The Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and Next Generation (Next Gen) Social Sciences in Africa Program, in collaboration with the University of Mauritius, held the 2025 July Research Methods Workshop in Ébène, Mauritius, from July 7 to July 10, 2025. The workshop brought together fifty-six (56) fellows from fourteen (14)  African countries, along with facilitators, guests of honor, and keynote speakers, for four days of field-based research methods development, peer-to-peer engagements and networking, and mentorship by highly experienced senior scholars drawn from North America, Europe, and African countries. The workshop also served as an opportunity for the immersion of participants into diverse topics and issues of relevance in African scholarship and exploration of the social and academic cultures of Mauritius.

The opening ceremony of the workshop commenced with introductory statements by Mrs. Christina Chan Meetoo and Dr. Nicolas Ragodoo, co-Chairs of the University of Mauritius Local Organizing Committee (LOC). They welcomed participants and expressed gratitude to Prof. Verena Tandrayen-Ragoobur, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Professor Sanjeev Sobhee, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mauritius. Furthermore, the co-Chairs stressed the importance of the event, citing its potential in helping early career researchers sharpen their research ideas and proposals, while contributing to peacebuilding efforts rooted in local realities and shaped by African scholarship and perspectives.

Interview with Nicholas Ragodoo

Interview with Christina Chan Metoo

Dr. Cyril Obi, Program Director of the SSRC’s APN and Next Gen Program, in his opening remarks expressed gratitude to key dignitaries, including the Honorable (Dr) Kaviraj Sharma Sukon, Minister of Tertiary Education, Science and Research, Mauritius, and , Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mauritius. Dr. Obi highlighted the importance of the Program in fostering a robust pan-African scholarly network, acknowledging the partnership with the University of Mauritius as an intentional step towards deepening collaboration between scholars and institutions across mainland and island African countries. Enthusiastically welcoming the new cohort of APN and Next Gen fellows, he encouraged them to form lasting research collaborations and connections throughout the workshop and afterwards.

Professor Sobhee, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius, followed by commending the collaboration between the University of Mauritius and the SSRC’s APN and Next Gen Program, which he noted marked the beginning of a promising, formal long-term relationship. He emphasized the importance given to research methodology at the University, underscoring the significance of context-specific research methods tailored to the unique challenges of both continental and island Africa. Acknowledging Africa’s growing youth population as its future, Professor Sobhee reinforced the value of internationalization in higher education and the role of rigorous research in contributing to global academic excellence.

The Honorable (Dr) Sukon began by affirming the importance of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches and raised concerns about the gap in articulating the epistemological or ontological foundations of most research. Noting the recent move by the Mauritian government to begin its budget with a focus on research, he emphasized the growing recognition of research as a national priority. Dr. Sukon welcomed the presence of APN and Next Gen scholars as a valuable opportunity for mutual learning and expressed the importance of local and regional research collaboration that improves the lives of African citizens. He concluded by thanking the University of Mauritius and the SSRC for co-organizing the international research workshop.

The opening session was followed by the first keynote lecture entitled “Reimagining Doctoral Supervision as Transformative Capacity Building in African Contexts”, delivered by Professor Michael Anthony Samuel from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Critiquing dominant externally imposed or adopted research models in Africa, he encouraged constant interrogation of the origin and stakeholders of research methodology and advocated for a relational and reflexive approach centered on African contexts, questions, and knowledge systems. Acknowledging systemic inequalities in postgraduate education, he proposed capacity-building networks and partnerships across African institutions. Research, Professor Samuel argued, should be activist, collaborative, and disruptive of elitism, domination, and power imbalances. He called for a re-conceptualization of the supervisor and supervisee relationship: one that is centered on co-learning and co-production, as opposed to imitation and a hierarchical master and apprentice relationship.

The keynote plenary session was followed by working group sessions where APN Individual Research fellows met with their mentors and peers, while Next Gen Doctoral Dissertation Fellows met in their thematic groups–each structured according to the relevance of the mentors’ scholarly backgrounds to the thematic foci of fellows’ proposals.

Continuing the discussions initiated on the first day, Professor Tandrayen-Ragoobur emphasized the importance of research rooted in African contexts and appropriate methodologies. She encouraged fellows to embrace the initial confusion as part of the research journey, remain resilient, and allow their research endeavors to be guided by curiosity and methodological rigor. Professor Tandrayen-Ragoobur described the pursuit of a PhD as a journey whose significance exceeds the receipt of a degree, framing it as a process of continuous growth, learning, and discovery.

