The USF has awarded a further eight USF International Fellowships this summer, to begin in 2021. These awards provide full funding for short visiting sabbaticals based at any institution worldwide, and are intended to support early-to-mid career academics from the Global South.
This year the USF awardees include researchers based in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Zambia; each of whom will travel to work for between three and nine months at host institutions in Austria, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Each USF International Fellow will benefit from the guidance of a senior mentor at their host institution, as they work on completing publications stemming from a diverse array of research topics. Following a competitive round of applications, the awarding panel is excited to announce the eight candidates as follows:
Dr Rachel Almeida is an Assistant Professor and researcher in the urban studies area at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais and at the Minas Gerais School of Engineering, in Brazil. Her current research focuses on the intersection of public space, youth and the right to the city as key elements of new forms of everyday resistance in global cities. As a USF International Fellow, Dr Almeida will spend four months working with Professor Sabine Knierbein at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (SKuOR), TU Wien (Austria).
Professor Cauê Capille is based in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (FAUUFRJ) in Brazil. As a USF International Fellow, Cauê will spend four months working at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais (France) under the mentorship of Professor Dominique Rouillard. His research as a USF International Fellow concerns the architecture of transit estates.
Dr Carmel Christy Kattithara Joseph is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi, India. As a USF International Fellow, Dr Christy will spend five months working in the Netherlands with Dr. Paul Rabé at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden. Her research on the “fading shore-folks of Kochi” will focus on interconnections between religion and urban space-making.
Dr Ofita Purwani is an associate professor at the School of Architecture Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. She will spend nine months working with Prof. Jane M. Jacobs in Singapore, on the project on Southeast Asian Royal Cities.
Dr Beatriz Rufino will spend six months working with Dr. Thomas Purcell at the Department of European & International Studies in the School of Politics & Economics at King’s College London. Her research aims to understand the specific dynamics of infrastructure privatization and financialization in Brazil, and how it is mediated by the subordinate insertion of Latin American countries into the global economy and by the interests of national elites. The project will examine the expansion of new urban infrastructure after the 2008 crisis, discussing the importance of rent capture, the limits of financialization and the contradiction engendered by new strategies of accumulation which did little to reverse historical urban inequalities.
Dr Gilbert Siame is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Zambia (UNZA). Dr. Siame will spend six months working at the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics, University of Cape Town (South Africa), under the mentorship of Professor Vanessa Watson.
Dr. João B. M. Tonucci Filho is Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the Center for Development and Regional Planning at the Faculty of Economic Sciences in the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. As a UFS International Fellow, Dr. Tonucci will spend eight months working with Professor Roger Keil at the City Institute (CITY) and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, Toronto.
Dr Faisal Umar is a Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and a member of the Centre for Spatial Information Science at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. As a USF International Fellow, Dr Umar will spend six months working with Professor Rivke Jaffe in the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development, and the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam. His current research interest has focused on the socio-spatial dimensions of urban crime and the pluralization of security provisioning in cities of sub-Saharan Africa.
The next round of USF International Fellowship funding is due to be announced in early 2021, and prospective applicants should join the USF mailing list via our website (see bottom of page) or monitor our social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.