The USF is excited to announce that a record-breaking eight USF International Fellowships have been awarded this July. The awards are specifically targeted towards early-to-mid career academics from the Global South, and offer full funding for visiting fellowships based at any institution worldwide. The fellowships are designed to function as writing sabbaticals under the guidance of an appropriate mentor at the host institution. Following a very competitive round of applications from a diverse array of candidates, the awarding panel is pleased to be able to announce the eight candidates as follows, each of whom will be working on peer-reviewed journal publications, monographs and other research outputs:
Dr Tunde Decker (Osun State University, Nigeria) will spend six months working with Professor Wale Adebanwi at the African Studies Centre in the School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford. His research will focus on dimensions of survival and experience of self among the poor in colonial Lagos.
Dr Dinorah Gonzalez (Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico) will spend nine months working with Associate Professor Paavo Monkkonen in the School of Public Affairs at UCLA Luskin. She will be working on publications focused on the production of housing and the urban landscape in Mexico.
Dr Kingsley Madueke (University of Jos, Nigeria) will spend six months working with Associate Professor Walter Nicholls in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. He will be working on the production of a monograph on ethnic violence and segregation in Jos, Nigeria.
Dr Lina Martinez (Universidad Icesi, Colombia) will spend five months working with Professor Alison Brown in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University. Lina is working on publications to disseminate results and lessons of a pilot program for improving the quality of life of street vendors in Cali.
Dr Shireen Mirza (Ambedkar University, India) will spend six months working with Professor Vinay Gidwani in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota. Shireen is working on a monograph that covers her research around caste and urban infrastructure in Mumbai.
Dr Ashima Sood (Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India) will spend three months working with Associate Professor Nandini Gooptu at the Oxford Department for International Development, University of Oxford. She is writing a monograph on case studies that focus on governance structures, economic bases and political economy of labour in three industrial townships of India.
Dr Smita Yadav (Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, India) will spend six months working with Professor Sue Parnell in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Smita is working towards peer-reviewed publications and an edited volume on low-income and socially inclusive housing in Mumbai.
Dr Melih Yeşilbag (Ankara University, Turkey) will spend six months working with Professor Manuel Aalbers in the Division of Geography and Tourism at KU Leuven. His research is focused on the making of the construction boom in contemporary Turkey.
The next round of USF International Fellowship awards will open in early 2020.