Right to Research in Africa, South Africa 2023
Speaker Bios (in alphabetical order by first name)
Dr Abdou Beukeu Sow is a scientific information and bibliometrics specialist in Senegal. His PhD focused on scientific and technical information (STI) studies in relation to social representations. He has participated in and conducted several projects in this field, incl. the creation of the institutional archive SENGALIST with the National Centre for Scientific and Technical Documentation, supported by the Senegalese Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and the creation of a database of Senegalese skills in the diaspora.
Prof Adam Haupt is Director of the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research focuses on hip hop activism, incl. debates about language, race, gender and representation, and debates about technology and intellectual property. He is co-editor of Neva Again: Hip-Hop Art, Activism and Education in Post-apartheid South Africa with Quentin Williams (UWC), Emile Jansen (Heal the Hood) and H. Samy Alim (UCLA). His work as a scholar has crossed from arts journalism and scholarly research to activism and creative collaboration and performance.
Adrian Galley is the National Vice-Chair of the South African Guild of Actos (SAGA). He is a professional actor, voice artist scriptwriter and broadcast journalist. Broadcast stints include Channel Africa, Radio RSA, SAfm, 701 and Cape Talk. He served on the executive of the South African Script Writers Association, the forerunner to the Writers Guild of South Africa, and on the Executive of SAFREA, an association of freelance media professionals.
Prof Allan Rocha de Souza is a Scientific Director at the Brazilian Copyright Institute. He is also a Professor and Researcher at PPED (Public Policy Program, Development Strategy) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and of Civil law at the ITR Law School (UFRRJ). He is a legal consultant and attorney in Author's Law, Intellectual Property and Civil Law.
Dr Andrew Rens (BA LLB LLM (WITS), PhD (Duke) is a Senior Research Fellow at Research ICT Africa, focusing on AI policy, data governance and regulation of the digital economy. He is an admitted attorney in SA. His career includes research and fellowships at several institutions, incl. Stanford University, the American University, Shuttleworth Foundation, Wits LINK Centre and UCT IP Research Unit. He was founding Legal Lead of Creative Commons SA and co-founded the African Commons Project and Freedom to Innovate South Africa.
Angeline Wairegi is a Research Manager and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property & Information Technology Law (CIPIT) in Kenya. She is an experienced research scientist with a decade of experience in project management, experimental design, grant acquisition, training and outreach programme development, and training of early career researchers.
Ben Cashdan is a filmmaker and economist based in Johannesburg. He was previously an economic advisor in the Mandela Presidency. Ben’s TV show, The Big Debate has run for 12 seasons and is South Africa’s top town hall discussion show. Ben also produces for BBC, Aljazeera and other broadcasters. He is co-founder of ReCreate SA, established to promote the interests of SA creatives with regard to copyright legislation. He actively promotes a fair and balanced copyright law in South Africa, which includes the right to create, own and earn for creatives.
Betsy Muriithi is a Research Fellow and data analyst at the Data Science Unit, @iLabAfrica Research Centre, Strathmore University, Kenya. She has experience in managing various projects in a dynamic start-up and in data analytics research. She has extensive quantitative and analytical skills, incl. data-cleaning, pre-processing, statistical analysis, and data management. Her research interests focus on experimenting and developing ways in which data can be used to create insights that drive improvement in social service delivery, incl. for smallholder farmers.
Prof Carlos Correa is the Executive Director of the South Centre of Argentina since 2018. Prior to this, he was the Special Advisor on Trade and Intellectual Property of the South Centre. Dr. Correa is a renowned expert in the field of intellectual property rights and public health, advising governments and international agencies. Professor Correa is both a lawyer and economist from the University of Buenos Aires and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Buenos Aires.
Prof Caroline Ncube is a Professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is the SARChI Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development. She has served as an expert for various institutions including the African Union, World Intellectual Property Organisation, Economic Commission for Africa, the AfCFTA Secretariat, and the Southern African Development Community.
Chebet Koros leads research on the intersection of IP law and innovation at the Centre for Intellectual Property & Information Technology Law (CIPIT) in Kenya). Through her work, she aims to influence Kenyan IP policies as well as inform IP policy change within the region and globally. Her current research focuses on the role of Kenya’s copyright law in enabling text and data mining research. She also researches the IP issues involved in Artificial Intelligence and has co-authored a handbook on copyright protection in Kenya for creatives and IP practitioners.
