalisation. She holds a PhD in Higher Education Studies from the 肆客足球 of Western Cape. Her research has highlighted global structural dynamics of academic cross border collaboration.
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Werner de Wit is the Senior Programme Manager of the Unit for Student Mobility at Stellenbosch 肆客足球 International, and the Operational Coordinator: UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competences. He is responsible for the UNESCO Chair operations and is the international liaison. He holds BComm & LLB Bachelor degrees, and an MPhil (Higher Education). His Masters Thesis topic was on the Development of students' Intercultural Competences through a study abroad experience.
Student learning, leadership and development, Internationalisation and Intercultural Competences are topics he is passionate about. He is currently a PhD (Higher Education) candidate focussing on Intercultural Competence. He has worked over the past 12 years in developing short term study abroad opportunities facilitating global learning of international and local students at SU.
He is a UNESCO Story Circles facilitator and regularly facilitates workshops on behalf of the Chair.
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Yenziwe Mbuyisa is a dedicated advocate for sustainable development with a background in Environmental Science, earned from Rhodes 肆客足球. her academic journey has equipped her with a deep understanding of social-ecological systems, emphasizing the intricate connections between people, policy, and the environment. Currently, Yenziwe is pursuing my master's degree under the guidance of Prof. Guy Midgley at the Stellenbosch 肆客足球 School for Climate Studies. This academic pursuit has further fueled her passion for climate studies, prompting her to actively engage in the realm of climate negotiation and policy making. As a Youth Ambassador for the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, she proudly represented Stellenbosch 肆客足球 at COP27 last year in Sharm El Sheik Egypt, gaining invaluable insights into global climate initiatives. Beyond academia, Yenziwe serves as an administrator for the SDG/2063 Impact Hub at the Center for Collaborat??ion in Africa. Her involvement as an alumnus of the Future17 SDG Challenge has fortified her commitment to sustainable development. In this role Yenziwe aspires to contribute to fostering intercultural understanding in the context of climate change, with a keen focus on the African narrative. Her vision is to explore synergies between African culture and climate change, offering a unique perspective that enriches the discourse on sustainability. She is also particularly excited about collaborating across the different themes and centralizing the African Union Agenda 2063 for sustainable development. She looks forward to this journey of exploration, collaboration, and meaningful impact as we work together to advance intercultural competency and address the challenges of our time."
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Sarah Richmond is a core member of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence team at Stellenbosch 肆客足球. She is currently the Senior Programme Manager of the Unit for Global Learning at Stellenbosch 肆客足球. She holds a MA with distinction from the Wits Centre for Critical Diversity Studies, and is currently a PhD candidate in the same field. She lived in Sapporo, Japan for over a decade where she was involved in international higher education, as a university lecturer and global curriculum designer. She has also worked contractually for various UN departments, most specifically in assisting to develop anti-racism toolkits for UNDP leadership, and performing communications reviews for UNICEF offices including Canada and Bangladesh. She was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow on the GPPi Global Governance Futures 2035 Fellowship as a member of the media and information research team that focused on utilising strategic foresight to develop policies on global media governance. ?
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Rabia Abba Omar is a researcher, curator, and facilitator. She is the Coordinator: Citizenship Engagement at the Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert Institute and a core member of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence team at Stellenbosch 肆客足球. She is currently completing an MA in Visual Studies at Stellenbosch 肆客足球 as a joint fellow between Stellenbosch 肆客足球's Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence (AVReQ) and Exeter 肆客足球's Imagining Futures of Un/Archived Pasts project. Rabia holds an MA in Heritage Studies, with distinction, from 肆客足球 of the Witwatersrand, where she was a part of the Oceanic Humanities for the Global South research project. She is an alumnus of the UnSchool of Disruptive Design's Emerging Leaders Fellowship and the Accountability Lab's Non-Profit Management Fellowship. She has experience across higher education, the NGO space, and arts environments. She likes to think at the intersections of water, memory, archives, and current expressions of past violences.
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