Call for Applications: 2021 Visiting Research Fellowship

The University of Lagos, African Cluster Centre of Excellence (LACC), a Centre within the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies (IADS), University of Lagos (UNILAG), Nigeria, is calling on suitably qualified scholars, working in the field of African Studies, to apply for its 2021 Visiting Research Fellowship.

Qualified Fellows will be in residence for periods ranging from one (1) to three (3) months between April 2021 and March, 2022.

The aim of the Fellowship is to expose scholars to a process of reconfiguring African Studies within the African context and realities. The Fellowship will make the scholar a Fellow of the University of Lagos African Cluster Centre (LACC).

Fellows will be expected to participate in reconfiguring African Studies. This will entail re-examining basic assumptions and querying them with multidisciplinary approaches in order to enhance, uphold and/or dismiss present knowledge about Africans as well as show the “multipleness” in the discourses about Africa.

Eligibility:
To apply, applicants must:

1. Have a Ph.D. degree by the time of application;
2. Have conducted research, as part of the Ph.D. and/or in later projects with a focus on Africa;
3. Be actively pursuing academic/research career;
4. Be well published in their areas of specialty;
5. In accordance with visa regulations, be ready to return to their country of origin and/or residence upon completion of the fellowship.
6. Must be affiliated to the University of Bayreuth or an African Academic Institution, preferably, an African Cluster Centre (ACC) of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence.
   Applicants may have the opportunity of spending part of their Fellowship time in Bayreuth or any of the other African Cluster Centres.

Expected Result:
Accepted applicants will be expected to share the output of their collaboration in one of the Lagos ACC’s roundtable sessions, participate in a joint research grant proposal, and publish/collaborate with one Lagos ACC researcher in publishing in a peer-reviewed journal, as a contribution to the Cluster’s Knowledge Lab.

Fellowship shall include:

1. Return ticket (economy class).
2. Monthly stipend to cover living expenses.
3. Travel Insurance
4. Accommodation on campus (single room with shared facilities).
5. The use of (shared) office facilities and of library facilities.

Applications Procedure
Kindly click HERE to download an application form.

Interested applicants are to complete the application form downloaded above and send it, together with all additional required documents listed below, to the email address: [email protected]

– your CV listing ten relevant publications;
– two letters of recommendation; one should be from present employer.
– a statement from a Lagos ACC PI, stating his/her willingness to collaborate with you.

Kindly Note:

1. The complete application package (as enumerated above) should be sent in one email
2. Incomplete applications or applications by individuals who do not meet the requirements will not be reviewed.
3. Applications must be submitted in English.
4. The closing date for submission of applications is Friday, January 15, 2021.
5. Successful candidates will be contacted in February 2021.

Suggestions for Collaboration
Applicants are to kindly state the name of the Principal Investigator (PI) at the University of Lagos ACC they would collaborate with during the fellowship. Applicants should be willing to work with a Principal Investigator from Lagos ACC in one of the Research Sections and all research proposals must engage with the Cluster’s core concepts (multiplicity, relationality, reflexivity).

Work Plan
Applicants are required to state intended research activities during the fellowship, month by month. Kindly note that research area must be linked to one of the six Research Sections of the Cluster. Plan should state the intended outputs of collaboration (events, publications, etc.).

For more information, kindly visit the Lagos ACC website https://iads.unilag.edu.ng/lacc/