LUCAS-LAHRI Virtual Visiting Fellowships

The Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS), in collaboration with the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (LAHRI), is hosting a third cohort of LUCAS-LAHRI Virtual Visiting Fellows in 2023. Find out more about our current group of Fellows on our People page.

We expect to open the scheme for the next round of applications in autumn 2023.

The Virtual Visiting Research Fellowships are short-term (six month) fellowships for academics based at institutions on the African continent, who through these positions will be given an opportunity to undertake a well-defined piece of research with a view to establishing research partnerships with academics at the University of Leeds. Each fellowship comes with an award of £1,000, to be used by the applicant for research expenses and/or buy-out from teaching duties at their institution.

The current cohort of Fellows are focusing their research on the theme of "African ecologies", driven by an intellectual and political commitment to ecological and epistemic justice. 

Efforts to better understand and mitigate ecological change are disproportionately rooted in theoretical frameworks which originated in the global north. This is despite the fact that such changes demand the formation of durable, long-term collaborations that are multi-disciplinary and global in nature. While the sciences can help us to understand the dramatic changes that are underway to our climate, it is only through the arts, humanities and qualitative social sciences that we can hope to understand and address these through the crucial lenses of justice, equity and restitution that come with the damage and change to our environment. Present and future ecological changes will not impact all of us equally. Extreme weather, rising sea levels, drought, food insecurity and myriad other problems will disproportionately affect traditionally underserved and marginalised communities. 

All our Fellows are working towards tangible outputs, in the form of a publication (jointly authored with, or otherwise with active input from, a Leeds academic) AND/OR a grant application (jointly prepared with a Leeds academic and supported by LAHRI).

During their tenure, the Fellows are associated with the University of Leeds, administratively hosted by LAHRI, while intellectually embedded in the research community of LUCAS. They have access to online library resources and participate in research activities of LUCAS and other units relevant to their research interests. Each Fellow will also deliver an open presentation, for example as a virtual student-facing lecture or a research seminar, based on the topic of their research.