CFAs: Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowship

The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Fellowships support PhD students working on developing a doctoral dissertation research proposal as well as students who recently completed a master’s degree and seek to enroll in a PhD program.

Thematic Priorities

• Prospective Next Gen Proposal applicants are encouraged to submit applications covering a range of issues related to peacebuilding, security and development in conflict-affected contexts including, but not limited to, the following:
  • Climate, Environment, and Resources:
    • Climate change, energy transitions, conflict, and peace
    • Human mobilities, insecurities, and peace
    • Hydropolitics, conflict, and peace
    • Natural resource conflict: community, national, and regional dimensions
  • Justice, Peace, and Regional/International Stakeholders:
    • Peace education and African futures
    • Regional Economic Communities (RECs), regionalism, peace, and security
    • Transitional justice, reconciliation, and peace
    • UN-AU-EU-REC partnerships, peace operations, funding, security, and peacebuilding architectures
  • Nationalism, Identity, Religion, and Culture:
    • Access to justice, diversity, and citizenship
    • Religion and peace
    • State-building, nation-building, identities and citizenship
    • Women, youth, and peacebuilding
  • State and Non-state Stakeholders, Governance, and Conflict:
    • African Peacebuilding Interventions: military and non-military norms and practices
    • Dimensions of conflict and security: regional, trans-border, national, and interpersonal
    • Diseases, politics, and peace
    • Geopolitics and histories of conflict, conflict mediation, and peace
    • Political transitions, elections, governance, and development
    • Prevention of mass atrocities
    • Resilience, conflict prevention, and transformation
    • Small arms and light weapons (SALW), transnational crime, violent extremism, war, displacement, and migration
    • Social exclusion, economic marginalization, and the social dynamics of conflict and peace
    • Structural causes, drivers, types, actors, and trajectories of violent conflict
    • The economic and financial dimensions of peace support operations and post-conflict reconstruction
  • Technology, Media, and Arts:
    • AI and the fourth industrial revolution: risks to and opportunities for peacebuilding
    • Cultures, media, and art(s) of peace
    • Digital media, technology, war and peace
    • Generative AI and the ethics of knowledge production and practice of peacebuilding
    • Social media, community, advocacy, and peacebuilding
    • Theater, music, and peace

Program Components

• Through the Next Gen Completion Program, fellowship recipients can expect the following:
  • Thought Leadership:
    • Commit to six (6) months of developing their doctoral dissertation proposal. Fellows produce proposals that are relevant to, and have significant impact on, peacebuilding, security, and development scholarship on the continent while producing evidence-based knowledge of relevance to regional and global scholarly debates.
  • Workshops:
    • Participate in two mandatory APN and Next Gen workshops occurring in July and January across different regions of Africa. These workshops are designed to help fellows refine, develop and strengthen research questions, match research methods to questions, engage key literature in their fields, and finalize their doctoral research proposals.
  • African Scholarship and Knowledge Production:
    • Contribute to the APN and Next Gen’s digital forums and social media platforms (Kujenga Amani, Facebook, and X).
  • Fostering Community, Professional Development and Networking:
    • Fellows are part of a network of highly visible and active African scholars and practitioners capable of projecting African perspectives and voices onto global discourses, knowledge and practices of peacebuilding, security, and development.
    • Fellows will receive mentorship from highly experienced senior scholars in the field. There are opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
    • Gain new knowledge and skills to advance their careers as academics or practitioners in their chosen fields.

Funding Information

• 12 Next Gen Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship up to US$3,000 each.

Eligible Activities

• Potential areas of funding include:
  • Pre-field work expenses
  • Costs of equipment (within reason) and resources for literature review and writing, including books and articles, project design, and development support
  • Editorial and professional/institutional support
  • Conference costs and related travel

Eligibility Criteria

• All applicants must be African citizens currently residing in an African country.
• All applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program by the time of the award, and working towards the submission of the doctoral dissertation proposal in an accredited university in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
• Applicants must hold or show proof of award of a master’s degree by the time of application.
• Applicants who already hold a PhD will be screened out, and their application will not be considered.
• Students who recently completed a master’s degree and are in the process of enrolling in a PhD program at an accredited university in the eligible countries, and successfully enrolled by the time of the award, will also be considered.

Application Requirements

• Please review this list of requirements for your application, which must be submitted through the Application Portal:
  • Draft dissertation proposal;
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV);
  • Copy of master’s degree;
  • Proposed research timeline; and,
  • Proposed research budget.
  • Please upload a recent, updated copy of your CV. Your CV should accurately reflect your skills and experience in a coherent and legible manner. All CVs must be submitted in English. There is no page limit.
  • Application material must be submitted in English. In cases where academic degrees or reference letters are in a language other than English, a certified English translation must be uploaded with the degree or reference letter in a collated, continuous document.

For more information, visit Social Science Research Council.