Fellowships: The Development of African Universities, 03-04

Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, post-doctoral fellowships on the theme of "Education and African Modernities" are offered by the Center for African Studies and the College of Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This three-year Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Institute offers fellows the opportunity to explore and interrogate, through interdisciplinary inquiries, the role of higher education, broadly defined, in and on Africa. Specifically, the institute will focus on three inter-related themes revolving around education as a site of knowledge production and dissemination, socialization, stratification, and struggle. Each year of the institute is organized around a broad theme and supports two post-doctoral fellowships (ten months in duration).

The focus of the first year (2003-2004) will be on the development of African universities, where intellectuals are produced, capacities for development and constructions of modernity nurtured. African universities are undergoing a lot of complex changes in response to internal and external institutional, social, political, economic, and intellectual pressures and transformations. The changes and challenges include the decentralization, privatization, and massification of higher education, spawned or affected by various processes ranging from globalization, the emergence of new information technologies, to the brain drain and pipeline issues linking higher education to secondary education, to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which have implications for quality maintenance, structures of governance and access, and processes of knowledge production, dissemination, and consumption. Specifically for this institute, we seek scholars exploring the implications of these changes and challenges on the humanities disciplines and modes of inquiry: how are the humanities being affected and responding, and how are debates being reframed within the humanities?

The stipend for this ten-month fellowship will be within the range of $37,500-$40,000, based on qualifications. All fellows will be based in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and some support for relocation expenses, housing and benefits is also available.

Qualifications: Applications are welcome from the humanities, education, and social sciences fields, and applicants must have a Ph.D. or its equivalent for full consideration. Regional, comparative and interdisciplinary interests are especially welcome. In addition to their individual research and writing, the fellows will be asked to participate in academic forums, including: seminars, colloquia, symposia, and focused discussion groups. There are no regular teaching duties associated with these fellowships. Applicants need not be U.S. citizens, and international applications are welcome. For further information about the program, see the overview of the Rockefeller Humanities Fellowships at http://www.rockfound.org/ or the announcement on the Center for African Studies website: http://www.afrst.uiuc.edu/postdoc/

Deadline for receipt of application for 2003-2004: January 1, 2003. Notification by March 15, 2003

Application Procedures: Please send the following materials (electronic applications welcome, with the exception of letters of recommendation): --A copy of the applicant's c.v. --A ten-page proposal (double-space) detailing the project to be conducted while in residency at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. --A writing sample (a book chapter or article) --Three letters of recommendation (hard copy must be sent)

Submit to:

Center for African Studies ATTN: Rockefeller Post-Doctoral Fellowships 210 International Studies Bldg. 910 S. Fifth St University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL 61820 U.S.A..

Tel: 217-333-6335 Fax: 217-244-2429 E-mail: swisher@uiuc.edu Website: www.afrst.uiuc.edu

The University of Illinios is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to diversity and encourage applications from all qualified individuals.