Contents:
Alumni of our postgraduate programmes have gone on to a range of professional activities. Here is a sample:
Honours Alumni
In Memoriam: Asha Barron
We mourn the tragic death, on 25 January 2012, of Asha Barron. Asha was an undergraduate in the Department from 2007 until 2009. In 2010 she did Honours in Philosophy, for which she obtained a First Class Pass. At the time of her death she was a Masters student in Philosophy at St Andrews University in Scotland.
At a memorial event in Cape Town, Dr Greg Fried, her former supervisor, delivered a eulogy.
Further eulogies can be found here.
Jeremy Cronin (1971) Masters from the Sorbonne, 1973. Member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC); Deputy General-Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
Mark Stranex (1976) LLB from UCT, 1984. Currently an Advocate.
Mashuq Ally (1977) MA from University of Durban-Westville 1981; PhD from University of Fort Hare 1992. Retired as Associate Professor in Philosophy from UNISA at the end of 2013.
Jeff Cohen (1980) HDE from UCT, 1984; MA and MEd from Columbia University, 1986. Currently Head of Middle School, Moriah College, Sydney, Australia.
Gillian Brock (1987) PhD from Duke University, 1993. Currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University.
Joseph Whitaker (2002) Currently an Advocate.
Gabriel Cross (2003) MSc from Edinburgh University in 2004 & an LLB from UCT in 2007. Currently advocate at Johannesburg Bar Society of Advocates.
Jane Davidson (2003) MSc in Global Politics from Birkbeck, University of London, 2007. Currently a full time mum.
Jessica Blignaut (2008) Co-founder GreenLight Legal Advisory and Legal Training after studying an LLM in Biotechnology, Ethics and Law at UCT.
Anthony Cawood (2008) Completed a PhD in Education from UCT in 2018 and started up a Beer Brewing supply company called Beerguevara.
Lydia du Bois (2008) PhD Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Currently Instructional Designer at Pain BC.
Frances Maughan-Brown (2008) PhD in Continental Philosophy from Boston College. Currently visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy at The College of the Holy Cross - Worcester, Massachusetts.
Paul Smit (2008) Currently Director, Learning Experience at 2U.
Julian Jonker (2009) PhD Philosophy, University of California at Berkeley. Currently Assistant Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Douglas Ainslie (2009) Advocate at the Johannesburg Society of Advocates.
Meghan Finn (2010) Currently nGap lecturer in the Department of Public Law at the University of Johannesburg.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge (2010) Executive Director Inyathelo-The South African Institute for Advancement.
Catherine Brodie (2012) Currently business owner at Science in Motion Pilates Studio.
Mohammadamin Amouhadi (2014) Completed a BSc in Electrical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology-Iran. Currently a PhD student in ancient Greek Philosophy at the University of Georgia.
Rebecca Freund (2014) Currently a graduate law student at the University of Cambridge, she began her doctoral studies at Cambridge in the 2018-19 academic year. Prior to studying at Cambridge Rebecca interned in Chambers at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Adam Maserow (2014) Completed a Masters in Architecture at Harvard University and is currently an Architectural Intern at NBBJ Design.
Sienna Shaker (2014) Currently consulting with the communications and stakeholder engagement team in Aurecon.
Mitchell Ilbury (2015) Completed a Masters degree (with distinction) in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London, and has studied Game Theory at the National University of Singapore. He founded Growing Foxes, an education company that develops strategic intelligence through a live learning platform.
Jessica Lee (2015) Completed an MPhil in Environmental Humanities in 2017 and is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental and Geographical Sciences at UCT.
David Lutrin (2015) Completed an LLB degree from the University of Cape Town in 2018. David joined STBB as a Candidate Attorney in 2019 and is currently practising under Martin Bey in the Litigation department at the Cape Town branch of STBB.
Joshua Opperman (2015) Freelance Trainer at Learnship.
Julia Roettinger (2015) Completed an MPhil in Justice and Transformation in 2018.
Marcus Trengove (2015) MA in Philosophy from Kings College London, currently a PHD Candidate at University College London.
Philip Uken (2015) Instructional Designer at King's College London.
Rehan Visser (2015) Holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand. Currently a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Development and Enterprise think tank.
Lienkie Diedericks (2016) Completed a MSc in Bioethics and Society at King's Collage London. Currently a PhD student at KCL and is part of the Health System Strengthening in Sub-Saharan Africa (ASSET) project.
Diederick Ferrandi (2016) Associate at McKinsey & Company.
Bryan Buchler (2017) Currently Parliamentary Legislative Researcher at the Democratic Alliance.
Kajal Carr (2017) After Honours she worked in Market research for a small qualitative research agency as both a field agent and then a project manager. Currently completing her MA in research while running her own business as a life coach.
Marco Rodrigues (2017) Currently having adventures and teaching English in Vietnam.
Sabina Funk (2018) Studying towards an MRes in cognitive neuroscience at University College London.
Scott Miller (2018) Currently co-owner of Emissary Elixirs and has also started an indie publishing house called Sentinel Creatives, specialising in local and international fiction in various formats.
Talis Stewart (2018) Customer Experience Lead at SnapScan.
Adam Schroeder (2019) Received an Honours with distinction and is currently pursuing a Masters in Philosophy at UCT.
Michelle Ashwin (2020) Received an Honours with distinction and is pursuing a Masters in Philosophy at UCT.
