Ph.D. Scholarships for African Students in Urban Studies from DAAD

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) offers scholarships to African students for a Ph.D. in Urban Studies. Successful Ph.D. candidates will be based in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University. They will take part in a workshop in Lagos in 2022, and in 2024 they will have the opportunity to present their work at the project conference at Wits. In 2023, a Ph.D. workshop will take place in Berlin where the students will present and discuss their work. Students will be encouraged to develop further activities for digital networking and dissemination (e.g. a blog, podcasts, etc.).

Research Areas:

• Resilience: there is a clear need to critically reflect, improve, but also rethink resilience, not only of technical urban systems of risk containment but also in terms of rights frameworks, governance, cultural and religious systems, and societies as a whole. This presents an opportunity to explore different notions of resilience under varied geographies of urban citizenship.
• Urban Justice: The SDG commitment to leave no one behind has placed the spotlight on the scale of urban inequality and informality, raising renewed questions about humanity’s response to this global condition. This opens the space to examine the relationship between forms of human coexistence and the right to the city, with different forms of socio-spatial segmentation. It also allows us to interrogate urban and peri-urban spaces and how various scales of urbanization enable and/or impedes access to urban goods.
• Solidarity: There have been renewed calls for fairer global rules governing trade as well as development assistance. This includes recognizing and valuing plural forms of knowledge production and knowledge systems, promoted through decolonial initiatives as well as through initiatives advancing transformative, transdisciplinary, and co-productive approaches. It is crucial that the development of a context-specific understanding of urban inequalities, power structures, and urban planning responses is enabled.

• The program is interdisciplinary, but it places a special emphasis on a portfolio that is inter-and transdisciplinary, cutting across the fields of development planning, housing, sustainable urban development, urban management, and urban design. Candidates in architecture and urban planning as well as in the humanities, cultural studies, urban geography, or social sciences with a focus on urban studies and planning as well as candidates in related fields such as landscape architecture are also welcome to apply
• Only South African citizens and citizens of other African countries can apply.
• Applicants must hold a master’s degree that is equivalent to a master’s degree in the South African Qualification System (SAQA).
• They must also meet the Ph.D. admission requirements of the School, which include proven ability of excellent academic writing in English, and an academic transcript at master level with marks averaging at least 70%.
• The programme language is English. Proficiency in any other language necessary for the proposed geographic location of their fieldwork is recommended.
• There is no age limit applying to the scholarships for study purposes. However, at the time of the application, no more than 6 years should have passed since an applicant graduated from his/ her previous master's studies.

About DAAD:

The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organization in the field of international academic cooperation. Founded in 1925, the DAAD is the world's largest funding organization for students and researchers. Its members are German institutions of Higher Education as well as student bodies. Its activities include the awarding of grants and scholarships but also the internationalization of German universities, the promotion of German studies and language abroad, and assisting and advising decision-makers in developing countries on establishing effective universities as well as on matters of education and development policy.

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