Honorary Doctorates
On 2 February 2010, K.U.Leuven will confer the degree of doctor honoris causa upon six prominent people. The Academic Council chose the theme of ‘The Child’ for this year’s celebration.
Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) is Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. She is famous for being a human rights activist, particularly for the rights of children and women in conflict situations. She is a committed defender of the rights of children both in her negotiations with world leaders and during her fieldwork in conflict zones.
Promoter: Professor Jan Wouters (Faculty of Law)
Professor Christopher Colclough (United Kingdom) is the Commonwealth Professor of Education and Development and director of the Centre for Education and International Development at the University of Cambridge. Moreover, he is an advisor to numerous organisations and governments. His research focuses on the connection between providing quality education for all and the way in which that education can serve economic growth.
Promoter: Bruno Spriet (LOKO - Student Body Council)
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Belgium) are documentary film makers and film directors who raise fundamental social, political and pedagogical issues in their multi-award winning films. Often their central theme concerns the relationship between an adolescent and a parent and growing up in ‘impossible’ conditions. Starting from such concrete, extreme situations, the Dardenne brothers tackle universal questions related to infancy, adolescence and adulthood.
Promoter: Professor Jan Masschelein (Faculty of
Psychology and Educational Sciences)
Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti and Professor Vittorio Gallese (Italy), who work at the Department of Neurosciences at the Universita degli Studi di Parma, discovered the mirror neuron system together. This discovery led to a new research field, namely the neurophysiology of social communication and imitation, and caused a revolution in developmental psychology. Their research contributes to reflection on the learning processes of children and opened new pathways in the research of the origins of autism.
Promoters: Professor Ilse Noens (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences), Professor Jean Steyaert (Faculty of Medicine), Professor Stephan Swinnen (Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Science), Professor Johan Wagemans (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences)
