Job: 'Ethnicity in Africa' Post-doc - U of Michigan
11/09
Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellowship on `Ethnicity in Africa',
University of Michigan
http://h-net.org/jobs//display_job.php?jobID=39383
The Center for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of
Michigan seeks to appoint a post-doctoral scholar to a one-year
fellowship on `Ethnicity in Africa: Historical, Comparative and
Contemporary Investigations'. Scholars of any nationality working in
any discipline of the social sciences or humanities are encouraged to
apply. The post will extend from 1 September 2010 to 31 August 2011.
This fellowship is generously funded by the Mellon Foundation's Sawyer
Seminar program.
We encourage applications from scholars who, in their research and
writing, draw from the best of our separate disciplinary traditions,
while also opening up novel approaches to the study of ethnicity in
Africa. We seek, for example, scholars who embrace ethnography as a
fine-grained inquiry into the lives of particular people, in
particular places, at particular times, but who also work to uncover
general patterns in the process of ethnic identification. We seek
scholars who understand and build on the historiography of the
`invention of tradition', but who also explore the political and
social alternatives that the inventors of tradition sought to
suppress. We seek scholars who respect quantitative methods and
mathematical modeling, but who are prepared to explore the subtle
interplay of analytic categories with lived experience.
In the company of a larger group of Michigan scholars, the post-holder
will help to organize a series of interdisciplinary seminars and
conferences about ethnicity in Africa. Our aim is to encourage
interdisciplinary conversations, to open up spaces where (for example)
historians working on the roots of ethnic identity can interact with
political scientists studying ethnicity and electioneering, where
linguists can learn from musicologists studying performance, or where
survey-takers can learn from ethnographers. There are to be three
workshops convened as part of the Mellon Sawyer program. The first,
scheduled for December 2010, will concern the theory, method, and
history of the study of ethnicity. The second, slated for February
2011, will consider the growing scholarship on religion and ethnic
identity; while the third, scheduled for April 2011, will explore the
role of ethnicity in Africa's contemporary politics.
There is a strong tradition of African Studies at the University of
Michigan, which is home to some 160 faculty members whose research
engages with Africa. The Center of Afro-American and African Studies
(CAAS) coordinates much of the teaching about Africa on the
undergraduate and graduate level. The African Studies Center, launched
in 2008, is an interdisciplinary research center that coordinates and
advances Africanists' work at the University of Michigan. The Center
each year hosts a cohort of visiting scholars from universities in
Ghana, South Africa, and Liberia, who pursue their research projects
while participating in the life of the University. It coordinates a
program of African language teaching: in 2009-2010 Bambara, Akan,
Swahili and several other languages are on offer. And it organizes
conferences and symposia about all aspects of the study of Africa.
Further information on the African Studies Center can be found at
<http://www.ii.umich.edu/asc/
>. Further information on CAAS is available at
<http://www.lsa.umich.edu/caas
>.
The salary for this position will be commensurate with the post-
holder's qualifications. A small sum will be made available for
research expenses. Interested scholars should apply with an outline of
the project that they wish to pursue, indicating how their research
will help advance the interdisciplinary study of ethnicity in Africa.
Applicants should also include a curriculum vitae, a list of
publications and major pieces of unpublished work, the names of three
academic referees, and up to 10,000 words of scholarly work, published
or unpublished. Applications are due by Friday, 13 November, to the
following address:
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Committee
African Studies Center, University of Michigan
Suite 2622, 1080 S. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
USA
Three referees should be requested to write directly to the Fellowship
Committee at the above address. Informal inquiries may be directed to
the program coordinator, Prof Warren Whatley, at wwhatley@umich.edu,
or to Dr Derek Peterson, the Associate Director of the African Studies
Center, at drpeters@umich.edu.
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.