Application Deadline: July 17th 2020
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and The Centre for African Studies in Basel (CASB) call for applications for their 4th Summer School in African Studies and Area Studies in Africa. The Summer School is offered with the generous support of the Oumou Dilly Foundation (Switzerland) in cooperation with CODESRIA and aims at strengthening the links between the CODESRIA community of scholars and scholars from the African Studies community in Switzerland.
The overall objective of the Summer School is to stimulate and consolidate interdisciplinary approaches to research on Africa, but also on other regions of the world undertaken from within the African continent. It focuses on African Studies as an instance of area studies and seeks to identify themes that are theoretically, conceptually and methodologically relevant to the reflection on the intellectual challenge of Africa as an object of knowledge and its contribution to general scholarship while inquiring into the relevance of the findings to African approaches to other regions.
The goals of the Summer School are the following:
- Give PhD students and emerging scholars the opportunity to engage critically with new theoretical, conceptual and methodological developments in African Studies and enhance the relevance of the methods to their work under the guidance of senior scholars.
- Encourage PhD students and emerging scholars to reflect on the potential relevance of knowledge on Africa to the task of improving theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools both in the disciplines as well as in interdisciplinary work.
- Foster among PhD students and emerging scholars a sense of belonging to a community of scholars in pursuit of knowledge and scholarship.
- Stimulate emerging scholars to work towards carving a space for African Studies in the broader field of scholarship and, in this way, helping African Studies to claim a place right at the center of knowledge production.
Key questions
The basic goal of the Summer School is to address this ambivalence by inviting proposals which look into “the value(s) of science” from several angles:
- Which values underlie development research in Africa and how do they affect methodological choices?
- How do ethical commitments shape how researchers frame their research?
- Is there a politics of Western epistemology and, if so, what would be a scientific African Studies’ approach to problematize it?
- What is the precise methodological argument behind decolonial calls for delinking?
- How do the values of science inform its value?
- What role is played by ideological commitments in the validation of knowledge?
- How do ideas of a better life or world inform research projects?
Application procedures
The Summer School is open for PhD students and emerging scholars enrolled and working at Higher Education institutions in any country. Applications from PhD students registered in African and Swiss universities and in the following disciplines are highly encouraged: Social Anthropology, Sociology, History, Religion, Philosophy, Gender studies and Political science. Travel, accommodation and meals during the Summer School will be provided for participants from African Institutions.
Those wishing to be considered for participation should submit a five-page concept paper which should highlight: (a) what they are working on (b) how their work relates to the theme of the Summer School;(c) their expectations from the Summer School should they be selected.
In addition, applications must be supported by an application letter, a CV, two letters of recommendation from the candidate’s institution of affiliation and a copy of the applicant’s passport.
Applicants are requested to use the following link https://codesria.org/submission/ to submit their proposals.
For specific questions, please contact:
CODESRIA
SUMMER SCHOOL
Tel.: (221) 33 825 98 21/22/23
Email: submission@codesria.org
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the 4th CODESRIA/CASB Summer School in African Studies and Area Studies in Africa