Dr Chidi Oguamanam joined the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) in 2011. He is currently a full professor and Research Chair in Sustainability, Bio-Innovation, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Global knowledge Governance in its Faculty of Law. He is also a consultant to a variety of organisations in the areas of IP, technology and innovation, biotechnology, agricultural law, food security, TK, and global knowledge governance from a development perspective.
Dr Chijioke Okorie is a researcher, scholar and legal practitioner working at the intersection of law, innovation and development particularly in Africa. He is a Lecturer and IP researcher at the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria (UP), and a Senior Researcher at UP’s Centre for Intellectual Property Law. She is the Founder, Community Manager and African Correspondent for the IPKat blog. Her postdoctoral fellowship was at UCT.
Christo De Klerk is an Advocate of the High Court of SA. He is Vice President of Blind SA and serves on its Executive Committee, and is also Chairperson of its Legal and Constitution Committee. He has also served on the national executive of SA National Council for the Blind. Currently he is a former Exco member of the South African Braille Authority which is the standard setting body for braille in South Africa. BlindSA, and is currently on the exco of the International Council on English braille where he is serving as Immediate Past President.
Cindy Naude has an LLB degree from the University of South Africa. She is Head of Legal at the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU).
Cynthia Nzuki is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology (CIPIT), at Strathmore University, Kenya. She holds an LLB degree from the Strathmore Law School and certifications in Project Management and Intellectual Property Management. Her interests and research are mainly in IP law and the positive impact IP rights can have on individuals and the society through the advancement and growth of the innovative and creative sectors, leading to economic growth.
Dr David Matsepe has a PhD in Education from the University of Johannesburg., PGCE and Master of Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a BA degree from Vista University. He is Head of Research for the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU). He is a member of the Research Committees of the Education International (EI) and the Southern Africa Teachers’ Organization (SATO).
Denise R. Nicholson (BA HDipLib(UNISA), LLM(WITS) served 38 years’ at Wits University, SA, incl. 24 years in copyright, scholarly communication, etc. After retiring in 2020, she established Scholarly Horizons, which is currently a co-organiser of the Right to Research in Africa conference. She is well-recognised internationally, regionally, and locally, for her advocacy and work (including committees, projects, publications, etc.) in copyright and access to knowledge, and her steadfast campaign for copyright reform and rights for people with disabilities in SA.
Dr Desmond Oriakhogba obtained his PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mercantile and Private Law, Faculty of Management, Commerce and Law at the University of Venda, South Africa. Prior to that he was at the University of Benin, Nigeria. His expertise includes IP law, competition law, international trade law (interest in African regional trade law), artificial intelligence and law (focus on the intersection with IP law) and international human rights law.
DJ Ready D is a well-known DJ from the Western Cape, South Africa. He is a producer, performer and radio presenter. He is a keen turntablist. Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a crossfader-equipped DJ mixer.
Douglas Ian Scott is the Director of Wikimedia Sout Africa, the national membership organisation for volunteer Wikipedia editors. Since 2016, he has been the advocacy point person for Wikimedia South Africa, where he has worked to make South African copyright law friendlier to the free knowledge movement. He has been a Wikipedia editor since 2006. He is also a criminologist studying the statistics and social context of violent crime in urban South Africa.
Georges-Rémi Namekong is a Minister-Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of the African Union to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva.
Dr Glenda Grey is an NRF A1-rated scientist, CEO and President of the South African Medical Research Council. She is a qualified paediatrician and co-founder of the internationally recognised Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, SA. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, an affiliate of Wits University. She was among the first to lead public discourse on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has received many prestigious accolades, including SA’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe for her pioneering research in PMTCT.
Jace Nair is CEO of Blind SA, which advocates for the rights of the blind throughout South Africa. Previously, he held notable positions, e.g. National Executive Director of SA National Council for the Blind, Secretary of SA Disability Alliance, President of African Union of the Blind, and Africa Representative of WBU, and other organizations in Africa. He has participated in WIPO SCCR (since 2009), the Marrakesh Treaty negotiations, the 6th Africa Forum in Kampala, and presented on the Marrakesh Treaty at various ARIPO workshops from 2014-2016.
