African Scholarship Program 2008-2009

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September 14, 2008

African Humanities Scholarship Program in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda 2008-2009

Eligibility criteria
• The proposed project must be in the humanities.
• It must propose a written scholarly product such as a dissertation or monograph.
• Research and writing under terms of the fellowship award must be undertaken in Africa. (AHP fellowships may not be used for travel outside the continent.)
• Dissertation applicants must be African nationals residing in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, or Uganda, and pursuing a doctorate in one of those countries. They must have begun to write the dissertation and be within one year of completion of the writing.
• Postdoctoral applicants must be African nationals residing in Ghana, Nigeria, South Af-rica, Tanzania, or Uganda, affiliated with a university, research center, museum, or other institution in one of those countries. They must have defended the dissertation by the submission deadline and be no more that five years past the date of receiving the Ph.D. degree. They may propose a combination of research and writing, or writing only.

Fellowship awards
• The base stipend for Dissertation-Completion Fellowships is $9,000, with cost of living adjustments for each of the five countries, as appropriate.
• The base stipend for Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowships is $16,000, with cost of liv-ing adjustments for each of the five countries, as appropriate.
• The Residential Allowance is $4,000, which will be paid directly to the residential center hosting the AHP fellowship recipient. A list of recommended centers is available from ahp@acls.org, though applicants may also propose residence at other institutions. Appli-cants who will work at their home institutions are not eligible for residential allowances.

Selection criteria
• the intrinsic interest and substantive merit of the work proposed
• the clarity with which the intellectual agenda is presented
• the record of achievement of postdoctoral scholars and the promise of Ph.D. candidates
• the contribution the work is likely to make to scholarship in the region and internationally
• the feasibility of the workplan.

Preparing the application

Begin preparation early. Applications must be received by the African Humanities Program at the American Council of Learned Societies in New York by December 1, 2008.

All applications must be typed (no handwriting, please). ACLS encourages the submission of applications via email. Application forms may be downloaded in either Word or Acrobat. Ap-plication forms downloaded in Word may be typed on a computer, then saved in a Word file and submitted via email attachment to ahp@acls.org. Please observe specifications for font and line-spacing, as well as the page and space limits represented in the original application form. Appli-cation forms downloaded in Acrobat or received via Air Mail may be printed, then typed on a typewriter and returned to ACLS via Air Mail or courier service. Applicants should remember to sign and date the completed application.

An application consists of the following elements, provided on request from ahp@acls.org in electronic or printed form. Elements are numbered and should be submitted in order. Incom-plete applications will not be considered.

I. Applicant information – cover sheet

II. Personal history: education, research, teaching, and service (as applicable)

III. List of applicant’s publications

IV. Intellectual autobiography [One page maximum: single spaced, 11 pt. type]
A description of the applicant’s academic career, detailing the ideas and experiences that shaped and motivated the applicant’s intellectual work and plans for the future. The autobiography should conclude with a separate paragraph answering the question: “What do I see myself doing five years from now?”

V. Project proposal [Two page maximum: single spaced, 11 pt. type]
1. Main Thesis: State the main thesis and the argument or problematic guiding the proposed research and writing.
2. Body: Explain the research problem in more detail. What is already known about the problem and what more needs to be known? Justify the research focus and approach.
3. Literature and sources: Locate the proposed topic in the context of existing literature and identify potential new sources. What will be the criteria for determining which sources are relevant? How will the project extend, modify, or challenge existing scholarship?
4. Methods: Describe in detail the methods to be used. How will they be deployed to ad-dress the main thesis or argument of the project?
5. Significance: Discuss the importance of the proposed work to central issues in the disci-pline, to the African humanities, and to humanities scholarship in general.
6. Workplan: The concluding section of the essay should specify a plan of work with a time-line for the research and/or writing during the fellowship period. How much has the ap-plicant already accomplished on the project and how much remains to be done? What steps are anticipated during the fellowship period? What is the expected result?

VI. Bibliography and sources

VII. Request for residential allowance
Applicants may request a residential allowance to spend all or part of the award tenure at a research/writing site (a research center or other institution) away from the home institu-tion. The allowance, which will be paid by ACLS directly to the residential site, will fund travel to and from the site as well as housing during residency.
The African Humanities Program recommends several research/writing sites, and has made arrangements with them to host AHP fellows. The list of recommended sites along with additional information is available from ahp@acls.org.

VIII. Writing Sample (for dissertation-completion applicants only)
Dissertation applicants must submit a completed chapter of the dissertation or a signifi-cant section of a chapter. The writing sample, preferably submitted in electronic form, must be a maximum of 15 numbered pages, single spaced, 11 pt. type, with the appli-cant’s name at the top of every page.

IX. Two letters of recommendation
Each applicant should request letters from two scholars familiar with the applicant and the proposed project. For Ph.D. candidates, one letter must be from the dissertation su-pervisor and must attest to the likelihood of completion of the dissertation during the fel-lowship period. Applicants should submit the letters with their applications.
Submitting the application

Applications may be submitted electronically (via email attachment) or on paper (via Air Mail or courier service). Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

Applications submitted electronically should be sent to ahp@acls.org. Letters of recommenda-tion and the applicant’s signature may be scanned for electronic submission.

Applications sent by Air Mail or courier service should be addressed to:
African Humanities Program
American Council of Learned Societies
633 Third Avenue, 8th floor
New York, NY 10017-6795, USA

Very important: Whether you submit electronically or on paper, pease send a separate email to ahp@acls.org requesting confirmation that your application has been received.

Applications must be received at the African Humanities Program/ACLS
in New York by December 1, 2008.

Supporting Documentation

Before receiving fellowship funds, AHP award recipients will be required to submit several addi-tional documents. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO SUBMIT THESE DOCUMENTS WITH THE APPLICATION. Detailed instructions concerning this documentation will be included in the letter announcing the award.

Supporting documents required for receipt of fellowship funds:
1. A letter from the applicant’s institution (university department or faculty, museum, or other research center), which indicates acceptance of the terms of the award and support for the applicant’s project. This letter must be composed on institutional stationery and must be officially stamped and signed.
2. A photocopy of the highest university degree obtained by the applicant. The photocopy must bear an official university stamp.
3. A photocopy of relevant pages of the applicant’s passport.
4. A statement, composed and signed by the applicant, declaring that the applicant will work full-time on the project during the tenure of the fellowship, forgoing any other em-ployment, consultancy, business, or extended travel away from the site of the project.

Scholarship Application Form and Further Information

Scholarship Tags: African, Ghana, Humanities, Nigeria, Program, Scholarship, SOUTH AFRICA, Tanzania, Uganda