Keynote speakers

Polycarp Ikuenobe is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. He obtained his BA and MA in philosophy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Ph.D from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA. He has published a book entitled, Philosophical Perspectives of Communalism and Morality in African Traditions, Lexington Books, 2006. And he has also published dozens of articles in the areas of African Philosophy, Philosophy of Race and Racism, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Informal Logic and Critical Thinking. His articles have appeared in such journals as, Journal of Social Philosophy, Vera Lex, Philosophy East & West, Argumentation, Journal of Value Inquiry, International Studies in Philosophy, Journal of Philosophical Research, Metaphilosophy, Philosophical Papers, Studies in Philosophy and Education, Public Affairs Quarterly, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Educational Philosophy and Theory, among others. He has also edited a number of books including, Symposia, Readings in Philosophy: Libertarianism, and Symposia, Readings in Philosophy: Legal Positivism, Pearson Publishing, 2001.

Jean Watson (USA): “Human Caring - Caring Science: A Hopeful Paradigm for moral justice and humanity”

Dr. Jean Watson is Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita, University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing Anschutz Medical Center campus, where she held the nation’s first endowed Chair in Caring Science for 16 years. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing; past President of the National League for Nursing; founding member of International Association in Human Caring and International Caritas Consortium. Her latest activities include Founder and Director of non-profit foundation: Watson Caring Science Institute. www.watsoncaringscience.org. In 2013 Dr. Watson was designated as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing, its highest award for nursing.

Dr. Watson has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing and psychiatric-mental health nursing and holds her PhD in educational psychology and counseling.  She is a widely published author and recipient of many awards and honors, including   The Fetzer Institute Norman Cousins Award, in recognition of her commitment to developing; maintaining and exemplifying relationship-centered care practices; an international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia, a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden. She holds ten  (10) Honorary Doctoral Degrees, including 7 International Honorary Doctorates (Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, British Colombia and Quebec, Canada, Japan).

Clinical nurses and academic programs throughout the world use her published works on the philosophy and theory of human caring and the art and science of caring in nursing.  Dr. Watson’s caring philosophy is used to guide transformative models of caring and healing practices for hospitals, nurses and patients alike, in diverse settings worldwide. At the University of Colorado, Dr. Watson held the title of Distinguished Professor of Nursing; the highest honor accorded its faculty for scholarly work.  In 1999 she assumed the Murchinson-Scoville Chair in Caring Science, the nation’s first endowed chair in Caring Science, based at the University of Colorado Denver & Anschutz Medical Center.

As author /co-author of over 20 books on caring, her latest books range from empirical measurements and international research on caring, to new postmodern philosophies of caring and healing, philosophy and science of caring and caring science as sacred science. Her books have been AJN books of the year awards and seek to bridge paradigms as well as point toward transformative models for this 21^st century.