This roundtable seeks to explore the challenges that face scholars, research communities and journal Editors when seeking to support and mentor Early Career Researchers (ECRs) within Africa and the Global South. Taking up the charge to both decolonise and decentre processes of knowledge production, we ask how African Studies can respond, as a field, and how we might maximise the impact of ‘de-westernised’ research being produced by ECRs. We will examine what this would mean in terms of academic collaboration and research output, focusing on how can we best support the next generation of researchers from Africa. Looking at practical examples of the support and mentoring that is already being undertaken, we will consider how digital developments have expanded the means and opportunities for support and which forms future resources may take in our continually transforming digital world.
Looking at where ECRs are submitting and publishing, we will open up conversation about the place of African-originated and African-based journals that address the multidisciplinary study of Africa within the global knowledge economy, question how these journals are viewed, valued, accessed, and contributed to, particularly by ECRs. This roundtable addresses the irony of Northern journals about Africa more often than not being considered more central to African Studies research than those that emanate from the continent, questioning why African titles are typically framed as local or regional resources, but not global, and what effect this has for ECRs. In what ways can journal Editors work with ECRs when their papers need further development, and what role should publishers be playing in this support network? What funding is available for established scholars and academic communities who want to provide mentoring, and are there any lessons we can learn from support networks in other regions of the Global South?
This discursive and reflective session will consider the forms that support and mentoring can and should take, from group workshops and long term mentoring relationships, to the rise of distance training, such as the MOOCs delivered by INASP’s AuthorAID programme and the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) Structured Training for African Researchers (STARS) project. What opportunities does the millennial researcher have that were not available to previous generations?
As one of the most linguistically diverse continents in the world, how is Africa’s rich multilingual history reflected in the research currently being carried out by ECRs? We will examine whether language poses a barrier for mentoring, and what support is available for researchers working in African languages, such as Kiswahili, Hausa or Yoruba. What means of support are available for francophone and lusophone scholars in Africa, and what can we do to communicate effectively beyond the English language?
[NB:
1: This roundtable can be seen as complementary to a roundtable submitted by Carli Coetzee, entitled 'Ethical collaborations roundtable: North-South flows'. If accepted, we would be grateful if our roundtable could be included within the same stream
2: We would also like to include somebody from the RoAPE collective within the roundtable, but have not yet had confirmation on who would be able to participate from the collective. Is it possible to add one more speaker at a later date?].