The Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) at the University of Pretoria (UP), invites applications for postdoctoral fellowships commencing in 2023. The Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship is an interdisciplinary research Centre at the University that brings together and provides the required intellectual home for senior scholars, postdoctoral fellows, and postgraduate students to conduct scholarly debates across disciplines.

Successful applicants will join the project “Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Praxis: Assessing Africa’s Security Architecture in the Post-Cold War Era, 1992-2022”, under the supervision of Professor Adekeye Adebajo. This project is a collaboration between the CAS and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in Sweden. It will assess 20 case studies (Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia/Eritrea, South Sudan, Darfur, Abyei, Chad, Central African Republic [CAR], Western Sahara, and Libya) in five African sub-regions covering issues of conflict management, as well as 14 thematic issues which cover: women, peace and security (WPS); children and armed conflict; conflict-fuelled sexual violence; sexual exploitation by peacekeepers; peacekeeper vulnerability in armed conflicts; human rights and peacebuilding; and climate security. Project outcomes that the successful applicant is expected to contribute towards are the hosting of 2 to 5 webinars, four physical policy advisory group meetings, and the drafting and publication of policy briefs, newspaper articles, journal articles, a book chapter, as well as working on a monograph on United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping in Africa.

This work aims to generate new scholarship and building critical African intellectual capacity. The process and methods of integrated, multi-disciplinary production of knowledge rooted in the project will be documented in a research report to be published and disseminated at the conclusion of the project. The work will collect, catalogue, and analyse a vast set of sources to produce an integrated understanding of Africa’s security architecture, based on primary public documents, as well as African and Western sources and scholarship. This research is designed to ensure that findings are disseminated to, and by, diverse African and Western constituencies.

The fellowship carries a competitive tax-free stipend of ZAR 250 000 per annum. Successful applicants external to South Africa will receive a contribution to their return airfare from their countries of origin. Fellowships will be awarded for one year in the first instance, with renewal for an additional year dependent on progress.

The successful applicant will be hosted at the University of Pretoria, at the CAS, and will be provided with office space, and infrastructural and administrative support as required.

The UP Postdoctoral Fellowship is available to any national or international candidate, with preference given to black South Africans, especially women. Applicants should meet the following conditions:

• Must have completed a doctorate in any appropriate Humanities discipline such as Political Science,
• International Relations, or Development Studies.
• Must have obtained their doctorate no more than five years prior to 1 July 2023.
• Must be a young researcher, generally up to 40 years of age.
• Must have strong research and writing skills.
• Evidence of active research and publications in peer-reviewed journals will be an added advantage.

Your application should be collated in a PDF document, and should include a full Curriculum Vitae, the names of three referees with contact details (one of whom must have been a mentor or supervisor of the doctorate), a 10-page unpublished writing sample, and a statement of the proposed research (no more than three pages).

The closing date for applications is 23 June 2023.

To submit your application, please upload your application through this Google Form.

For enquiries, please contact Kirsty Nepomuceno ([email protected]).