African Humanities Program

The African Humanities Program (AHP) seeks to reinvigorate the humanities in Africa through fellowship competitions and related activities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. In partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has generously provided funding, AHP offers African scholars an integrated set of opportunities to develop individual capacities and to promote formation of scholarly networks. The African Humanities Program supports the Carnegie Corporation’s efforts to develop and retain African academics at universities in Africa.

Goals of the African Humanities Program

• to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge and new directions for research
• to strengthen the capacity of early career researchers and faculty at African universities
• to build the field of humanities by establishing networks for scholarly communication across Africa and with Africanists worldwide.

Fellowship stipends allow recipients an academic year free from teaching and other duties for completion of the PhD dissertation, for revising the dissertation for publication, or for the first major research project after the PhD. Fellows are also eligible for additional benefits such as residential stays for writing, manuscript development workshops, and publication support.

Each Fellow may request a residential stay at an African institute for advanced study. Residencies have proved to be extremely popular and productive, granting Fellows time and space to concentrate on writing. Because residencies must be taken at an institute outside the home country, they foster international communication. Currently AHP Fellows may take residencies at six institutes from South Africa to Senegal, Ghana to Tanzania.

Fellows are invited to submit their manuscripts to the AHP Publications series, a collaboration with UNISA Press in Pretoria, South Africa. The rigorous development and peer-review process of AHP Publications is overseen by series co-editors, Kwesi Yankah, Central University College, Ghana, and Frederick Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa.

Fellows may apply to attend a Manuscript-Development Workshop to discuss their manuscripts with AHP mentors and other Fellows in a weeklong, intensive retreat. Many authors use these discussions to guide their final revisions before submitting manuscripts for publication.

Fellowship Details

• Applicants must be nationals and residents of a country in sub-Saharan Africa, with a current affiliation at an institution in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
• Funding is available for dissertation completion and for postdoctoral research and writing.
• Applicants for Dissertation-Completion Fellowships should be in the final year of writing the dissertation at a university in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, or Uganda.
• Dissertation-Completion Fellowships are not available in South Africa.
• Applicants for Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowships must be working in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda and must have completed the PhD no more than eight years ago.
• Projects must be in the humanities and must be carried out in sub-Saharan Africa. AHP fellowships may not be used for travel outside the continent.
• Completed applications must be submitted by November 2, 2016.
• Applications must be submitted by email to ahp@acls.org

For further details on eligibility, submission of applications, and selection criteria, see 2016-17 Competition Announcement (PDF). Instructions and Application material are available on this page under the 'Fellowship Program Links' heading on the sidebar.