Republished. This story was originally published in Alliances 2021, pp. 34-35.
The African Studies Center supports student research and internships in and about Africa through an annual summer research grant program. Despite research plans of many students being derailed due to Covid-related travel restrictions last year, grantees found creative ways to reorient their research so that many of them were still able to make meaningful progress towards their research goals. Travel restrictions are still in place for many parts of the world, but we are delighted that more of our student grantees will be able to travel to Africa for research this summer.
In 2021, ASC distributed 22 awards, amounting to over $40K in support. Of these awards, 18 went towards supporting research, and four towards supporting student internships in or relating to Africa. Funding went to students from five different schools and colleges (College of Architecture & Urban Planning; College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts; School of Nursing; School of Music Theatre and Dance; School of Social Work; School of Public Health), and in support of projects focusing on 11 different countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda).
Below is a list of all the projects funded in the 2021 competition.
Tahir Abdullah. In Search of the Path: A Liberated West African Sufi in the Americas.
Paul Atwell. The Psychological Underpinnings of Party Ties in African Democracies.
Anne Birkeland. Portuguese Promotion in Post-Colonial Mozambique.
Adeli Block. Tamazight Language Ideologies: Media, Taxis, Souqs, and the Classroom.
Averil Cantwell. Cognitive Flexibility and Sociality in Chimpanzee Adolescence.
Imani Cooper-Mkandawire. Ancestors and Algorithms: African Visual Languages for Ethnocomputing.
Tom Courtwright. Opportunities for Mobility: Transit in Secondary Cities in Uganda.
Tilahun Fikadu. Urban Planning and Policy Impacts on Green Spaces in East African Cities.
Madison Horton. WhatsApp Triage, Referral & Transfer System: Increasing Access & Quality.
Maximilian Huppertz. Information Frictions, Quality, and Welfare in the Market for Antimalarials.
Daniel Iddrisu. Children’s Access to Health Care: An Analysis of Female-Headed-Households in Northern Ghana
Charles Katulamu. Fertility Behaviors Among Recent University Graduates in Kampala, Uganda.
Jada Langston. Carbonate Diagenesis in the Afar Region of Ethiopia.
Cynthia Magallanes-Gonzalez. Sub-Saharan Migrant and Refugee Brokers and Clients in Morocco.
Kirby Mills. Experimentally Evaluating the Drivers of Livestock Depredation by Lions.
Marsae Mitchel. Location and the Displaced Artist.
Alfred Momodu. Internship Focused on Policy.
Russell Morton. Information Frictions, Quality, and Welfare in the Market for Antimalarials.
Alexandra Norwood. Reconstructing South African Landscapes at the Last Glacial Maximum.
Ronke Olawale. Ebola in Liberia: The Intersection of Culture, Care, and Infectious Disease.
Saquib Usman. Unseen Water: Blindness and Divination in Mauritanian Hinterlands.
Mansi Verma. Dementia Data Analysis in South Africa.