Professor Amy Niang from The African Institute, Sharjah, UAE, delivered the second keynote lecture on “The Foundational Principles of Social Research for Knowledge Production in Africa.” She asserted that foundational principles of African research emerge from lived experience, memory, land, language, and community, as opposed to just textbooks and archives. She expanded on this perspective by drawing on the lives of several prominent African thinkers, each embodying a core principle of African scholarship. She expanded on these principles, which posit that reclaiming history is both a political and epistemological act, true liberation requires linguistic sovereignty, and scholars must dismantle inherited, marginalizing categories and build knowledge from the margins. Professor Niang also noted that liberation is both the purpose and method of African research. She reminded participants that African knowledge traditions have survived centuries of rupture, affirming knowledge as a lifeline, a vessel of memory, and its production as an act of determining what will be remembered or forgotten.

Following the keynote plenary session, APN and Next Gen fellows and their mentors reconvened for the second day of full-day working group sessions, after which the evening culminated in a welcome dinner for all workshop participants.

On July 9th, the third day of the workshop, fellows continued with their working group sessions in the morning, which were supplemented by afternoon one-on-one meetings during which each fellow consulted with their group mentor, who provided individualized feedback and guidance on proposals and draft chapters. Following the completion of the mentorship roundtables, fellows visited historical and cultural sites in Ébène, Mauritius, and neighboring cities, notably the Intercontinental Slavery Museum, Aapravasi, Ghat World Heritage Site, and the Marie Reine de la Paix monument. The first two sites serve as significant landmarks for Mauritius’s history of enslavement and indentured servitude, while the monument—erected in the wake of World War II—serves as a symbol of spiritual resilience and collective hope in the country.

On July 10th, following the conclusion of working groups and one-on-one sessions, the fellows’ panel discussion, “Navigating Reflexivity in Conducting Field-Based Research in Africa,” was moderated by Dr. Cyril Obi.

Professor Heidi Hudson, from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, opened with a reflection on positionality. Drawing from feminist theory, she advocated for humility, continuous reflexivity, and self-awareness of one’s positionality throughout research.

Dr. Nelson Oppong, from the University of Edinburgh, continued by emphasizing the value—and difficulty—of deep reflexivity in research. He highlighted the importance of archival reflexivity and attunement to subtle, unspoken cues during fieldwork, which has the potential to yield unique and critical insights.

Dr. Marion Ouma (APN IRF 2025), from the South Africa Research Chair Initiative (SARChI) on Social Policy at the University of South Africa (UNISA), reflected on her experience working with an international peacemaking organization. Dr. Ouma discussed how COVID-19, especially in her research involving marginalized groups, challenged her assumptions and pushed her to rethink ethical engagement with Gen Z activists confronting power structures.

Dr. Yunana Ahmed (APN IRF 2025), from Gombe State University, Nigeria, emphasized the need to decolonize research through reflexivity. He critiqued the homogenization of Africa’s experiences and knowledge systems and the dominance of Western paradigms in African scholarship.

Desmond Farai Ncube (Next Gen Proposal 2025), PhD from the University of the Western Cape, addressed the ethical and political complexities of conducting fieldwork in Africa. He stressed the importance of acknowledging researcher positionality and maintaining integrity when engaging with communities.

Aphiwe Mhlangulana (Next Gen Research 2025), from the University of Cape Town, shared her work on online gender-based violence against Black African women. She advocated for deeply immersive, self-reflexive research and discussed alternative, decolonial forms of knowledge dissemination, such as narrative and comics. The panel discussion included an interactive Question-and-Answer session, which was followed by the closing ceremony of the workshop.

The University of Mauritius LOC extended its gratitude to attendees and expressed hope that the workshop has and would continue to inspire their research and foster meaningful connections in the future. Dr. Obi conveyed his thanks to the LOC, Vice Chancellor, Dean, and faculty for their support in realizing the 2025 Research Methods Workshop. He concluded by congratulating the 2025 APN and Next Gen fellows on joining a vibrant and growing scholarly Pan-African community.

Interview with Eugenia Anderson

Interview with Daniel Lifuka Sichinga

The APN and Next Gen program is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York.