Call for applications: Postdoctoral fellowship at Rhodes University in SA

The fellowship programme will be hosted by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) at the Rhodes University’s Arts of Africa Fine Art Department. Successful candidates will be part of the NRF research team, which will comprise research chair Ruth Simbao, research associates, postgraduate students and affiliated artists.

Each fellowship is worth R200 000 per annum (tax exempt), and the duration is 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.

The research programme seeks to:

• Build collaborations with scholars and artists across the African continent and within the Global South.
• Produce high-quality research outputs.
• Foster a culture of academic sharing and cooperation by working on related research themes.
• Develop research capacity through a co-operative research culture.

Research themes (2021 – 2025)

• Geopolitical intimacies: Ways of practising as ways of knowing.
• Artivism, social justice and communal agency beyond African states.
• Grounding, reducing, decelerating: Art, environments and materialities.
• Rising Souths: Reorientating art’s futures.

Summary of fellowship criteria

• Candidates must have obtained their PhD in a relevant discipline within the last five years.
• Research needs to connect meaningfully to at least one of the research themes.
• Candidates must be of exceptional merit as evidenced by the quality of their research.
• Preference will be given to candidates based on the African continent and in the Global South.
• Candidates need to demonstrate an ability to submit for publication at least two new articles based on original research in relevant accredited journals during the fellowship.

Conditions of the award

• Successful candidates will reside in Makhanda for the full duration of the fellowship.
• The fellowship cannot be held concurrently with supplementary funding or salary.
• The University of Rhodes expects all publications, creative works and other academic products of the fellowship to bear appropriate acknowledgement with full affiliation to Rhodes University and the NRF/DSI Research Chair in Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa.
• The university reserves the right to request the refund of any fellowship paid to the fellow should the fellow terminate her or his contract prior to its completion.

How to apply?

Interested candidates should email a brief expression of interest to Charmaine Mostert at: c.mostert@ru.ac.za and request an application form and a synopsis of the research themes. 

The expression of interest should include the following:

• The applicant’s discipline and area of research.
• The date the applicant’s PhD was awarded (date on the certificate).
• The institution that awarded the degree.
• Current institutional affiliation (if applicable).

The completed application form and accompanying documents, listed on the form, must be emailed to Charmaine Mostert at c.mostert@ru.ac.za before 15 February.

View the original call here.