Academic Career Development. Thursday, 6 August - 12:30 - 14:30
Leading an Academic Department, Wednesday, 16 September - 12:30 - 14:30
AI in Higher Education: Responsible use for Teaching, Research and Administration. Tuesday, 29 September, 12:30 - 14:40
"Long Lunches" are free two-hour online discussions, masterclasses or symposia that I try and run once a month as a service to the community. Typically we start at 12:30 and end at 14:30. The rationale is that you give up your lunch hour, and your employer gives you half and hour on either side. We usually start the meeting 15 minutes early for informatl discussion, and if there is some discussion afterwards we allow for that too. Click here to register for free
Contact: johannes.cronje@gmail.com +27825585311 Contact me on WhatsApp
Thursday 6 August 2026, 12:30 - 14:30
Academic workload models, promotion criteria, and actual daily reality are rarely in sync. Whether you are an overworked junior academic struggling to find research time, a mid-career academic trapped in administrative tasks, or a senior leader whose scholarship has stalled, this free two-hour interactive masterclass provides practical tools to take back control of your trajectory. Using the GROW coaching framework, we will help you map your current CV against institutional expectations, deconstruct your true workload, identify high-yield collaborative opportunities, and build an actionable career strategy without sacrificing your well-being. Click here to register for free
Tuesday, 18 August - 12:30 – 14:30
This interactive, two-hour online "Long Lunch" symposium will tackle the procedural bottlenecks created when Higher Degrees, Research, and Ethics committees operate in isolated silos. Participants will thrash out the friction points that delay student progress and consider strategies to transition these committees from bureaucratic gatekeepers into proactive capacity builders. By aligning these crucial systems, the session aims to produce actionable policy recommendations that protect research integrity while actively accelerating postgraduate completion rates. Click here to register for free
Wednesday, 16 September - 12:30 - 14:30
Heads of academic departments often find themselves as the "waffle" between two hot irons: the dean from the top and academics from below. This interactive, two-hour online "Long Lunch" symposium, facilitated by Prof Johannes Cronje and Prof Driekie Hay-Swemmer, will confront the intense operational and structural pressures facing Heads of Academic Departments as they navigate being squeezed between executive demands for efficiency and academics' calls for workload relief. Participants will consider the friction points from lack of training, magaging administrative burdens and peer-leadership dynamics to resource allocation wars. We will consider strategies to transform the HoD role from an isolated, reactive "gatekeeper" into an empowered, strategic enabler. By rethinking departmental leadership and support structures, the session aims to produce actionable recommendations that protect academic well-being while optimizing departmental output and governance. Click here to register for free
Tuesday, 29 September - 12:30 – 14:30
The academic response to generative AI remains disturbingly uneven, largely due to a lack of theoretical underpinning that leads to reactive policies and quick fixes. Grounded in Posthumanism, Rhizome Theory, and the Four Paradigms of Learning framework, this free interactive two-hour online "Long Lunch" masterclass moves beyond prompt-engineering quick fixes to provide a theory-based foundation for academic AI engagement. Participants will examine how human-machine assemblages transform literature discovery, curriculum design, assessment alignment, and administrative automation. Through live demonstrations and hands-on experimentation with their own course materials and research projects, delegates will explore practical strategies to integrate AI ethically and productively while maintaining scholarly integrity and human agency. Click here to register for free