Program Representatives
A select group of former fellows and friends of the program work as Program Representatives in various countries across the continent. Program Representatives hold information sessions about the fellowships, recruit prominent students to apply to the program, and support these students during the application process.
2017-2018 Program Representatives
Akosua Darkwah, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon
Dr. Akosua Keseboa Darkwah is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Ghana, Legon. Over the past decade, she has investigated the implications of globalization for Ghanaian female traders of global consumer goods, Ghanaian female factory workers, Ghanaian domestic workers Ghanaian trainees for oil sector jobs and currently Ghanaian female agricultural workers. In addition to her work as an academic in the Department of Sociology, Dr. Darkwah spent four years as the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) at the University of Ghana.
Richard Mbunda, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Dar es Salaam
Dr. Richard Mbunda is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Dar es Salaam. He specializes in [International] Political Economy and his PhD study explored ways of transforming peasant economy in the low income country of Tanzania. As a lecturer, Dr. Mbunda teaches Political Economy, Theories and the Politics of Development, the Theory and Practice of Human Rights, Regional integration, International Organization, International law, Gender and Politics in Africa, Peace Making & Conflict Resolution, and the Politics of North South Relations.
Oka Obono, Chair, Demography and Population Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan
Oka Obono is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has spent the past 20 years working on population, methodology, culture, communication, health and policy issues at the University of Calabar (1990-1998), University of Ibadan (1998-date), Brown University (2000-2003) and Bowen University (2005). Dr. Obono also writes a weekly newspaper column on the policy predicaments of the African state and civil society.
Laury Ocen, Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University
Laury Ocen obtained his PhD from Makerere University in 2017 and is currently a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research. He has researched extensively on the politics and poetics of war memorials in northern Uganda, focusing on how the agency of monuments constitute new imaginaries of peace architecture in ways that activate voices initially silenced by the grand and master narratives of the state and NGOs. His PhD thesis examined how the politics and poetics of memory in postwar monuments are multifariously read as text, art, and object.
Partner Institutions
The Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program collaborates with the African Leadership Centre as a component of a pipeline that starts with Masters Students, proceeds with PhD students, and culminates in faculty positions. The African Leadership Centre supports a global community of scholars, based at King's College London and the University of Nairobi, whose research on peace, leadership, and security issues aims to inform and influence policy change both in Africa and at a global level.
Partner Universities
The Next Generation Social Sciences Program builds and cultivates partnerships across universities and research institutes in support of its activities.
Addis Ababa University, Makerere University, Obafemi Awolowo University, the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, United States International University— Africa, the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Ghana, the University of the Western Cape, and the Witswatersrand Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) also partner with the Next Generation Social Sciences Program, contributing expertise and hosting workshops in support of fellows’ development.
The Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program is funded by the Higher Education and Libraries in Africa Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York.