The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant of 975,000 US dollars to the University of Ghana and three other institutions for the project: Building Capacity for Early Career Humanities Scholars in Africa (BECHS-Africa).
BECHS-Africa is a partnership involving the University of Ghana; American University in Cairo, Egypt; Stellenbosch University, South Africa; and Washington University in Saint Louis, USA, with University of Ghana as lead institution.
It is a three-year transnational programme that offers residency for early career scholars in the humanities to enhance their research agenda. The project will provide avenues for early career scholars to spend an academic term (up to six months) in a region of Africa other than their own, or in a global north institution. The project supports the strategy of the University of Ghana to build more capacity in research in the humanities, as well as support the larger vision of the University to become a research intensive university by 2024. We are excited about the long-term institutional collaboration with our partners and grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the continued support.
We congratulate the project investigators and administrators in the various institutions for their hard work in putting together the proposal for the grant; Professors Samuel Kwame Offei and Samuel Agyei-Mensah, from the University of Ghana; Professor Jean Allman of Washington University in Saint Louis; Associate Professor Syed Maswood of American University in Cairo and Professor Anthony Leysens of Stellenbosch University.
Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Vice- Chancellor of the University of Ghana provided strategic direction for the proposal. Mrs. Afia Serwaa Attrams and Mr. Benedict Fosu Adjei, administrators in the University of Ghana, provided immense administrative support.
