The Knowledge Hub | South Africa

The Sacred, Science & the Mind | Thomas Lawson

In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, host Professor Ignatius Gous speaks with Professor Thomas Lawson, Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the founding figure of the cognitive science of religion. Lawson completed his PhD in philosophy of religion at the University of Chicago in 1963, following graduate study across theology, philosophy, history of religions, and religion and personality. He spent the bulk of his career at Western Michigan University, with visiting appointments at Queen’s University Belfast and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He co-authored the foundational 1990 text Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture with Robert N. McCauley, followed by Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms in 2002. His 2023 book Imagining the Cognitive Science of Religion charts the field’s future directions. His work drew together cognitive psychology, linguistics, evolutionary biology, and the philosophy of religion into a genuinely new scientific discipline.

Adversity & Adventure Build Better Teams

In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, Professor Ignatius Gous speaks with Dr. Chris Heunis, CEO and founder of the Team Building Institute, known as TBI. Dr. Heunis holds a DPhil from the University of Pretoria in organisational development and built his career at the intersection of adventure, learning science, and human connection. He began as a physics teacher, completed doctoral research on adventure-related experiential learning, and in 1994 established TBI from a storeroom in his family home in Pretoria. Over three decades, TBI has grown into an internationally active organisation delivering programmes across Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East, often working with groups comprising more than ten nationalities at a time.

Acing Classroom to Courtroom | Dorrithe Labuschagne

In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, host Professor Ignatius Gous speaks with Dorrithe Labuschagne, a registered educational psychologist in private practice in Pretoria. Labuschagne holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of South Africa (UNISA), where she also completed honours degrees in early childhood development, inclusive education, and guidance and counselling. She began her career as a primary school teacher, then returned to studying while raising her children and teaching at a pre-primary school. She has since worked as a school-based psychologist, completed training in forensic assessment, family mediation, and neuropsychology, and now runs a private practice offering individual therapy, parent seminars, medico-legal assessments, and a structured journaling programme called Journaling: A Laboratory for Life.

One Island, One Voice, Global Impact | Teenah Jutton

In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, host Professor Ignatius Gous speaks with Teenah Jutton, a Mauritian academic, former parliamentarian, mental health advocate, and social activist. Jutton was recognised by MIPAD as one of the 100 Most Influential People of African Descent under 40. She holds qualifications in management, finance, and financial risk management and began her career in Mauritius’s global financial services sector before joining the Open University of Mauritius as a lecturer. She served as an elected member of parliament, co-founded an NGO focused on youth empowerment, produced a mental health awareness film titled Love Yourself, and is currently one of 50 participants selected from over 8,000 applicants for the UNESCO Youth for Peace Intercultural Leadership Programme. She is a member of OWSD, the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

Why South Africa Fails at Ethics | Prof Deon Rossouw

In this episode of The Knowledge Hub South Africa, Professor Ignatius Gous — researcher, academic, and host of the series — speaks with Professor Deon Rossouw. Rossouw is one of Africa's foremost authorities on business ethics and corporate governance. He was the founding president of the Business Ethics Network of Africa, served as CEO of the Ethics Institute, and has been a contributing member of the King Committee on corporate governance for South Africa across multiple editions of the King Reports. His academic work spans nearly four decades, with sabbaticals at the University of Minnesota, Cambridge University, and the Globe Ethics Foundation in Geneva, where he led a global survey of business ethics across nine world regions. He has written and co-authored foundational texts in the field, including the widely used textbook Business Ethics: A Southern African Perspective.