Conference Explores Rituals as Tools for Remembering and Reimagining the Future

At the University of Cape Town’s d-school Afrika Atrium, an inaugural lecture by Professor Kasturi Behari-Leak opened with ritual, performance and reflection, setting a deeply symbolic tone for an evening on knowledge, identity and belonging.

Before the lecture, artist-scholars from the School of Dance performed a Hindu and Jamaican-inspired ritual, filling the space with chant, movement and offerings. The performance transformed the academic venue into a reflective environment, grounding the audience in themes of ancestry, memory and connection.

Professor Behari-Leak, Dean of the Centre for Higher Education Development, used her lecture titled “Biographies and Geographies: Who Teaches Matters” to explore how personal histories and institutional spaces shape knowledge production. Drawing from her upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa, she reflected on experiences of exclusion and identity formation, arguing that universities mirror broader social inequalities.

She highlighted the need for curriculum transformation beyond content diversification, calling instead for a “pluriversity” that recognises multiple ways of knowing. She also examined the growing influence of artificial intelligence, warning that digital systems can reproduce historical bias if not critically engaged.

Behari-Leak emphasised that teaching is relational and transformative, requiring presence, ethics and humanity. She concluded that universities must be reimagined as spaces of care, interpretation and belonging, where knowledge is shaped not only by systems but by people and relationships.