Zanele Muholi is one of three recipients of an Honorary Doctoral Degree (Doctor honoris causa) to be awarded by the University of Liège in Belgium to mark the start of the new 2023-2024 academic year. Muholi has previously received an Honorary Professorship from the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen (Germany).

Muholi, who will attend the ceremony in person, is being honoured alongside French astrophysicist and philosopher, Aurélien Barrau, and French-American Nobel Prize-winning economist, Esther Duflo. University of Liège Rector Anne-Sophie Nyssen explains that the decision to choose these three specific recipients is motivated by the desire to “reconcile art and science and to commit to re-enchanting our world”. She continues: “Art and science are essentially about us and our future. Reason and emotion, aesthetics and ethics, they structure the fundamental ways in which we perceive, feel and think about the world. Some artists and scientists have the talent to draw from this intimate coherence a commitment whose strength, clarity and sincerity arouse respect, even admiration. This is the case for the three personalities that the University of Liège will be honouring on 19 September.”

In addition, the university will host a conversation between Muholi, Florence Caeymaex (philosopher and Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities), Anne-Françoise Lesuisse (curator and teacher) and Lyoz Bandie (photographer and a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc-Liège). The discussion, which is free and open to all, will be moderated by PhD researcher, independent curator and art critic, Marjorie Ranieri.