The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) invites applications for its workshop on Female Academic Careers in Africa which is organized from 28 to 30 May 2024 in collaboration with the German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP) and the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) at the University of Ghana (UG), Legon campus.

MIASA is based on a cooperation between UG and four German partners (the University of Freiburg, Goethe University Frankfurt, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, and the GHIP). The institute is located at UG, Legon Campus. The institute is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) with co-funding from UG. This will be the seventh edition of MIASA’s Female Academic Careers in Africa workshop series.

This workshop welcomes early- and mid-career female academics who are affiliated in the Social Sciences and Humanities with universities or research institutes across the African continent. Applicants should hold a PhD. We are open to a broad range of disciplines and appreciate, in particular, applicants whose research is related to one or more of MIASA’s research themes (https://www.ug.edu.gh/mias-africa/research-profile).

The workshop offers time and space to discuss the challenges and opportunities for women in academia in African contexts. Participants from Ghana and other African countries will be accompanied by a professional coach through different modules that address (i) professional relationship constellations, (ii) power dynamics and individual roles, (iii) work-life balance and roadmap. The workshop focuses on the university environment and academic practice.

The coaching aims at assisting participants to define their own working and leadership style, but also to consider how to adapt oneself to different contexts and challenges. The overarching purpose is to encourage early- and mid-career female academics in Ghana and other African countries to further build up their careers, to develop strategies for keeping a work-life-balance that allows for prospering in one’s research and academic work, and to become ready for taking up leadership positions and/or seizing other professional opportunities. The workshop also includes a public roundtable for a larger audience.

Selection criteria:

- PhD and academic excellence

- Research profile and thematic connections with MIASA.

The organising committee will select a mixed group of 16 female scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds from different countries and on different levels of their career (from early-to mid-career).

The workshop will be run in English.

MIASA covers travel costs for participants (economy class flight, local transport) and accommodation for participants from outside Accra.

The application platform for this workshop has been closed.

Organizing team:

Dr. Deborah Atobrah, Director (CEGENSA, UG)

Dr. Susann Baller, Senior research fellow (Marc Bloch Centre Berlin)

Dr. Grace Diabah, Director ‘Ghana’ (MIASA, UG)

Dr. Abena Kyere, Researcher (CEGENSA, UG)

Eleonora Marchioni, Researcher (GHIP)

Prof. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, Head of Dept. of Geography and Resource Development (UG)