Dissertation Workshop for African Students, 05/'96

DISSERTATION WORKSHOP FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS

THEME: AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS, PRACTICES, AND POLICIES

The Institute of International Studies, International and Area Studies, and the Center for African Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, invite applications from advanced graduate students from Africa in the social and behavioral sciences (including demography, health, and the agricultural sciences) and the humanities to participate in an interdisciplinary and comparative Dissertation Workshop on AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS, PRACTICES, AND POLICIES. Funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, this Dissertation Workshop is designed to bring together African students enrolled in doctoral programs in West Coast universities with the aim of assisting them to prepare the strongest possible dissertation research projects.

The 1980's saw the beginning of a profound political and economic restructuring across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). New democratization movements, the widespread adoption of structural adjustment programs, and the growth of market relations in many spheres of economic, social, and cultural life have become touchstones of the so-called 'new realism' in Africa. The impact of these enormous changes=FEmany of which are only now beginning to be understood=FEhave been uneven, complex, and usually hotly disputed. The new political, economic, social, and cultural landscape of the 1990's has direct implications for understanding the different trajectories and current strategies for resource development and political and economic change across different African regions, cultures, and ecosystems.

Doctoral students working on any aspect of these developments in SSA, including their antecedents and parallels in the colonial and independence periods, are encouraged to apply. Relevant topics in this wide ranging terrain might include (but are not limited to):

* environment and resource management
* health and technology
* gender and work
* agrarian and demographic change
* civic society and non-governmental organizations
* economic reform and political liberalization

The Dissertation Workshop on AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT: PROSPECTS, PRACTICES, AND POLICIES will provide a venue for the comparative examination of these concerns with an emphasis on both inter-disciplinary dialogue and strengthening the individual dissertation projects. The Workshop will enable students working on these issues to engage in intensive discussions of their own and each others projects. The Workshop will also explore possibilities for continuing networks or communities among students and faculty interested in these issues.

The Workshop four days in an off-campus setting will take place on May 12-16, 1996. It will include roughly twelve students and several faculty from a variety of disciplines. The costs of Workshop related travel, meals, and accommodations will be covered by the University.

Eligibility: All African students enrolled in doctoral programs in the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities are eligible. Students need not be advanced in their dissertation research (e.g. they need not be advanced to candidacy), but must at least have written a draft dissertation research proposal in order to apply.

Applications consist of two items only:

1. two copies of a current curriculum vitae; and
2. two copies of the dissertation proposal, or if the work is well under way a statement of no more than 10 pages double spaced of the issues being addressed, the intellectual approach, and the materials being studied.

Application materials must reach the Dissertation Workshop Program, Institute of International Studies, 215 Moses Hall #2308, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, NO LATER THAN MARCH 15, 1996.

Workshop participants will be selected on the basis of the submitted projects, the potential for useful exchanges among them, and a concern to include a wide range of African countries, disciplinary perspectives, and intellectual traditions. Applicants will be informed whether or not they have been selected for the Workshop by April 1st 1996. Should you have questions about the workshop or your eligibility please contact Tami Driver by e-mail at tami@globetrotter.berkeley.edu, by fax 510-642-9493 or by mail using the Institute's address above.

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Message-Id: 199601100028.TAA29455@orion.sas.upenn.edu Date: Tue, 9 Jan 96 15:39:38 PST From: "Marianne Villanueva" MVillanueva@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU Subject: Dissertation Workshop for African Students