GO-GN is thrilled to be hosting Professor Penny Jane Burke (University of Newcastle, Australia) on Wednesday 21 May 2025 at 16.00-17.00BST (UTC+1). Prof. Burke will join us to discuss Open to Social Justice Transformation: What has Higher Education got to do with it?
In this seminar, I explore socio-personal histories of open higher education in conversation with commitments to facilitate social justice transformation. More specifically I consider the role of higher education in being-and-doing ‘open’ and how this relates to struggles over the right to knowledge, knowing and learning. A line of questioning I pursue is: what are the implications of different articulations of open-ness for the capacity of higher education to contribute to social justice transformation – and what constitutes, limits and enables this? Considering the possibilities for higher education to open up time, space and resources for equitable participation in transformative processes, I argue it is time for social justice praxis, drawing on my new book with Dr Matt Lumb. My overarching aim is to generate collective questioning of the possibilities for open-ing education for social justice transformation.
All welcome!
Bio
Professor Penny Jane Burke is UNESCO Chair in Equity, Social Justice and Higher Education; Global Innovation Chair of Equity; and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is passionately committed to mobilising higher education as a force for equity, social and gender justice, developing new frameworks to open time, space and critical resources for creating communities of praxis and constellations of impact. She is an associate of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations at the University of Bristol, co-editor of the Bloomsbury Gender and Education book series, and has published widely including her most recent book Equity in Higher Education: Time for Social Justice Praxis. She has held the positions of Global Chair of Social Innovation at University of Bath, Professor of Education at the University of Sussex and University of Roehampton and Reader at the Institute of Education, University of London.
