Keynote Speakers

Dr. Tandon is an internationally acclaimed leader and practitioner of participatory research and development. He is Founder-President of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), a global centre for participatory research & training.

He is also Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Community Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education since 2012. The UNESCO Chair grows out of and supports UNESCO’s global lead to play ‘a key role in assisting countries to build knowledge societies’.
Dr Tandon also heads the Forum for Indian Development Corporation (FIDC) as its Chairperson.

He is Chairperson of the Committee to carry out appraisal of the UGC scheme under 'Unnat Bharat Abhiyan', Member of Expert Group for Development of Educational Framework for Global Citizenship in Higher Education Institutions and Member, Advisory Committee for the Capacity Building of Faculty Members and Staff of Higher Education Institutions under Malviya Mission, constituted by the University Grants Commission.

Engineering in Electronics from IIT, Kanpur, MBA from IIM Calcutta and PhD in Management from Case Western Reserve University, USA, Dr. Tandon left his teaching job at IIM Calcutta to support & champion the cause of building organizations and capacities of the marginalised through their knowledge, learning and empowerment. A pioneer of participatory research, Dr. Tandon has given new meaning to academic research by redefining the relationship between the researcher and the researched. He has been contributing to the emergence of several local, national and international initiativesto promote authentic and participatory development of societies

Dr. Tandon hastaught courses on participatory research & democratic governance in South Africa, UK, Canada, Italy, USA, Colombia, Malaysia, Philippines and Cambodia, in addition to several universities in India. He has written more than 100 books, articles and training manuals on participatory research, social responsibility of higher education, civil society & local governance

Dr. Tandon has served on numerous Expert Committees of Government of India, University Grants Commission of India, United Nations, Commonwealth Foundation and World Bank. In 2015, the Indian Adult Education Association (IAEA) awarded Dr. Tandon the Nehru Literacy Award. For his distinguished work on gender issues, the Government of India honoured him with the prestigious Award in ‘Social Justice’ in March 2007. The University of Victoria, Canada, awarded Dr. Tandon the degree of Doctor of Law (Honoris Causa) in June 2008. He is the first Indian to be inducted to the International Adult and Continuing Education (IACE) Hall of Fame (class of 2011). He is also the first Indian scholar to be inducted in Academy of Engagement Scholarship in 2019.

Timothy K. Eatman, Ph.D., an educational sociologist and publicly engaged scholar and Professor of Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark served as Inaugural Dean of the Honors Living - Learning Community (2016 – 2026).

Prior to his appointments at Rutgers, he served as Faculty Co-Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and Associate Professor of Higher Education at Syracuse University.

Tim serves on multiple boards and commissions including as Past Chair American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Chair of its Membership Committee;  Co-chair of the Urban Research Based Action Network (URBAN); member of the National Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Engagement Classification for Community Engagement; member of the National Advisory Board for Bringing Theory to Practice (BTtP); and Chair of American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) American Democracy Project Steering Committee.

Tim has also served as board chair of the International Association for Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE).

Pursuing a rigorous scholarly agenda, Tim serves on editorial boards and reviews for academic publishing houses, scholarly journals, and conferences.

He has written several book chapters and research reports including the widely cited Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University, a seminal report on faculty rewards, and publicly engaged scholarship. Tim is co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Community Engagement.

A widely sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, and collaborator who has earned local, national, and international recognition for his leadership in advancing understandings about the multi-faceted impact of publicly engaged scholarship in the University of the 21^st century, Tim was recognized by the University of Illinois College of Education with its 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. 

He was recently named Senior Fellow at AAC&U. For more information see his web pages at http://timeatman.com.

Saleem Badat is Research Professor in the Department of History in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State.

He holds qualifications from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Boston University and a PhD in Sociology from the University of York. His academic career began after years of political activism in 1989 at the University of the Western Cape, where he succeeded his mentor, Harold Wolpe, to become the Director of its Education Policy Unit.

In 1999, Saleem was appointed the first Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education, which advises the Minister of Higher Education & Training on higher education policy issues and is responsible for quality assurance in higher education. He worked closely with Prof. Kadar Asmal and Dr. Naledi Pandor.

