This is an opportunity for a Germany-based researcher to participate in a group residential fellowship at the Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa in Ghana for 2.5-4 months between February and May 2025.
Interested applicants will be expected to work on a project related to the research topic "Cash in Crises: Cash Products in Political Conflict, Climate Crisis, and Everyday Breakdown in Africa".
Abstract: Despite the growth of digital payments and their touted benefits in Africa, a substantial portion of Africa remains unbanked, most often using cash for daily purchases. This interdisciplinary project will explore the role of cash in African settings during times of disruption and turmoil.The project aims to understand how political, climate, and economic crises affect the availability, access, usage, and storage of cash and its alternatives across various African contexts. It seeks to identify policies that hinder or facilitate cash access and propose recommendations to safeguard it amidst cashlite trajectories in the payment space. The project
seeks to involve scholars from fields like history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, and media studies, and utilize diverse methodologies like ethnography, interviews, and quantitative data collection. By challenging existing disciplinary boundaries and addressing a pressing issue in African societies, the research aligns with MIASA's mission of promoting
original research on sustainable governance.
Interested?
If interested, please let us know as soon as possible by contacting the co-convener Vivian Dzokoto, PhD at vdzokoto@vcu.edu with a cv and a 1 page project proposal
More information about Research Question and Aims is available at:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p20vky1JJa_NamBat8HLTzByRW-Vo3oPSFTg9ITKndA/edit?usp=sharing
Answers to frequently asked questions ae available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JNlmfHiFQO34Fjz9igCRPvLEhvXdoP-NYauRz5niVBE/edit?usp=sharing
Examples of Potential Topics (not an exhaustive list):
Cash and covid (see for example https://cashessentials.org/madagascar-cash-covid/)
Cash use in the post-covid era
Cash use and domestic violence
Cash use and changes over time
Cash use in Nigeria vis-a-vis the e-naira vis-a-vis economic turmoil
Cash use in times of individual health crises
Cash in times of natural disasters (e.g. earthquake in Morocco)
Cash use in times of war (e.g. Sudan)
The cash paradox
Eligibility: Potential applicants may be Germany-based junior or senior researchers, defined as follows by MIASA:
Junior fellows are excellent young researchers who have successfully completed their doctorate by the time the fellowship agreement is concluded (three months before the beginning of the fellowship).
Senior fellows are excellent researchers with a record of top-class research (usually demonstrated by publications) who hold positions such as senior lecturers or professors (or equivalent).
Fellowship conditions:
- MIASA covers the fellows’ salary costs or the costs for a teaching replacement and paid directly to his/her home institution according to the funders’ guidelines of minimum and maximum amounts for fellowship compensations.
- Non-affiliated junior and senior fellows receive a monthly grant (junior fellows = 1200 €/month
and senior fellows = 2000 €/month).
- For all fellows from outside Accra, MIASA provides an accommodation allowance of up to
1500€/month and reimburses travel costs at the beginning and the end of the fellowship. For
MIASA fellows who come with family members to Accra, MIASA can provide a family allowance.
- A small contribution to support research undertaken at MIASA and conference travels to present this research during the fellowship can be granted to the MIASA fellow upon application to MIASA directors (up to 1000 € per fellow for the total of four fellowship months).