The APDD Program offers fellowships to support the completion of doctoral degrees and to promote the next generation of social science research in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The fellowships support scholars who are developing their dissertation proposals on Peacebuilding, Governance, and Developmental Dynamics.

The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowships support PhD students working on developing a doctoral dissertation proposal, as well as students who have recently completed a master’s degree and seek to enroll in a PhD program. The fellowships support short-term research costs of up to US$3,000 to develop a doctoral dissertation proposal.  

Program Components 

Through the Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowship, fellowship recipients can expect the following:

Thought Leadership 

  • Fellows will commit to six (6) months of developing their doctoral dissertation proposal. Fellows produce proposals that are relevant to, and have significant impact on, peacebuilding, security, and development scholarship on the continent while producing evidence-based knowledge of relevance to regional and global scholarly debates.

Workshops 

  • Fellows will participate in two mandatory APDD workshops occurring in July and January across different regions of Africa. These workshops are designed to help fellows refine, develop and strengthen research questions, match research methods to questions, engage key literature in their fields, and finalize their doctoral research proposals.

African Scholarship and Knowledge Production 

  • Fellows will contribute to the APDD’s digital forums and social media platforms (Kujenga Amani, Facebook, and X).

Fostering Community, Professional Development and Networking 

  • Fellows are part of a network of highly visible and active African scholars and practitioners capable of projecting African perspectives and voices onto global discourses, knowledge and practices of peacebuilding, security, and development. 
  • Fellows will receive mentorship from highly experienced senior scholars in the field. There are opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. 
  • Fellows will gain new knowledge and skills to advance their careers as academics or practitioners in their chosen fields.  

Eligibility

All applicants must:

  • be a citizen and resident of an African country.
  • be enrolled, or enrolled by the time of the award, and working towards a PhD in an accredited university, or affiliated to an institution in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
  • hold a master’s degree at the time of application.

As of May 2015, the program prioritizes applicants holding a faculty position or demonstrating a durable commitment to higher education in Africa, but does not restrict eligibility to such individuals.

Become a Fellow 

To apply and obtain more information regarding the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, please refer to the APDD Fellowship Application Guidebook. For inquiries or technical questions pertaining to the online application portal, please contact the APDD staff at apdd@ssrc.org. 

This program is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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