Inaugural address Carolina Suransky on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Education

In her inaugural address, Education at a Crossroads: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Anthropocene, Carolina Suransky argues that education cannot be neutral in times of ecological crises, inequality and polarization.

Carolina Suransky weaves together two main threads: pluralism and justice. Pluralism, she maintains, is at once a pedagogical practice that embraces dialogue and discomfort, an analytical lens to resist binaries, an epistemological stance that honors diverse traditions of knowledge and a political horizon where knowledge and politics meet. Justice, the second thread, is inseparable from ecological and social concerns.

To ground these ideas, she interweaves personal stories that show how lived experience and theory speak to one another. Drawing on thinkers such as Appadurai, Mbembe and Latour, Suransky calls for humanistic education that opens spaces for many voices, confronts colonial legacies and helps us imagine more just and sustainable futures.

Carolina Suransky is Professor of Education with a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Humanistic Studies and Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University. Her international background has shaped her commitment to justice in and through education and inspires her work on pluralism, decoloniality and ecological justice.