A particular concern of the Centre is to understand the ethical dimension of human existence in relation to the opportunities and challenges of three great contemporary realities: democratic transformation, cultural diversity and economic empowerment.

The Centre’s approach to ethics is multidisciplinary and non-sectarian, with a strong emphasis on applied ethics in relation to both our personal lives and the demands and challenges of the workplace.

The full text of Prof Prozesky’s Inaugural Lecture (delivered on 12 May 1999) is available here.

Professor Martin Prozesky (Director)

Professor Martin Prozesky speaks

A recent development at the University of Natal, the Unilever Ethics Center exists to help build capacity in multi-disciplinary ethics education both inside and outside the university.

The Centre :

* Provides courses, seminars and workshops in the field of comparative and applied ethics.
* Undertakes research
* Offers consultancy
* Seeks to build partnerships among those who share its vision and aims

A Particular concern of the Center is to understand the ethical dimension of human existence in relation to the opportunities and challenges of three great contemporary realities : democratic transformation, cultural diversity and economic empowerment.

Its approach to ethics multidisciplinary and and non-sectarian, with a strong emphasis on applied ethics in relation to both our personal lives and the demands and challenges of the workplace

The Centre is a University-wide resource operating on and off campus.

Its emphasis is on applied, comparative ethics in the context of cultural diversity, democratic transformation and economic empowerment.

Activities Include:

* Courses in Comparative and Applied Ethics on campus.
* Ethics talks for schools, service organization’s and interest groups.
* Workshops and seminars for business and professional groups.
* Networking and partnerships locally, nationally and internationally.
* Radio Interviews.
* Creative thinking and research.
* Consultancy (in the following areas: Medical and bio-medical ethics, Education and ethics, African ethics,Environmental ethics, Leadership ethics, Ethics and sexual orientation, Research ethics, Basic gender ethics,Professional ethics, and Religion and ethics).
* Community Service.
* Publications and conferences.

Unilever Ethics Centre is a post from: Degrees

The Unilever Ethics Centre serves both the University of Natal and our wider South African society, which at this time:

is characterized above all by democratic transformation, cultural diversity and redress of past injustices;

is challenged by economic and gender disparity, AIDS, violence and environmental damage; and

provides opportunities for creative, new ventures that draw on our strengths and meet our challenges.

Central to those strengths is the moral wisdom of Africa itself, enriched by the ethics of philosophies both religious and secular that have their origins in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.

The Vision

Our vision in the Unilever Ethics Centre is based on these realities, most of which are also present within the University.

Amidst them, South Africa’s most pressing ethics need is enhanced ethical competence in individuals, social structures and organizations. Meeting this need involves the academic study of ethics, best ethical practice and renewed moral motivation, based on research and development projects in a range of professional educational and occupational fields, drawing on the moral wisdom of Africa and the wider world.

Our work is therefore directed towards providing effective knowledge, skills, methods and resources for enhanced ethical competence and to making them widely available both within the University and in the wider community.

Ethical Studies Degree is a post from: Degrees

Aimed especially at educators (in both the school system and at tertiary level), managers and others in positions of leadership, people working in the human resources field, and all who have a strong interest in contemporary ethical issues, the course provides skills, knowledge and resources that can be used to develop ethics programmes in a variety of work situations.

The first two semesters are devoted to the two coursework components of the degree, each counting 32 credits. The third and fourth semesters take the form of a supervised research project, culminating in the submission of a dissertation, which counts for the remaining 64 credits required for the degree.

Ethics Studies 801: “Fundamentals” (32 credits, July-November) covers the following ground:

* The nature of ethics
* Comparative ethics
* Moral formation
* Science and ethics
* Introduction to moral philosophy
* Moral reasoning
* Socio-political issues in Applied Ethics
* Lifestyle issues in Applied Ethics

Ethics Studies 802: “Electives in Comparative and Applied Ethics” (32 credits, February-June). One is required to do two of the following (not all of these options will be available every year):

* Business ethics
* Environmental ethics
* Ethics and education
* Biomedical ethics
* Religion and ethics
* Advanced comparative ethics

NB: These two modules (or parts of them) may be taken on their own, not for degree purposes, by prior arrangement, depending on numbers.

Ethics Studies 803: “Research Project” (64 credits, June-July of the second year, part-time) includes:

* Colloquim on research methods and research ethics
* Research project
* Dissertation

The minimum normal qualification for admission to the Master’s degree is possession of an approved Honours degree, or under Rule 33 by special permission of the University Senate for those with different but equivalent qualifications and a proven record of relevant experience.

Postgraduate Ethics Studies Degree is a post from: Degrees

* Ethics Studies 110 , “Applied Global Ethics”, is a first-semester, first-year level course located in the School of Human and Social Studies, bearing 16 credit points. The course begins by tracing the world’s main value-systems: African, Chinese, Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Secular. We also briefly cover some key thoughts and terms in the Western philosophical debate about ethics. Using the theoretical background of these analyses, we then turn to examine particular practical issues, which may include: wealth and poverty, war and violence, the environment, business ethics, and morality and the law.

