The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) has, for the second time in 2021, received new fellows for on-site projects at the University of Ghana, Legon campus. Four international researchers, who will be working on individual projects relating to MIASA’s topic of Sustainable Governance, arrived early August, whilst the other batch is expected in September 2021. This marks the first time that all fellows have been able to travel to Ghana to start their fellowship on-site since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new fellows include Dr. Lamine Doumbia (Junior Individual Fellow, Mali/DHI Paris/CREPOS); Prof. Vivian Dzokoto (Senior Individual Fellow, Virginia Commonwealth University); Dr. Rogers Orock (Senior Individual Fellow, Cameroon/University of the Witswatersrand); Dr. Michael Stasik (Junior Individual Fellow, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Göttingen).
The fellows’ research topics range from fields such as anthropology, history and sociology to economic psychology, which characterises MIASA’s overall aim: interdisciplinary exchange. The new fellows are, to a large extent, working on their individual projects, while engaging in lively exchanges with each other and two other fellows received during the previous academic year to inform their research.
MIASA looks forward to receiving its fifth Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG 5) on matters of restitution of looted cultural objects in September 2021. The September Team includes Dr. John Nott (Junior Individual Fellow, UK/Maastricht). Based on adequate preparations to equip its researchers, the Institute hopes to continue lively academic exchanges both virtually and on-site.
MIASA is an institute for advanced studies at the University of Ghana dedicated to the global theme of ‘Sustainable Governance’. MIASA’s programmes are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the University of Ghana. The overarching aims of the Institute are to encourage African scholarship, to reduce global asymmetries in knowledge production and to bridge the cultural divide between Anglophone and Francophone Africa. MIASA offers fellowship programmes for both senior and post-doctoral researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
For more information on MIASA, please visit https://www.ug.edu.gh/mias-africa/
