Cape Town - Cornerstone Institute has has announced accomplished Professor Crain Soudien as its new president.
Soudien, who will be succeeding Professor John Volmink, was officially installed as Cornerstone Institute’s new president during a graduation ceremony on Saturday.
This after Volmink’s resignation, which took effect on the same day.
Cornerstone is an independent, not-for-profit higher education institution in South Africa. Fields of study include psychology, ethics, philosophy, religious studies, business, education, sociology and community development.
Soudien is an A-rated researcher and has over the years made significant contributions in a number of areas pertaining to “social difference with a particular focus on race, class and gender, culture, education policy, comparative education, transformation within academia, public history and popular culture”.
Soudien previously served as CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council and deputy vice-chancellor UCT.
He has published over 240 articles, reviews, reports and book chapters and is the author of 13 books.
Cornerstone Institute said the president is the titular and ceremonial head of the university and holds all the privileges, rights and responsibilities associated with the highest office of Cornerstone Institute.
“The president embodies our institutional commitments to learning in service of others and to advance human dignity and social justice for all. An honorary member, the president is the most senior member of the institutional senate and, as such, officiates at formal academic convocations including, among others and most significantly, to confer qualifications on graduands at institutional graduation ceremonies.”
During his speech, Soudien said: “I am involved in a large number of different kinds of institutions that find themselves in a range of the different things that make up our lives – the world of culture, politics, sport and education. I take my identity from every single one of those worlds. They all have contributed to the person that I am.
“The world of scholarship, the academy, however, is in some senses my primary home. I am, of all things, foremost a sociologist. And so when my primary home brings this gesture of acknowledgement to me, I feel, and I say this with humility, a deep sense of fulfilment. My belonging has been affirmed.”