* Ethics Studies 121 , “Life, Sexuality and Death”, is a second-semester, first-year level course located in the School of Human and Social Studies, also bearing 16 credits. In this course, we aim to enable students to understand and handle leading ethical issues affecting personal life and society in the perspective of the main value-systems, including African, Chinese, Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Humanist ethics. Topics covered may include: the scientific, religious and legal aspects of the phenomenon of life, including genetics; traditional sexual moralities; the sexual revolution; sexual orientation; gender issues; pornography and censorship; abortion; capital punishment; euthanasia; and the ethics of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

* Ethics Studies 202 , “Ethics in the Sciences”, is a second-semester, second-year level course offered to science students, bearing eight credits. The course aims to enable students in the sciences to understand and use concepts, arguments and skills in applied ethics in connection with selected contemporary issues involving the various sciences in a culturally plural society. The course introduces the discipline of ethics and contemporary value-systems in relation to the sciences, and then proceeds to examine issues of applied ethics in the sciences, including topics such as: genetics, animal experimentation, cosmology, agriculture and the environment, and the ethics of knowledge.

Undergraduate Ethics Studies Degree is a post from: Degrees

These general degrees, which suit a wide range of purposes, all provide an excellent platform for more focused studies later. In many cases, these general degrees offer the best preparation for working life, in that they train the successful student to think, to analyse, to express herself or himself effectively, and give a broad general knowledge. All of these gifts combine to make the student able to adapt and learn throughout life, which is what is needed in our fast changing world.

But we have always offered some more specialised undergraduate degrees – a Bachelor of Theology, a Bachelor of Accounting, for those who want a special focus. Now we are adding a whole range of further specialised degrees, some with special names, some which are still Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Social Science, but have a focus added to them.

Here are some:

* Bachelor of Psychology – for those intending to be professional psychologists.

* Bachelor of Arts (Drama Studies), Bachelor of Arts (Visual Art) – for those who want to specialise in Drama or Fine Art.

* Bachelor of Arts (English Studies) – for those who want to specialise in English Literature.

* Bachelor of Arts (Language & Literature) – for those wanting to study a range of literature in more than one language.

* Bachelor of Arts (Media & Communication) or Bachelor of Social Science (Media & Communication) – for those wanting to use language professionally as translator, journalist or teacher, and for those who work in media.

* Bachelor of Social Science (Government, Business and Ethics) – for those aiming at management.

* Bachelor of Arts (African Studies) or Bachelor of Social Science (African Studies) – for those wanting to specialise in the culture and politics of Africa.

* Bachelor of Arts (International Studies) or Bachelor of Social Science (International Studies) – for those wanting to understand the modern world.

* Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy, Politics & Law) or Bachelor of Social Science (Philosophy, Politics & Law) – for those wanting a groundwork for a legal or managerial career.

* Bachelor of Social Science (Information Technology) – for those intending a career with computers.

* Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) – for those intending to be Chartered Accountants.

And these are only the undergraduate options! We have a much wider range once you have a first degree under your belt.

Human and Management Sciences Degree is a post from: Degrees

There are two faculties on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal:

(1) The Faculty of Human and Management Sciences;

(2) The Faculty of Science and Agriculture.

Each of these faculties is divided into Schools (superseding the old academic “Departments”).

Our Faculty of Human and Management Sciences offers undergraduate Bachelor degrees in areas such as Arts, Social Science, Theology, and Commerce.

There are five Schools in the Faculty of Human and Management Sciences:

1. School of Business
2. School of Human and Social Studies
3. School of Language, Culture and Communication
4. School of Psychology
5. School of Theology.

Within each School are a number of disciplines. For example, in the School of Language, Culture and Communication, disciplines include:

* Afrikaans and Nederlands
* Applied Language Studies
* Classics
* Drama Studies
* English
* Fine Arts / Visual Art
* French
* Gender Studies
* German
* Media and Communication
* Translation Studies
* Spanish
* Zulu.

And in the School of Human and Social Studies, disciplines include

* Ethics Studies
* History
* Information Studies
* Philosophy
* Political Studies
* Religious Studies
* Sociology.

Many Programmes (which are made up of strategic combinations of modules) have been developed within our faculty over the past two years; these Programmes have been on offer from the beginning of 2000. For details about these Programmes, consult the main webpage of each of our Schools.

There are also a number of Centres in our faculty: the Centre for Government and Policy Studies, the Unilever Centre for Comparative and Applied Ethics, the Centre for Visual Art, the Centre for Accountancy, and the Child and Family Centre.

Faculty of Human and Management Sciences is a post from: Degrees

* History 110: Revolutions in our Global World
Lecturers: Mr Jabulani Sithole, Dr Cornelius Thomas, Professor John Wright

This module explores the origins of the “modern” world, and then goes on to explore explanations of the ways in which our world has become a “global” one over the last 200 years or so. The lecturers examine selected “revolutions” which have been crucial in transforming and connecting world societies in a variety of ways – political, economic, and cultural.

