African research and the global science system: a CGHE webinar series
- Otilia Chiramba, University of Johannesburg
- Abebe Zegeye, Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE)
- Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo, University of Ibadan
- Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, Makerere University
- David Mills, University of Oxford
- Adamseged Abebe, University of Oxford
- Lynn McAlpine, University of Oxford
This special CGHE webinar series explores the challenges facing African research in a global science system. Our four speakers bring research-informed perspectives from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, and collectively focus on the intertwined dynamics of political economy, institutional cultures and academic mobility. Drawing on qualitative case studies, narratives and auto-ethnography, they explore the different challenges that Africa’s researchers face whilst training, working and publishing. These include personal narratives of early career researchers (Chiramba), the political economy of knowledge production (Zegeye), academic mobility and migration (Adebayo) and the role of publication requirements in academic careers (Ssentongo).
In many countries, there is a shortage of funding and time for research, and so too for doctoral supervision support. In search of funding and resources, some researchers go ‘outside’ for doctoral study, but this can reinforce academic dependency and a pejorative ‘brain drain’ discourse. The alternative is to survive material discomfort and academic precarity. University research and publishing infrastructures are often neglected, partly because academics are under pressure to prioritise international journals for their work. Drawing on debates from postcolonial theory, the series explores academic pessimism and Africa’s potential research futures.
Convenors: David Mills, Adamseged Abebe, Lynn McAlpine
Webinar 1: Biographical narratives of African post-doctoral fellows in a global academy
Thursday 24 November, 14:00-15:00 (UK)
Speaker: Otilia Chiramba
Chair: Lynn McAlpine
Series introduction: David Mills
Webinar 2: The Political Economy of Knowledge Production in Ethiopian Higher Education.
Tuesday 29 November, 14:00-15:00 (UK)
Speaker: Abebe Zegeye
Chair: Adamseged Abebe
Webinar 3: “Why are you still in Nigeria?”: Genealogies of Japa movement and future of the Nigerian research ecosystem
Thursday 1 December, 14:00-15:00 (UK)
Speaker: Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo
Chair: David Mills
Webinar 4: Academic promotion politics in Uganda, (post)coloniality, and the predicament of African publication outlets
Tuesday 6 December, 14:00-15:00 (UK)
Speaker: Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo
Chair: David Mills
Booking
You need to register individually for each webinar in the series. To register for a webinar, visit its event page by clicking on its title above.
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Otilia Chiramba is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. Her research interest is in higher education specifically focusing on organizational resilience during disruptions and experiences of underprivileged students in South African higher education systems and beyond. She has written a lot on narrative research. Her research work is informed by theories of resilience and social justice and has published in accredited academic journals and prestigious books. She has been involved in grant funded projects and currently she is one of the lead researchers in a project about epistemic disruptions in reconstituting higher education pedagogy in South Africa.
Abebe Zegeye holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Arts in economics, philosophy, and sociology from Haverford College. He has previously taught at Yale University, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of South Africa, and CODESRIA (Senegal). Since 2014, he has been based in Ethiopia as Vice President of Wollo University, Director of Global Engagement and Institutional Transformation at Woldia University, and Director of Higher Education, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Government of Ethiopia. At present, he is Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE)
Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo is a Research Fellow in the Diaspora and Transnational Studies programme, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the ARUA/Carnegie Early Career Fellowship in the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Migration and Mobility, African Centre for Migration & Society, University of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a PhD degree in Sociology of Development from the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His research interests include Africa migrations, settlement and belonging, migration health, urban transformations and knowledge production. oluwatoyinkudus@gmail.com
Jimmy Spire Ssentongo is Head of Department and Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Makerere University. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Ethics and Identity Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, where he was the founding Chair of the Center for African Studies. He has authored two monographs and edited two collected volumes, most notably: Decolonisation Pathways (2018). He has been a Columnist and Editorial Cartoonist for the Observer Newspaper in Uganda since 2006. In 2021, he won the national Janzi Award for Outstanding Cartoonist.
David Mills is Deputy Director of CGHE. An Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Oxford, he is also a CGHE Co-Investigator on Project 9, ‘Mapping supranational higher education space’.
Adam, from Ethiopia, is interested in looking at the role of education in peacebuilding and conflicts.
Lynn McAlpine is internationally recognized for her research, conducted in the UK, Europe and Canada, into PhD and post-PhD career trajectories both in and outside the academy.
She receives frequent international invitations to do workshops and keynotes that explore the implications of the research both from pedagogical and policy perspectives.