Following recent funding from the Leverhulme Trust, a new programme of academic exchange kicks off in October in the Centre of African Studies, as the first of five groups of Africa-based academics arrive in Cambridge to embark on a six-month period of research.
Following recent funding from the Leverhulme Trust, a new programme of academic exchange kicks off in October in the Centre of African Studies, as the first of five groups of Africa-based academics arrive in Cambridge to embark on a six-month period of research.
We hope the visitors will return to their home institutions refreshed by Cambridge’s intellectual hospitality, fortified by a broad range of contacts and energised by the freedom of six months of research.
Dr Peterson
Following two decades of economic crisis and increased student enrolments, academics working in African Universities are suffering from overwhelming teaching and administrative workloads and poor resources. Compelled to work almost entirely within their national boundaries on topics that can be studied with minimal research funding, Africa-based academics are at risk of becoming geographically and intellectually isolated.
The recently inaugurated Cambridge/Africa Collaborative Research Programme, which will run over five years, seeks to address this need. As Dr Derek Peterson, Director of the Centre of African Studies, explains: ‘The programme is intended to help African academics enlarge their networks, activate their research and give them precious time away from the heavy demands of work – time that they can use to read, write and give seminars.’ Five Africa-based scholars will each year be invited to come to Cambridge to spend six months pursuing their research. After the scholars have returned to their home institutions, a Cambridge academic will travel to Africa to convene a conference and continue the collaboration.
The first group of academics will work together on the theme Religion and Public Culture in Africa. Their particular projects vary widely: one will pursue research on representations of Islam in East Africa’s Swahili-language press; another will investigate the religious dispositions of undergraduates in Ghana’s universities.
‘We hope the visitors will return to their home institutions refreshed by Cambridge’s intellectual hospitality, fortified by a broad range of contacts and energised by the freedom of six months of research,’ explains Dr Peterson. ‘By invigorating African academics’ intellectual lives, we’re also enriching the life of the African university.’ At the same time, the programme generates cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship for researchers here in Cambridge.
For more information, please contact Dr Derek Peterson (drp31@cam.ac.uk) or visit www.african.cam.ac.uk
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