The Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth (Germany) invites scholars working in the field of African Studies to apply for fellowships in the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies (BA).
In the academic year 2022-2023, the BA offers up to twenty short- and long-term fellowships, divided into the three categories (a) Individual Fellowships (b) Fellow-Tandems and (c) Fellow Groups. The fellowships are designed to enable scholars of African Studies, while immersed in a vibrant community of researchers from more than fifteen academic disciplines, to pursue projects significant to the Cluster’s theoretical and thematic agendas, in particular to the general theme of the 2022-23 academic year, Spatialities (see further below).
Fellows will be in residence for periods ranging from one to ten months, during which they will carry out their research in an efficiently managed environment with excellent working conditions. In order to create synergies among fellows as well as between Cluster members and international scholars, we highly encourage the application in tandem or as groups.
WHO ARE THE BAYREUTH ACADEMY FELLOWS?
The Bayreuth Academy Fellows are part of an international group of junior and senior scholars –professors, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral students– affiliated with the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence to advance research and scholarly debates in African Studies. They will enjoy membership status in the Cluster for the duration of their fellowship. Apart from pursuing their research and engaging in informal exchanges with other Cluster members, Fellow activities include:
• participating in Cluster events while in residence; these include regular Thursday afternoon lectures, seminars, and discussion groups;
• presenting a 45-minute talk based on the Fellow’s research within the BA;
• attending occasional social events for Fellows;
• submitting during or after the fellowship at least one publication on the fellowship project, if appropriate in a publication outlet of the Cluster of Excellence (Working Papers, etc.);
• optional participation in one of the BA’s postdoctoral working groups;
• offering of discussion sessions for doctoral students and contributing to existing formats such as summer schools.
In addition, Fellows are expected to collaborate with Bayreuth-based scholars. One avenue for collaboration is to create synergies with one of the Cluster’s six Research Sections. The latter serve as umbrellas for the Cluster’s research projects and revolve around specific overarching themes. The six sections are: (a) Moralities, (b) Knowledges, (c) Mobilities, (d) Arts & Aesthetics, (e) Affiliations, and (f) Learning. We encourage collaboration with individual Cluster members as well, and we are also looking forward to proposals that contribute to the Cluster agenda in general without relating to a Research Section. Here, we are especially interested in proposals that promise to advance one of our most prominent objectives, the reconfiguration of African Studies in a broad sense.
Particularly welcome are Fellow projects that speak to the annual theme of the 2022-23 academic year, Spatialities, e.g., by exploring the multiple spatialities of entangled African lifeworlds. Connecting to debates in critical area studies, the heuristic angle of spatialities invites us to focus on the relational processes of construction and constitution through which ‘areas’ emerge, change and de-/re-territorialize. Such perspectives help cast a fresh view on African interconnections and the dense presence of Africa in the world as well as of the world in Africa. Other possible synergies with the annual theme may include inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to co-create new imaginaries and innovative productions of multiple social, material, and artistic spaces.
Fellows have the opportunity to team up with Fellows and other Cluster members in research groups for joint work on common research interests, or common publications, and are encouraged to publish results of their work in one of the Cluster’s outlets.
Please find more details about the Fellowship Programme in the Call text. The Instructions sheet explains how to apply for a Fellowship and leads you to the application form. The amount and components of the Fellowship are detailed in the Financial Regulations sheet. You can find these documents below in pdf format.
The closing date is 20 September 2021, 23:59 CEST.
For further questions, please contact the coordinator of the BA, Robert Debusmann:
robert.debusmann@uni-bayreuth.de.