* MultiDisciplinary Studies 310: South Africa: Apartheid and After
Lecturers: Mr Jabulani Sithole and Dr Laurence Piper (Political Studies)

This module explores the main analyses of South African politics which have emerged since the 1940s. It looks at the making of apartheid; changes in apartheid policies in the 1960s and 1970s; the rise of resistance to apartheid; the reasons for, and the dynamics of, the transitions of the early 1990s; and the defining trends in contemporary South African politics.

* History 380: Precolonial Southern Africa
Lecturer: Professor John Wright

This module introduces students to the history of southern Africa before the establishment of European colonial rule. It focuses on basic concepts and sources of evidence; the peopling of southern Africa; hunting and gathering societies; herding and agropastoral societies; the impact of Asian and European trade and settlement; the making of indigenous states; and contemporary representations of southern Africa’s precolonial “heritage”.

Second Semester

* History 160: Africa in Crisis
Lecturers: Professor John Wright and Dr Cornelius Thomas

This module starts by examining the nature of the political, economic and social problems which face African countries today, and the main contemporary explanations of Africa’s failure to “develop”. It goes on to suggest an alternative, historically oriented line of explanation, one which focuses on the need to place Africa’s history in the context of the development of the world political and economic order over the last 500 years.

* History 360: KwaZulu-Natal in Modern Times
Lecturers: Professor John Wright and Mr Jabulani Sithole

This module traces the historical roots of the main patterns of political, economic and social relations in KwaZulu-Natal today. After an introduction on pre-industrial Natal and Zululand, it focuses on developments since the capitalist “modernisation” of the region began speeding up in the 1890s. It looks at transformations in countryside and town; the making of “modern” racial and ethnic identities; the impact of apartheid; the political conflicts of the 1980s and 1990s; and political and social changes since 1994.

* History 330: South Africa in the Industrial World
Lecturer: Dr Cornelius Thomas

This module makes a comparative study of the industrial revolution and the associated social transformations which have taken place in South Africa since the 1890s and of industrialization in a selection of other societies.

The History Major

To major in History for either the BA degree or the BSocSc degree, you need to pass six modules in History, at least four of which must be level 300 modules.

You can of course take more than six modules in History if they are on offer.

In place of one of the History 300 modules listed above, you may take a level 300 module from a list of history-related disciplines approved by the Head of the School of Human and Social Studies. The one which we prefer you to take is the following:

Multidisciplinary Studies 320: Culture and Identities in Africa
Course co-ordinator: Professor John Wright

This course is taught in the first semester by lecturers in the disciplines of English, History, Religious Studies, and Theology. It covers the following topics: the meanings of “Africanness”; popular culture in Africa; religion and identity in Africa; women in African culture; and “African Studies”: a contested terrain.

History Degree (Undergraduate) is a post from: Degrees

See the comments made above under “Prerequisites for our Honours and Masters Degrees”.

Students accepted for this course work on advanced research projects supervised by the History staff, possibly with co-supervisors from other disciplines. The thesis for this degree is about 40 000 words in length.

Doctorate

Students doing the PhD degree in History work on research projects at a more advanced level than Masters students. They are accepted as doctoral students only if they have previously demonstrated that they have a highly developed capacity to do independent academic research. The thesis for this degree is about 80 000 words in length.

Postgraduate History Degree is a post from: Degrees

* History 740/840: History, Culture and Society

Current ferments in the discipline of academic history; making “pastness” as a cultural phenomenon; the emergence of the history “profession”; making histories in the everyday; “heritage” and the commercialization of the past.

* History 760/860: KwaZulu-Natal’s Regional Economy

The nature of the precapitalist “homestead” economy; establishment of the colony of Natal and its economy; land, labour and the importation of indentured Indians; the rise and decline of an indigenous peasantry; the impact of the mining revolution on trade and agriculture in Natal; integration into the wider South African economy; migrant labour, industrialization and urbanization; the impact of globalization.

Modules on Offer: Second Semester

* History 711/811: Land and Conflict in Africa

The causes of conflict over land in Africa since the late 19th century; the political impact of these conflicts; selected case-studies of conflict over land in sub-Saharan Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods.

History Degree Modules is a post from: Degrees

You are expected to have the outline of a long essay topic worked out with your appointed supervisor by mid-April, and to spend the mid-year vacation and half the second semester working on it. It should be completed by the beginning of November to leave you free to concentrate on the examination for the remaining course-work module.

For Masters-by-coursework, you are required to register for two of the modules listed below, and for a thesis of 20 000 words. The two taught modules each count for 25% of your overall mark for the course, and the thesis for the other 50%. Normally you would take the two taught modules in the first semester, and use the mid-year vacation and the second semester for researching and writing up your thesis.

Honours and Masters-by-Coursework is a post from: Degrees