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Call for applications: "Making Knowledge Policy-Relevant: The SSH’s Role in Global Sustainable Development" (ZASB Summer School 2023)
The Centre for African Studies at the University of Basel calls for applications for its 2023 Summer School in African Studies from 23 August to 01 September 2023. The deadline for applications is 02 July 2023.
The Basel Summer School in African Studies aims at stimulating and consolidating a new perspective on African Studies with a focus on African Studies as “area studies”. It addresses themes theoretically, conceptually and methodologically relevant to the pursuit of reflection on the intellectual challenge of Africa as an object of knowledge on the one hand and its contribution to general scholarship on the other. The Basel Summer School 2023 addresses the challenge of policy relevance in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in general and area studies in particular by mapping out the differences between basic and applied research. The crucial distinction is between knowledge production geared towards understanding problems and knowledge production aiming at identifying solutions. The Summer School aims to harness the strengths of basic research in fields bearing directly on development in Africa to emphasize the need for an actual understanding of the problems to be addressed. Policy relevance should bear on working out the terms under which good problem definitions can yield policy options. The ultimate goal of the Summer School is to help participants develop critical skills enabling them to become researchers who live up to the highest scientific standards and are equipped with the transformative skills to make an impact.
The Summer School takes place in the week leading up to the STS-CH 2023 conference Science, Expertise and Other Modes of Knowledge: Trends, Patterns, and Prospects, under the joint organisation of the Swiss Association for the Study of Science, Technology and Society, the Centre for African Studies Basel (ZASB) and the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Basel. Summer School participants will present their reflections about the relationship between research, policy-making and social impact regarding their research to a Swiss and international academic audience.
Up to nine participants from institutions in Africa (African countries, except Maghreb region and Egypt) may receive a grant covering the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence, Summer School participation fee, and the STS-CH 2023 conference participation fee. Should more than nine participants based in Africa be accepted for the Summer School, grants will be applied based on the assessment of the participants’ role and engagement at their home institution as well as their career perspectives.
