Accra, Ghana—Twenty-seven Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa research and proposal development fellows met in Accra, Ghana at the start of the new year to explore the context of their work, to discuss how their work engages relevant literature, and to fine-tune their abstracts. The meeting was held in collaboration with the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana.

This was the tenth skill-building workshop held by the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program. As an essential component of the Next Generation model, workshops deepen networks across African academic institutions while providing valuable mentoring from professors affiliated with the top academic institutions on the continent. These workshops strengthen research capabilities, help researchers develop publications, and allow fellows to engage in an international research community.

Fellows worked in small groups over the course of three days, partaking in discussions focused on the local context of their work and how it ties to the global, the importance of engaging local literature as well as literature from the global North, and how their topics may be relevant in spaces beyond their field site. Fellows also participated in hands-on sessions where they critiqued, reworked, and rewrote their dissertation abstracts based on feedback from their peers and workshop facilitators. Fellows left the workshop with a refined understanding of their dissertations and motivated by the ideas of their peers and mentors.

You can read more about the workshops in reflections by research fellows Ruth Murambadoro and Haydee Bangerezako.