The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation yesterday awarded a grant of $1.5 million jointly to U-M's African Studies Center and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research for an international partnership in the development of the African Humanities. This substantial sum will support a five year program of pathbreaking workshops on major conceptual questions shaping research in South Africa, Africa and North America, one major aim of which is to strengthen the theoretical influence of academic writing on and about the African continent.

This is a wonderful opportunity for grad students and faculty alike--in the arts, humanities and qualitative social sciences.