Masters Alumni
Bernard Holiday (1973) Received a PGCE from Leeds University in 1977. Was a junior lecturer in Philosophy at UCT in 1972 and lecturer in Philosophy, University of Natal, 1973-4. He was subsequently a secondary school teacher and Head of the English Department at St George’s College, Harare, then Downside School, Somerset (UK) and finally at Sherborne School, Dorset (UK).
David Theo Goldberg (1978) PhD from City University of New York. Currently Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Irvine.
Francis Williamson (1988) Currently lecturer and Head of Philosophy Department at Rhodes University.
Colin Lumb (1997) Currently farming with his wife, Bronwyn (and their sons, Cole and Berkeley) near Calitzdorp. Their farm has guesthouses, details of which can be found here: http://www.greenwoodguides.com/south-africa/accommodation.aspx?page=945.
Steven Kuo (2003) PhD University of St. Andrews then postdoctoral fellow at the Political Studies Department, UWC. Currently various ventures, including writing a foreign affairs column for Business Day.
Dean Chapman (2006) PhD from New York University. Currently consulting on mathematical modelling; self-employed at Philosophy4Now; and honorary Research Affiliate of the Department.
Monique Whitaker (2006) PhD from City University New York. Currently lecturer at UKZN in the School of Religion, Philosophy, and Classics.
Ryan Nefdt (2010) Currently works as Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at UCT, after completing his MSc in Logic and Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam and PhD at the University of St Andrews.
Kyle Blumberg (2012) PhD Philosophy, New York University. Currently research fellow (assistant professor) in the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University.
Jenni Sinclaire (2012) Editor at Evolved Publishing in Wisconsin.
Tim Allen (2013) Founded and ran a non-profit to prepare learners from under-resourced high schools in Cape Town for university.
Jess du Toit (2013) Jess is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Western University in Canada. Her current research is focused on various ethical issues within the context of medical research.
Scott Gallagher (2013) Did work for an organization that helps ex-offenders get employment.
Alex Myers (2013) Currently working in IT, as a cybersecurity engineer and penetration tester, based in Bucharest, Romania. Recently co-authored a paper that was published in Bioethics earlier this year https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bioe.12714.
Leo Townsend (2013) Received his PhD from the University of Oslo in 2017, has since been working as a researcher at the University of Vienna. Currently the project leader on a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund, entitled 'Giving Groups a Proper Say' https://givinggroupsasay.wordpress.com/.
Andrew Fisher (2017) Holds a Masters degree in philosophy and law degree from UCT and works as an attorney and senior consultant at a business law firm. He also earned an Honours degree in psychology through Unisa and has worked as a volunteer youth counsellor for many years.
David Harris (2017) Coached the Qatari and Omani national schools debating teams after graduating and is currently a software engineer for Ocellics, providing automation solutions to financial investment companies.
Gaby James (2017) Bravely teaches Business Ethics in the Philosophy Department and runs a vegan home bakery with her husband.
Chase Huff (2018) Currently teaching and designing courses in writing and communication at African Leadership College in Mauritius.
Rob Jenkin (2018) Currently working in charity financing, for the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) in London, though he has not ruled out returning to academia at some point.
Aaron Jacobs (2019) Has been tutoring and lecturing for the UCT Philosophy Department for two years and is about to embark on a PhD at the University of East Anglia.
Travis Rebello (2019) Since completing his MA Travis has continued to tutor and lecture for the UCT Philosophy Department, has tutored privately, and has taken up freelance writing work for Douglas Knowledge Partners. He intends to pursue a PhD in the coming years, towards a career in academia.
Matt White (2019) Has worked in a variety of teaching rolls in the UCT Philosophy Department and is currently pursuing a career in instructional design.
Olerato Mogomotsi (2020) Currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at UCT, having recently been appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department. He holds two Masters degrees: one in African Studies from the University of Cambridge; and one in Philosophy, with Distinction, from UCT.
Daniel Berti (2021) Currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Minnesota with a full scholarship.
PhD Alumni
Simon Beck (1984) Currently Professor and Head of Department of Philosophy at the University of the Western Cape.
Graham Williams (1992) Previously Senior Research Officer (South Asia), Research Analysts, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK, until his death on the 1st of September 2021.
Patrick Giddy (1994) Currently Senior Research Associate, School of Philosophy and Ethics, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban).
Karori Mbugua (2003) Currently Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr Robert Segall (2009) BSc MSc Melbourne, PhD Cambridge, BA(Hons) MA Cape Town, PhD Cape Town (Has since passed away).
Tess Dewhurst (2015) Rhodes University lecturer in the Department of Philosophy.
Jess Lerm (2015) Has been a member of the UWC Philosophy Dept since 2013. Her night-job is fundraising for UWC students and fostering rescued kittens.
Anna Hartford (2017) Currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Brain and Behaviour Unit at the University of Cape Town.
Richmond Kwesi (2017) Currently works at the Department of Philosophy and Classics, University of Ghana. Richmond does research in Logic, Epistemology and Aesthetics.
John Ostrowick (2017) currently working in RSA Government Administration.
Chris Lawrence (2020) returned to the UK in 2016, retired in 2017, and is now back in London finally trying to learn jazz guitar.
We are interested in hearing from other alumni, who are encouraged to contact us.
UCT's Development and Alumni Department would also like alumni to update their detailshere.