Skip to main content

Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Supporting the next generation of African academics working on peace,

Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa

Supporting the next generation of African academics working on peace, security and development issues

2013-2014 Fellows meet for a workshop at the University of Ghana.
The Next Generation Social Sciences model, launched in 2011, responds to an emerging dilemma within higher education in the global South caused by the extraordinary emphasis on increasing undergraduate enrollment without proportionate investment in faculty development. The program currently operates to strengthen tertiary education in Africa through a series of institutional and individual interventions, creating a pipeline for the development of faculty and research communities. Currently the program operates in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. To learn more about the program model please visit our Next Generation Social Sciences site.
Fellowships
The project features a thematic focus in order to renew basic research agendas addressing peace, security, and development topics as well as strengthen interdisciplinary social science research capacity on these issues. This program also offers two workshops each year to help fellows master research methodologies, engage key literature in their fields, and produce research publications. The Next Generation African Social Sciences program will support approximately 45 fellows each year across all three fellowship opportunities
The program encourages innovative research on peace, security, and development topics, moving the boundaries of scholarship and research by exploring concrete linkages between these themes. We envision supporting a diverse set of projects grappling with a range of processes using evidence-based research across both global and local perspectives. Some, we hope, will examine large-scale phenomena and others small-scale social processes. The strongest projects typically will explore connections across these scales. Applicants, for example, might propose projects exploring global flows of refugees across country borders and continents or the state of internally displaced persons affected by local and regional disruptions of livelihood and economic security. Others might look at street theater in refugee camps. Similarly, some fellows might test the proposition that global financial markets contribute to peace and stability while others might examine the role of local market culture in unstable regions. We also support work that advances contemporary research on peace and security issues, including research on human security, economic security, livelihoods and resilience, and failure of governance. Projects might explore any range of issues, including soaring unemployment rates, widespread discrimination against populations, the effects of climate change on food security and water basins, and the threats any one of these issues pose to peace, security, and development efforts. Above all projects should advance important fields of study and social science knowledge.
The program features three distinct competitive fellowship opportunities for early-career social science faculty who hold positions in accredited colleges and universities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda:
Eligibility and Application
All applicants must be citizens of and reside in a sub-Saharan African country while holding a current faculty position at an accredited college or university in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda. Applicants for any of the funding opportunities offered through this program must have a master’s degree and be working toward completion of the doctoral degree. We do not accept applicants who are holding a faculty position or attending university outside of Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
 We strongly encourage applicants to explain how their work aligns with the program's thematic priorities and demonstrate their capacity to contribute to a network advancing innovative research on peace, security and development. Applicants therefore should submit a project proposal that has been written specifically for this fellowship competition, rather than simply submit the approved research proposal that they developed for their university. The project proposal for this competition offers applicants an opportunity to further hone their approach to their dissertation topic. 
All applications must be submitted using the online application portal
The next application deadline is December 1, 2014.
For inquiries or technical questions pertaining to the online application portal, please contact SSRC staff from the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program: nextgenafrica@ssrc.org
Program Director
Thomas Asher

Contact

Fellowships

Projects

http://www.ssrc.org/programs/nextgenafrica/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Le Rwanda au Mozambique : qui les a placés là, pourquoi ils ne peuvent pas rester et pourquoi la SADC doit les remplacer avant que les dégâts ne deviennent permanents

  Qui a placé le Rwanda là-bas, pourquoi la France refuse de le remplacer, comment le déploiement est devenu un bouclier contre les sanctions, et pourquoi la SADC doit agir avant que les dégâts ne deviennent permanents Mars 2026   Résumé exécutif Les sanctions occidentales contre les Forces de Défense du Rwanda (RDF), imposées par les États-Unis le 2 mars 2026 en vertu du Global Magnitsky Act et relayées par une pression croissante de l'Union européenne, ont mis à nu une contradiction stratégique de premier ordre. La même force militaire sanctionnée pour son soutien opérationnel direct au groupe rebelle M23 en République démocratique du Congo est simultanément le principal garant sécuritaire d'un projet de gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL) de 20 milliards de dollars exploité par le géant français TotalEnergies à Cabo Delgado, dans le nord du Mozambique. Cette analyse répond à trois questions interconnectées dont les réponses définissent ...

UK and US in Africa Great Lakes: A Strategy Built on Sand

  A Strategy Built on Sand: How Western Military Support for Rwanda and Uganda. Fuelled Authoritarianism and Prolonged Conflict in the African Great Lakes Region.   Introduction: The Logic That Failed For more than three decades, the United States and the United Kingdom have invested heavily in building what they hoped would be stable, capable, and pro-Western security partners in the African Great Lakes Region. Rwanda and Uganda were the centrepiece of this strategy. Both governments received billions of dollars in financial assistance, advanced military training, logistical support, and sophisticated equipment. Both were celebrated in Western capitals as models of governance, post-conflict reconstruction, and economic development. That strategy has failed — comprehensively and consequentially. What the United States and United Kingdom created were not pillars of regional stability. They created highly militarised, authoritaria...

The Killing of Karine Buisset. RDF/M23 Responsible in Any Scenario.

The Killing of Karine Buisset in Goma: Rwanda's Occupation, a Drone Strike, and the Long Pattern of Targeted Violence In the early hours of Wednesday, 11 March 2026, a drone struck a two-storey residential building in the Himbi neighbourhood of Goma, a city held by Rwanda-backed RDF/M23 rebels since January 2025. Karine Buisset, a 54-year-old French national from Belz in Morbihan and a UNICEF child protection officer, was sleeping in the apartment of Christine Guinot, UNICEF's head of security in the DRC, who was not present that night. Buisset died at the scene. Two other people were also killed. By 4:12 a.m., a second wave of strikes had hit the city. RDF/M23 spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka attributed the drone attack to the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), describing it as a "combat drone" strike and a "terrorist attack" on civilian areas. France's President Emmanuel Macron confirmed Buisset's death on...

BBC News

Africanews

UNDP - Africa Job Vacancies

How We Made It In Africa – Insight into business in Africa

Migration Policy Institute