"African Humanities Program Culminating Report" and "The Vector of Ideas: Reflections on the African Humanities Program" Explore Successes and Challenges of Humanities Program in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda

NEW YORK, June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For decades, African-based, early-career scholars of the humanities worked under unfavorable conditions with little access to funding or time off from teaching for research and mentorship beyond their immediate institutions. From 2008-2023, the African Humanities Program (AHP), administered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) with generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, worked to counter these challenges. The program strengthened the humanities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda by championing Africa-centered intellectual interventions through fellowships, grants, mentorship, publications, and more. Taking stock of its successes and challenges through program data and participant testimonials, ACLS presents two reports: "African Humanities Program Culminating Report" and "The Vector of Ideas: Reflection on the African Humanities Program."

During the program's tenure, AHP assessed over 3,500 applications and awarded nearly 500 fellowships. Through the program, ACLS offered direct support for early- to mid-career scholars while fostering an Africa-centered community of reviewers and mentors that would flourish beyond the program's term. This dynamic new community of thinkers now continues through the African Humanities Association (AHA), a new academic society, created and led by past fellows and advisors from AHP. AHA has already won an independent research commission from the African Academy of Science and held its inaugural conference in partnership with ACLS in November 2023.

The "African Humanities Program Culminating Report" provides insights into the incredible work and collaborative efforts that made AHP a turning point for the humanities in the participating countries and how it championed a shift in professional development, institutional perception, and paradigms for critical inquiry.

The report highlights African Humanities Program's resounding success—evident in the numerous research publications, the renewed interest in intra-continental collaborations and mentorship, and the reinvigoration of humanistic scholarship. The program's transformative impact on the fellows' professional trajectories is particularly noteworthy, with scholars reporting career advancement, and increased authority and standing in institutional and cultural contexts that were previously unfriendly to or dismissive of humanistic inquiry.

"The study of African languages, history, religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts is key to self-understanding and self-critique, communication across difference, and the fostering of inclusive community identities—all enormously important in a region where intellectual life has been distorted for generations by colonial domination and its imposition of European and north American narratives and research priorities," said ACLS President Joy Connolly. "AHP has made great strides in strengthening African humanities, but support for humanistic inquiry on the continent is still insecure. We hope this report encourages new investment in the future of humanities in Africa."

As a companion to the Culminating Report, "The Vector of Ideas: Reflection on the African Humanities Program (AHP)" captures the voices of Africa-based scholars who participated in the program as fellows, reviewers, advisors, and mentors. Using excerpts from a series of essays about their experience with the program, The Vector of Ideas showcases the program's impact in the words of the participants themselves. The testimonials illuminate how individuals and fields of study in the humanities in Africa benefitted from the program. Based on "The Dialogues Project," initiated by former ACLS Director of International Programs Andrzej Tymowski, and Senior Advisor Sandra Barnes during the final two years of the program, the essays were collected by five teams of editors from each AHP country, and compiled and summarized by two general editors, Sati Fwatshak and James Ocita.

ACLS looks forward to continued partnership with the AHA to sustain the impact of AHP and support scholarship, research, and knowledge sharing on the continent in the coming years.

Formed a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS utilizes its endowment and $37 million annual operating budget to expand the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship. In all aspects of our work, ACLS is committed to principles and practices in support of racial and social justice.

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace. @CarnegieCorp

Media Contact

Anna Polovick Waggy, American Council of Learned Societies, 6468307661, awaggy@acls.org, https://www.acls.org/

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SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies