The EthicsLab is committed to building a thriving community of African scholars who engage with the ethics of new and emerging health technologies from the perspective of the African humanities. In our work, we leverage unique African perspectives to better understand how they can help us live ethically in a technology-driven world.
The EthicsLab has a rich culture of research, engagement and inclusion. Our work results in various expressions, including but not limited to:
- Researcher development
- Academic training and teaching
- Non-academic stakeholder engagements
- Representation and advocacy
- Events and publications
The EthicsLab brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars who work together to better understand ‘ethics’ in health research. Specifically, we centre Africa as a context and driver of bioethics to disrupt and shape global health research and innovation.
Working with the concepts of incompleteness and conviviality as described by Francis Nyamnjoh in Incompleteness, Mobility and Conviviality (Langaa RPCIG, 2024), we are dedicated to cultivating convivial scholarship for a just world. A critical component of this work is understanding that ethics is political – that it is shaped by, and in itself shapes, existing relations of power in the world. Another is that we understand ethics as a constant work in progress, with concepts that are always in motion and adapted to time and place. We also understand ethics as composite – consisting of different types of knowledge, experiences, histories and relationships. Thinking about ethics in this way allows us to broadly examine the way in which ethics can work to shape the future world that we think is necessary.
We are particularly excited by the ethical questions posed by new and emerging health technologies. Our approach is guided by a profound appreciation for the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical possibilities within the African humanities that help us understand and navigate the complex intersections of science, technology, and society. In turn, we equally explore how developments at the frontier of biomedical science could enrich scholarship in the African humanities.
The EthicsLab is based at the Neuroscience Institute, which is linked to Groote Schuur Hospital, the internationally renowned teaching hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The EthicsLab is part of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Medicine at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The EthicsLab is supported by public research grants.