Sumaya is a South African educator, researcher, and speech-language therapist. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cape Town, as well as undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her doctoral research explored therapeutic and educational encounters through philosophical practice, with a focus on how inquiry-based dialogue can expand possibilities for communication, understanding, and participation.
Her work engages dialogical approaches as both method and practice. Drawing on philosophy of education, critical disability studies, and posthumanist perspectives, she examines how spaces of inquiry can open alternative ways of knowing and responding, with attention to questions of voice, recognition, and epistemic injustice.
She is the founding director of Jozi4Autism, a Johannesburg-based non-profit organisation working in advocacy, education, and community-based support. Alongside this, she contributes to international networks of philosophical practice through collaborative projects, invited talks, and ongoing involvement in organisational development and governance processes.
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