Basel Summer School in African Studies

The Centre for African Studies Basel (ZASB) calls for applications for the 4th Basel Summer School in African Studies (9-13 September 2019):

The Value(s) of Science. The normative order of African Studies

The Basel Summer School in African Studies 2019 addresses the issue of the normative order in African Studies. Science is a highly normative enterprise in that its ultimate goal, producing knowledge to render the world intelligible, constitutes a broad commitment to some notion of a better world. Part of the challenge of doing African Studies, therefore, should be a commitment to uncovering the values underlying science not to dispose of them, but to harness them to even better research. The title of the Summer School is cast purposefully in an ambiguous way. On the one hand, it speaks to the fundamental value of science and, on the other hand, to how interests come together to lend legitimacy and purpose to science. The basic goal of the Summer School is to address this ambivalence by inviting proposals which look into "the value(s) of science" from several angles:

· Which values underlie development research and how do they affect methodological choices?

· How do ethical commitments shape how researchers frame their research?

· Is there a politics of Western epistemology and, if so, what would be a scientific Asian Studies' approach to problematize it?

· What is the precise methodological argument behind decolonial calls for delinking?

· How do the values of science inform its value?

· What role is played by ideological commitments in the validation of knowledge?

· How do ideas of a better life or world inform research projects?

Advanced Study Skills workshop: Composing Attractive Abstracts

The half-day Advanced Study Skills workshop offers guidance on the content, structure and language conventions of conference and research article abstracts in the social sciences and humanities. At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to have gained independence inwriting ready-to-submit abstracts for conferences or journals.

Application

Participants will be selected on the strength and merits of a two-page application in which they choose one of the key questions listed above and explain how their research relates to it. In addition, applications should include a CV of the applicant.

Practical information

The summer school is open for PhD students enrolled in Switzerland and abroad. The fee for participation is CHF 100. It includes snacks and lunch on the five course days. Transportation and accommodation is not included. Participants will thus need to source adequate funding from their home institution if necessary.

The deadline for application is 5 August 2019.

Official call is available here.