Jan-David Franke is Project Manager for Public Policy & Public Sector at Wikimedia Deutschland. He advocates for free licences in public service broadcasting and helps coordinate the civil society alliance “Bundnis F5”. Previously, he built the European surveillance blog aboutintel.eu at digital policy think tankStiftung Neue Veranwortung.
Prof Jeremy De Beer is a Full Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, where he creates and shapes ideas about technology innovation, IP, and global trade and development. He is also a Faculty Member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, as well as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cape Town’s IP Unit. He is also a practising lawyer and expert consultant. He has received several prestigious awards for his contributions to research and law teaching.
Dr John Asein was appointed Director General, Nigerian Copyright Commission in January 2019 by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a Master of Intellectual Property Laws from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, Concord, US, and a PhD in Intellectual Property Law from the University of Abuja, Nigeria.
Dr John Olukuru holds a PhD in Quantitative Finance from the University of Glasgow, a MSc Actuarial Science (Heriot-Watt University–Edinburgh, UK) and MSc Statistics (University of Nairobi). He is Head of Data Science and Analytics at iLabAfrica, University of Strathmore, Kenya. He is also the Director of the Risk Management Centre. He is working on several Data Science projects and trained data science programs for various companies including Kenya Airways, World Bank, KNBS, UBOS, among others.
Prof Joseph Fometeu is a Titular Professor, Specialist in Intellectual Property Law in the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences at the University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon. In 2009, he was commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to conduct the Study on Limitations and Exceptions for Copyright and Related Rights for Teaching in Africa, which is available on WIPO’s website.
Judy Hermans is the South African politician from the Western Cape who has been serving as a Member of the National Assembly since June 2019. She is a member of the African National Congress. She is Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry in the South African Parliament.
Kathleen Siminyu is an AI Researcher focused on Natural Language Processing for African Languages. She works as Machine Learning Fellow at Mozilla Foundation to support the development of a Kiswahili Speech Recognition dataset and to build transcription models for end use cases in the agricultural and financial domains. She is currently part of an AU-constituted committee to develop an AI strategy for Africa. Prior to this, she was Regional Coordinator of AI4D Africa, working with ML and AI communities in Africa to run research programmes.
Kyla Mc Nulty is an artist and record label manager for an independent label based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her passion for social sciences and social upliftment has also seen her working with organisations like South African History Online and The Black Stripe Foundation. Since 2020 she has been working with ReCreate SA to educate artists about copyright in South Africa, and campaign for copyright reform in the country. Kyla is one of the Right to Research in Africa conference organisers.
Prof Klaus Beiter (B.Iur, LL.B (UNISA), PhD (Ludwig Maximilian) is a Professor of Law at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where he teaches IP Law, Socio-Economic Rights, and International Social Justice. Prior to this, he was a Senior/Affiliated Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich for 17 years. He also undertook a two-year Marie Curie fellowship at the University of Lincoln, U.K. He wrote the first English-language monograph on the right to education in international law in 2006.
Prof Malebakeng Forere is an Associate Professor at the School of Law of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), SA. She specialises in Foreign Investment Law and Intellectual Property Law. She is a member of the African International Economic Law Network and the Society of International Economic Law. She has done consultancy work for local and international institutions (including the World Bank). She is also an advocate of the High Court of South Africa.
Mduduzi I. Maseko is a Rupert Art Foundation Academic Intern at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Rock Art Research Institute (RARI), where he is working closely with the digital lab which maintains the African Rock Art Digital Archive (www.sarada.co.za). He holds a Master of Science degree in archaeology from the University of the Witwatersrand, and has previously worked as a lecturer of archaeology and rock art at the University of South Africa.
Dr Melissa Omino is the Acting Director at the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology where she leads projects in intellectual property and data protection. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and practices commercial, conveyancing, and IP law. She is a co-host of the Friendly Troll Podcast where she disseminates research to a wider audience in the Global South in accessible language. Her range of expertise also includes the legal frameworks within the sphere of Artificial Intelligence, Data Protection and Digital Rights.
Mohamed Bakir is the First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland.