Africa: CODESRIA Social Science Faculty Seminar Series - 2008/2009 Competition

CODESRIA Social Science Faculty Seminar Series

2008/2009 Competition

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce the 2008/2009 competition for its new initiative designed to contribute to the development, restoration and/or consolidation of a culture of regular faculty seminars in African universities. In announcing the competition, the Council will also like to invite applications from staff of faculties of social sciences of African universities for the resources available to support the programme.

The Social Science Faculty Seminar Series is one of the new initiatives of CODESRIA as part of its strategic objectives for the advancement of the frontiers of the production and dissemination of knowledge. It grew out of a desire to fill an observed gap in the quest for the renewal of the African higher education system, namely, the collapse of the culture of regular departmental and/or faculty seminars which, themselves, were connected to the culture of advanced research to which staff and postgraduate students alike subscribed until the 1980s when the crises of funding in African higher education triggered a host of other problems that undermined all established academic cultures. The reasons for the collapse of the culture of seminars in the average African university are too well known to bear recounting here; suffice it to note that the entrenchment of a counter-culture of consultancies has further weakened commitments to knowledge sharing and exchange through the seminar system.

Similarly, the consequences of the collapse of seminar culture on the higher education system are all too familiar to necessitate a detailed enumeration here; the point should be made, however, that it has reproduced the fragmentation and atomisation of African social research along lines that have added up to weaken the African voice in the international market place of ideas. Through the Social Science Faculty Seminar Series, CODESRIA seeks to contribute to efforts aimed at reviving the culture of scholarly life on the African university campus and, in so doing, feeding into the challenges of constructing an environment that would be conducive for research and learning. Furthermore, through the Seminar Series, it is hoped to be able to encourage greater academic networking within African universities in ways which might enable individual researchers not only to discover opportunities for debate and collaboration with one another, but also to transcend disciplinary, generational and gender barriers to scholarly exchange.

Staff of faculties of social sciences of African universities interested in organising regular seminars are invited to submit well thought out applications for the consideration of CODESRIA. The frequency of the seminars could vary from monthly to quarterly meetings; they must be organised around a global theme, although the topics for each of the monthly or quarterly presentations could vary from author to author. The paper presenters in the seminars should be staff members or postgraduate students of the faculty which will be hosting the programme; exceptionally, however, external speakers drawn from other universities could be invited to participate in the seminar series. Organisers of the seminars are required to commit themselves to drawing participation in the meetings from several departments within the university system and to reflect this in the scheduling of speakers. The seminars should also be open to all teaching staff and postgraduate students interested in participating in them. Application documents should include a short proposal which speaks to the environment of research in the university from which it is coming, the overall theme that will be covered by the seminar series and specific topics which individual authors will be addressing, the proposed frequency of the seminars, the groups that will be targeted by the seminar programme, the expected outcomes, and the person(s) who will assume editorial responsibility for the revision and compilation of the papers presented for possible publication by CODESRIA.

Applications should also include a detailed budget with clearly delineated lines that should be properly justified. No ceilings are set for the funding support available from CODESRIA but for indicative purposes, applicants may wish to note that up to USD100,000 will be available annually from the Council to support up to 10 faculty seminars across Africa. A provision for the purchase of books and/or journals relevant to the overall theme of the proposed seminar series will also be welcomed by CODESRIA, it being understood that the books will be lodged in the university or faculty library for the benefit of all members of the university community. At the end of the seminar series, electronic and hard copies of the revised papers presented will be submitted to CODESRIA for processing for dissemination on the Council’s web site and through its publications programme. To this end, the Council has introduced a new rubric within its publications programme known as the CODESRIA African Universities Social Science Faculty Seminar Series.

For the 2008 session, applications for seminars beginning from July 2008 to June 2009 will be welcomed by the Council. Applications for this round of the competition should be received by Friday 31 May, 2008. The applications received will be reviewed by an independent selection committee and the recommendations of the committee will be notified to applicants during the course of June 2008. All enquiries and applications should be sent to:

CODESRIA,
Social Science Faculty Seminar Series,
P.O. Box: 3304, Dakar, CP 18524 – Senegal.
Tél: +221-33 825.98.22/23 — Fax: +221-33 824.12.89
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: http://www.codesria.org