Moi University’s School of Arts & Social Sciences has been appointed as an Academic Centre of Excellence for African Studies, under a project initiated by Bayreuth of Germany.
The University was among the initial 10 out of 54 African Universities that were shortlisted to compete for a place under the Africa Multiple Cluster Centres of Excellence in African Studies project by the German university.
Under the initiative which will run for 7 years, the Kenyan university will benefit from part of the 51 million Euros from the government of Germany meant to finance the project over the period.
According to University’s website, other institutions that will join the cluster as African Cluster Centres (ACCs) are Université Ouaga Ioseph Ki-Zerbo-Burkina Faso, the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies at the University of Lagos- Nigeria, and Rhodes University of South Africa.
According to Peter Simatei, dean of the School of Arts & Social Sciences, who is also the team leader of the researchers that crafted the winning proposal, the win had everything to do with the strong international research credentials of the faculty, and the multi and interdisciplinary orientation of the School.
The website reports that cluster is conceived as a “transformative space within which to systematically advance the study of African and African diaspora ways of life and world-making via the pursuit of cutting-edge research and theory-building based on new inter- and trans-disciplinary formats of research cooperation”.
Among other benefits, it will help build capacity for early career academics, fund research projects and doctorate training in African studies, as well as offer academic fellowships.
Photo courtesy of Google
Story by Carol Nyokabi
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