Below is an announcement about full-time MA and PhD scholarships in the new Cities in Transformation research project in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape. Research on multilingual citizenship will be a close companion field of inter-disciplinary inquiry. The Centre for Humanities Research, with which the Cities initiative will be affiliated, is home, among others, to a vigorous postgraduate programme rethinking study of the humanities in Africa.
We are keen to receive proposals from talented ‚humanities‘, social sciences and cultural studies scholars who are interested in exploring issues related to the making and refashioning of cities, not least from the perspective of the global south. The emphasis is not on conventional engineering, policy and planning practises, but on the inscriptions, meaning-making and other recursive impacts of everyday actions and readings by a variety of actors. These include the diversity of citizens and visitors engaged in consumption and production activities such as work, play, learning, travel, protest, activism, survival, and in discourses such as filming, naming & coding. We are also open to proposals about unusual institutional interventions in urban settings, including work on universities as pulses of urban change. We seek inquisitive scholars who will embrace, be excited by and help construct new cross-disciplinary urban literatures, and who can pose hard questions and use invigorating and robust research methodologies.
Please pass on the announcement to any prospective MA or PhD scholars you know who may welcome the opportunity to grapple full time with challenging urban research questions and issues (past and present) in greater Cape Town or elsewhere. Our aim is to provide a stimulating forum for learning and for exchange of views in conjunction with a critical research seminar series and other exciting work being done locally on cities.
Dynamics of Building a Better Society (DBBS)
Prestige Postgraduate Scholarships
The University of the Western Cape, in partnership with the Vlaamse Interuniversitaire Raad (VLIR), is starting the second phase of a multi-disciplinary research and postgraduate development project concerned with the „Dynamics of Building a Better Society“. Starting in 2008, research projects in the programme are based in (but not exclusive to) five faculties: Arts, Community & Health Sciences, Economic & Management Sciences, and Natural Sciences. They offer exciting opportunities for outstanding Master’s and Doctoral students to work in niche areas that will impact on nation building.
The research projects, all concerned with dynamics of building a better society, are:
1. Citizenship and Democracy
2. Sport and Recreation Sciences for Development
3. Transforming Health & Education Policies & Systems for Improved HIV Prevention & Care
4. The sustainable utilisation of subterranean water resources for the improvement of quality of life (Water resource management & Ecohydrology) Multilingualism & Cities in Transition
Applications for Prestige Scholarships in the programme are invited from prospective Master’s and Doctoral students who can demonstrate potential for excellence and efficiency in research. The successful applicants will work with top UWC and Belgian academics and researchers in a multidisciplinary research team. Scholarships will be awarded for one year at a time, with renewal dependent on evidence of excellent work and satisfactory progress. Master’s scholarships are R 53,000.00 pa (full-time) and R26,500,00 pa (part-time). Doctoral scholarships are R85,000.00 pa (full-time) and R42,500.00 pa (part-time).
Applicants should contact the DBBS office for more information about each of the above research projects before submitting any application. Applications forms and referee report formats will be provided.
Contact details: fax: (021) 959 1362, tel: (021) 959 3105, email: cpearce[at]uwc.ac.za, or at UWC, Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535.
Closing date for applications: Monday 26 November 2007
Call aus: H-Net