The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute

Revised Date: August 6 – 19, 2023
THE TEJUMOLA OLANIYAN SUMMER INSTITUTE
Call for Applications

The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute invites applications from interested candidatesfor admission into its 2023 Summer Institute scheduled to hold at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, on Aug. 6 – 19, 2023. Take note of the new date, please. The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute is an arm of The Tejumola Olaniyan Foundation (TOF), an institution set up to honour the memory of Tejumola Olaniyan, the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and African Cultural Studies and Wole Soyinka Professor of Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who died on November 30, 2019.

The Institute has the purpose of carrying on with Tejumola Olaniyan’s commitments in the area of training and mentoring of young, up-and-coming, African scholars, with a view to assisting them to hone their talents and realise their ambitions of becoming respectable scholars in their different areas of specialisations within the broad field of Black and African Cultural Studies.

It is conceived as a post-doctoral workshop for young scholars in the Humanities, Social Science disciplines like Anthropology, Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, Visual Arts, as well as Arts and Social Science Education. Whatever the discipline however, the main focus will be on scholars whose works fall within, or are relevant to, the broad field of Black and African cultural studies.

Requirements

  • Candidates must hold doctoral degrees or equivalent qualifications in the above stated or related disciplines, with a focus on Black and African Cultural Studies, broadly conceived.
  • Their qualifications must have been obtained within a period of not more than five years prior to the time of announcement.
  • They must have a goal of revising and/or developing their thesis/dissertation into publishable manuscripts, or at least have an on-going scholarly project which they intend to develop either into book-length studies or scholarly papers
  • The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute will be full time. Participants must therefore be ready to devote the entire period of Aug. 6- 19, 2023, to the workshop. The implication here is that successful candidates will have to free themselves completely of all engagements in their respective places of primary employments.

The 2023 Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute shall be tuition – free. Accommodation and board shall be provided free-of-charge to all participants throughout the period of the workshop. The Institute may also assist participants travelling in from long distances with
cost of transportation.

Up to twenty (20) candidates will be admitted into the Institute in 2023. They will be selected from relevant disciplines, with merit as the main criteria. The first week of the Institute will be devoted to tutorials and lectures on research methodology, data sources, gathering and analysis, literature review and writing, referencing styles, finding publishers, grant writing, etc. All sessions shall be handled by appointed resource persons.

The second week on the other hand shall be devoted to seminar presentations from the ongoing works of the participants. Participants shall be awarded certificates recognising them as Fellows of The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute at the end of each session of the Institute. The Tejumola Olaniyan Summer Institute shall be willing to assist fellows to find publishers for outstanding manuscripts/papers resulting from the workshop. This is after such manuscripts must have passed the tests of peer-review.

Application Process
Application shall consist of:

  • candidate’s current CV,
  • a short statement on the project they would like to pursue if offered admission into the Institute and
  •  a writing sample of about 6000 words.
  • In addition to basic qualifications, the selection panel will be interested in projects that have clear focus, are concisely presented and well-outlined.
  • Closeness to the broad theme of Black and African Cultural Studies will be an important consideration.

Deadline
The deadline for submission of application for the 2023 Summer Institute shall be April
30, 2023. Successful candidates shall be contacted by Friday June 16, 2023. Applications are
to be submitted via tolaniyansummerinstitute@gmail.com