Initiatives for African Partners
As a 2022-2026 National Resource Center (NRC), KASC helps to organize virtual and hybrid events for discussion and exchange of African knowledge perspectives. These include the Ujamaa Virtual Colloquium Series, the KASC Virtual Symposium, the African Digital Humanities Symposium, the annual conference of the Mid-American Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS), and the KASC Graduate Research Workshop. (For more information about any of these events, click on the hyperlinked name.) KASC encourages faculty, students, and professional practitioners from the Africa region to take advantage of opportunities to attend and present at these events, which (in most cases) are open for virtual attendance to all people free of charge.
In addition to these events, KASC has several initiatives to develop and support sustainable connections with African Partners to better amplify Africa-centered knowledge perspectives. A list of these initiatives appears below.
COIL Partnership Award
As part of its NRC mission, KASC seeks to develop sustainable connections with African partners to better incorporate Africa-centered perspectives into the KU curriculum. Toward this goal, KASC offers competitive grants (one per year) to faculty at an African university for the development of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses in partnership with colleagues at a KU Professional School. KASC will make one award for a COIL course offered in the KU Spring (i.e., January to May) 2023 semester related to the topic of Public Health and Well-being. KASC will make another award for a COIL course offered in the KU Fall (i.e., August to December) 2023 or Spring 2024 semester related to the topic of Disinformation and Epistemic Violence. KU awardees will receive $5000 paid as summer salary. African partners will receive $5000 as a stipend. Please consult lists of faculty expertise on KU Professional School websites to explore potential partners.
Virtual Affiliate Fellowship
Each fall and spring semester, KASC will award a Virtual Affiliate Fellowship to a faculty member at an African university. Besides virtual and in-person access to KU Libraries and other resources, the fellow will receive an honorarium of $250 for a virtual presentation about their work that KASC will highlight during their fellowship term and then archive in a gallery on the KASC website.
The Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) at the University of Kansas, USA is accepting proposals for the KASC African Affiliate Fellowship for the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 Semesters. Fellows will receive official KU affiliate status which will grant them remote access to KU Libraries and other digital resources. In addition, the fellow will receive an honorarium of USD $250 for a virtual presentation or exhibition of their work. KASC will highlight this presentation during the fellowship term and then archive it a gallery on the KASC website. Although the topic of scholarship and research is open, KASC especially welcomes proposals related to our annual theme of Public Health and Well-being. The fellowship is open to educators and researchers at any university in the Africa region. To apply for the fellowship, please send a CV and a 500-word description of the work that you propose to do as a KU affiliate to kasc@ku.edu by the deadline of November 30, 2022.
KASC Graduate Research Workshop Awards
The Graduate Research Workshop (GRW) is an opportunity for graduate students in African Studies to present their work and receive feedback from an interdisciplinary audience of faculty and student colleagues. The GRW will happen each spring as a hybrid (i.e., virtual and in-person) meeting. Each year, KASC will make 4 awards of $250 (in the form of support for attendance at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association) to encourage and facilitate graduate student participation in this event.