ASSAf is ‘the apex organisation for science and scholarship in South Africa’. ASSAf’s core function is to honour South Africa’s most outstanding scholars by electing them to Membership of the Academy. ASSAf Members are drawn from the full spectrum of disciplines and are elected by the full existing Membership. Membership of the Academy is a great honour and is granted in recognition of ‘significant achievement in the advancement and the application of science’.
Dr Maharajh joined the Faculty of Economics and Finance of the Tshwane University of Technology in April 2004. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Forskningspolitiska Institutet of the School of Economics and Management of Lund University in Sweden. He is also an alumnus of both the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Harvard University. He has been a Visiting Professor in Brazil, China, Cuba, Kenya, India, Russia, Sweden, and Tanzania, amongst other countries. Dr Maharajh has also served two terms as Extraordinary Professor of the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) of Stellenbosch University.
He expressed humble delight at being elected to join ASSAf and says that the inauguration provides further opportunities to redress the chasm between science and the society, advancing decoloniality of academia, and remedying the epistemicide experienced by the global South.
Dr Maharajh’s main research focus has been the nexus between the critique of the political economy, systems of innovation, and sustainable development which he frames in the context of the global knowledge commons, social cohesion, and democratic governance. Dr Maharajh has contributed to more than 83 publications, delivered over 35 seminars, and made approximately 72 conference presentations in over 42 countries. Dr Maharajh has also supervised a number of master’s dissertations at TUT and has examined many doctoral theses for both national and international public universities.
In addition to academic accolades, international deployments, and serving on a myriad of editorial boards of scientific journals, Dr Maharajh is also a ministerial representative to the Council of Rhodes University where he is serving his third term. Dr Maharajh’ latest research output is co-authored with Prof. Erika Kraemer-Mbula and appears as ‘Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation” Chapter 14 in Arkebe Oqubay, Fiona Tregenna, and Imraan Valodia [editors] The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy, Oxford University Press (2021).