Overview

The Social Science Research Council offers fellowships to support the completion of doctoral degrees and to promote next generation social science research in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The fellowships support dissertation research on peace, security, and development topics. 

The doctoral dissertation research fellowship supports 6-12 months of dissertation research costs of up to US$15,000 on a topic related to peace, security, and development. This program also offers two workshops each year to help fellows to further develop and strengthen their research, engage key literature in their fields, embark on fieldwork-based research, and develop their capacity for scholarly writing, including academic publications.

Eligibility:

All applicants must:

  • be citizens of any sub-Saharan African country
  • be enrolled and working towards a PhD in an accredited university, or affiliated to an institution in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda
  • have a fully developed doctoral dissertation research proposal approved by a graduate school/program at an accredited university in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania or Uganda.

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. 

The program seeks to promote diversity and encourages women to apply.

Thematic Priorities:

The program features a thematic focus on peace, security, and development in order to renew basic research agendas and strengthen interdisciplinary social science research capacity addressing these issues. 

The program encourages innovative research on peace, security, and development topics, moving the boundaries of scholarship and research by exploring concrete linkages between these themes. We envision supporting a diverse set of projects seeking to shed light on a range of economic, political, social, conflict and peacebuilding processes using evidence-based research.

Some projects, we hope, will examine large-scale phenomena and others small-scale social processes. The strongest projects typically will explore connections across these scales. Some research projects will rigorously explore elements of governance, civil society, human rights, peacebuilding mechanisms/institutions and processes, and rule of law. Others will explore root causes of conflict, human insecurity, emerging trajectories and forms of conflict, insecurities, and human mobilities. Above all projects should advance important fields of study and social science knowledge.

For additional on information on previously supported projects, please visit our fellows’ pages. 

Please see the following list of prospective issues that are considered relevant to Next Gen fellowships:

  • Causes and drivers of conflict
  • Institutional and local approaches to conflict prevention, management, and resolution
  • National and Regional approaches to peace, security, and development
  • Identity and conflict
  • Gender, youth, conflict, and peacebuilding
  • Conflict, peace and human mobilities
  • Histories, Arts and Cultures of conflict and peace
  • State-Society relations
  • Economic and Humanitarian perspectives to conflict and peace
  • Democracy, human rights, and development
  • Post-conflict development, governance and reconstruction
  • Peace agreements,  transitional justice and reconciliation
  • International justice, war crimes, peace, and development
  • Law and constitutionalism
  • Climate change adaptation and mitigation practices and peace
  • Natural resource governance, conflict, peace and development
  • Climate Change, conflict, peace, and security
  • Globalization and emerging insecurities
  • Peace education and African literatures
  • Media, digital technology AI,  peace, and security

Application Process:

All applications must be submitted using the online application portal.

Strong proposals will offer clear and concise descriptions of the project and its significance. Proposals should display thorough knowledge of the relevant social science literature that applicants will engage in and the methodologies relevant to the project. In addition, applicants must demonstrate that all proposed activities are feasible and can be completed in a timely manner. All proposals will be evaluated for these criteria by an independent, international committee of leading scholars from a range of social science and related disciplines. 

Fellows must be willing to attend two workshops sponsored by the SSRC each year that are intended to help early-career faculty engage in scholarly reflections, research, and writing. We will award up to 36 fellowships in total across all categories each year.

Additional information on eligibility, the application process, and award details can be found in our Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

For inquiries or technical questions pertaining to the online application portal, please contact SSRC staff from the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program: nextgenafrica@ssrc.org

This program is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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