ISIM Student Research Fellowships
Refugees and Displaced Persons in East Africa
Each Spring semester, the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service requests proposals from graduate students for summer research supported by the Mellon Foundation on refugees and internally displaced persons in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.
Eligible applicants: Graduate students at Georgetown University.
Eligible topics: The research projects may focus on any aspect of the refugee and displaced populations in these countries. We are looking for creative, well-thought out, and manageable projects that can be completed within the summer months. The research proposals can reflect the perspectives of diverse disciplines, including political science, international relations, anthropology, law, and demography. Examples of eligible topics include: ways of enhancing the civil society's capacity to address issues of forced migration; host government changing attitudes towards refugees; African laws and customs and their relationship to international refugee treaties and policies; the development of new legal codes for refugee status determination; challenges to effective implementation of the OAU Refugee Convention; effectiveness of programs to reduce domestic violence in refugee camps and/or communities; refugee women's leadership; effectiveness of educational programs for refugee children, including girls; protection problems faced by urban refugees; participation of refugees in camp governance; psychosocial wellness of refugees and/or internally displaced; security challenges to protecting refugees and internally displaced persons; and resettlement as a durable solution for African refugees.
Letter of interest: Students interested in applying for the research fellowship should submit a brief letter, no more than one page, expressing interest and specifying the topic they would want to pursue and identifying the country where they would conduct the research. A Search Committee will review the topics and finalists will be asked to develop a research proposal under the guidance and in consultation with ISIM faculty.
Research Proposal: The research proposal should be brief and include the following information:
• The title of the research project
• Problems and issues the proposed project will address
• Hypothesis and/or research questions
• Methodologies applied to answer the proposed research questions
• Site(s) of proposed research
• Estimated budget for the project
• Applicant's resume
Project product: The research project should result in a 25-30 page single spaced paper of publishable quality.
Mentorship: ISIM faculty members will mentor successful applicants through the duration of the project. In addition, successful Research Fellows will be affiliated with one of the three ISIM partner centers in East Africa, including the Centre for the Study of Forced Migration, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Uganda; Centre for Refugee Studies, Moi University, Kenya; and, if appropriate to the proposed research project, NGO or international organizations working with refugees or displaced persons in the region.
|