In 2006, Saleem became vice-chancellor of Rhodes University, the first black South African to hold this post in 102 years, committed to advancing social equity, promoting academic quality, contributing to the development needs of South Africa and ensuring institutional cultural transformation.

Between 2014 and 2019, he was the first Program Director of International Higher Education & Strategic Projects at the Mellon Foundation in New York, directing R 1 billion in grant making to the arts and humanities at African and Middle East universities and institutions.

He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Free State for ‘outstanding achievements in the shaping of policies and practices of the higher education environment, from the University of York and Rhodes University.

Other awards include the 2024 Academy of Science of South Africa Science-for-Society Gold Medal, the 2023 Human Sciences Research Council/ Universities South Africa prize for Social Justice Scholarship and the Inyathelo Exceptional Philanthropy Award for excellence and leadership in personal South African Philanthropy.

Saleem is author of Black Student Politics, Higher Education and Apartheid (2000), Black Man, You are on Your Own (2010), The Forgotten People: Political Banishment under Apartheid (2012) and Tennis, Apartheid and Social Justice (2023).

He is co-author of National Policy and a Regional Response in South African Higher Education, and co-editor of Apartheid Education and Popular Struggles in South Africa.

New books in 2025 included edited collections on Research and Activism: Ruth First and Activist Research (with Vasu Reddy, ESI Press) and the University of Durban-Westville: 1961–2003 Undoing Apartheid, Building a Non-Racial Culture (with Goolam Vahed).

A new book, The Roads to Rhodes University and Beyond: Adventures in Knowledge and Activism will be published by UKZN Press in May 2026.

His 60 book chapters, journal articles, policy reports, and over newspaper opinion pieces are concerned especially with questions of equity, redress, and social justice in and through universities and the decolonization and transformation of universities in societies that were colonized.

Saleem is a board member of the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs and of Alameda, an international institute that connects research, social movements and contemporary struggles. He is a former chairperson of Universities South Africa and of the Association of African Universities Scientific Committee on Higher Education.

Dr Sharli Anne Paphitis is a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, specialising in qualitative research, global mental health, and social justice research. With over a decade of experience, she has led complex interdisciplinary research funded by UKRI, AHRC, MRC, and NIHR, addressing critical challenges in violence, abuse, and mental health worldwide.

A recognised expert in qualitative and participatory research methodologies, Dr Paphitis has developed and implemented innovative approaches to intervention development in global mental health research, including through leveraging realist reviews and storytelling.

As the co-director of the Violence Abuse and Mental Health Network, and as Principal Investigator on major projects such as the Modern Slavery Core Outcome Set and the South African arm of the SHAER project, she has made significant contributions to trauma recovery research for survivors of violence and gender-based abuse.

Dr Paphitis’s global health expertise extends through her work with the NIHR Global Health Research Group to improve the mental health of violence survivors in South East Asia and assessing psychosocial interventions for violent extremism in Nigeria. Her work is deeply rooted in co-production with NGOs, survivor groups, and community stakeholders, ensuring research outcomes are both practical and transformative.

With over a decade of teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Dr Paphitis has designed and delivered modules on qualitative research methods, global health ethics, and social psychology. She is a committed mentor, supporting early-career researchers and first-generation academics to promote equity and inclusion in academia.

Dr Paphitis holds a PhD in Philosophy from Rhodes University and has published widely in leading journals on topics such as epistemic justice, mental health interventions, and participatory research. Her career is defined by a passion for addressing global health inequalities through interdisciplinary and socially responsive approaches.

Currently holds the Research Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation and is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Transformation at Nelson Mandela University.

His research and post-graduate supervision focus on radical approaches to the study of higher education, such as critical and abolitionist university studies. His work is relational and intergenerational, exploring the intersections of friendship, politics, love, and justice.

These themes inform his praxis in higher education transformation, human rights, decentred critical university studies, and the relationship between universities, science, industry, and society.