Janz reflects on over three decades of research on the concept of place within and beyond philosophy, offering an analysis of its relevance to African philosophical thought and practice. Drawing on his extensive work across disciplinary boundaries — including philosophy, geography, architecture, and digital humanities — Janz introduces two major strands of inquiry that have shaped his scholarship:

1. Philosophy in Place – an approach that resists the abstractions of universalism in favour of examining the conditions, experiences, and meanings of doing philosophy in specific locations, particularly in African contexts;
2. Charting and Networking Place – an ongoing project of conceptual mapping that explores the various ways “place” functions across intellectual traditions, cultural practices, and institutional structures.

Throughout the lecture, Professor Janz weaves together theoretical insights from thinkers such as Edward Casey and Jeff Malpas with practical concerns arising from African philosophy’s response to colonial legacies, questions of identity and authenticity, and the institutional and pedagogical places where philosophy is done. He addresses the often-unexamined assumption that philosophy transcends locality, instead arguing that emplacement is not a limitation but a constitutive feature of philosophical practice. Importantly, the lecture calls for a deeper reflection on the places in which African philosophy is thought, taught, and practiced — including classrooms, journals, intellectual networks, and broader social and political spaces. Janz invites us to consider how concepts such as embodiment, language, community, race, and tradition take on specific meanings in particular places, and how those meanings shape the possibilities of philosophical inquiry.