University of Ghana, Ghana

Deadline: March 31, 2020

The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) is dedicated to research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, with ‘Sustainable Governance’ as its central topic. More specific sub-topics under this umbrella prominently include sustainable democracy, sustainable peace and conflict management and environmental transformation as well as migration and displacement, restitution of cultural objects, and human rights research. Overarching aims of MIASA are working towards a reduction of global asymmetries in knowledge production and bridging the cultural divide between anglophone and francophone Africa. MIASA, established in 2018, serves as a hub for exchange, networking and collaboration amongst leading researchers from Germany, Ghana, the African and European continents and beyond. It is located on the beautiful campus of the University of Ghana at Legon (Accra).

The Institute offers time and space for supporting innovative academic projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences of top international quality. MIASA supports these projects via different kinds of fellowships: individual fellowships, tandem fellowships with one tandem partner from Germany and the other from West Africa, and fellowships as members of so- called Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups. From 2021 until 2026, MIASA will grant some 20 fellowships per year in total.

Present calls:

Five individual fellowships of 3 to 5 months duration in the calendar year 2021

Individual fellowships will allow researchers to conduct a project of their own choice. These projects can be of an opening, continuing, or closing nature. The successful applicants will become MIASA Fellows with all the corresponding rights and obligations for the agreed fellowship period. Key among the obligations is that MIASA fellows are required to spend the bulk of their fellowship in residence at MIASA at the University of Ghana.
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Two tandem fellowships (3-5 months) in the calendar year 2021

The fellowships will allow the researchers who are teaming up to pursue a joint academic project. This project can be of an opening, continuing, or closing nature. Two researchers – one from West Africa and one from Germany – will work in a collaborative manner on a particular research topic in the Humanities and Social Sciences, addressing in one way or another MIASA’s overarching aims.
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Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups (IFGs) in the calendar year 2021

IFGs are MIASA’s central instrument fostering original research of top-class international calibre on the central topic ‘Sustainable Governance’ and its sub-topics. In 2021, MIASA will fund one IFG from February 1 until May 31, and another one from September 1 until December 2021. An IFG brings together a group of up to six fellows for a duration of four months.
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