The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in African (MIASA) at the University of Ghana has launched its fourth writing school for Africa-based early career researchers. The five-day workshop, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was aimed at transforming draft papers into publishable journal pieces, contributing to knowledge production in the humanities and social sciences.
The workshop was organized as a writing conference, with daily seminars and writing sessions. The seminars provide practical guidance on academic writing and publishing in high-quality journals, while the daily writing sessions are supported by academic mentors and editors with research interests in governance, democracy, and green energy.
Co-Director of MIASA, Prof. Grace Diabah, in an exclusive interview with Univers News highlighted the collaboration between the University of Ghana and Germany, with support from German partners from the Goethe-University, Frankfurt.
“This is a writing workshop that is organized by the Marian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa, which is an institute of advanced studies, a collaboration between the University of Ghana and Germany. We have four German partners that are partnering us on this. And for this workshop, we have specifically our German partners from the Goethe-University Frankfurt, who are actually supporting this initiative.”
With an emphasis on empowering young researchers by developing their skills and talents, Prof. Diabah underlined that the organization’s main objective is to offer outstanding writing support to early and mid-career scholars in Africa.
“The main goal of the organization is to provide exceptional writing assistance to early career and mid-career scholars in Africa. We are committed to empowering young people, particularly early career researchers, by strengthening their skills and capabilities. In the academic community, the phrase “publish or perish” is well-known, and we strive to ensure that early career scholars and mid-career researchers do not have to face this pressure.”
The Institute’s Co-Director, Prof. Mamadou Diawara, also highlighted the importance of the workshop in strengthening the youth in providing content in research and teaching. He added that the workshop is a multidisciplinary, with scholars from various fields of the social sciences and humanities participating and promoting interdisciplinarity and networking among African scholars.
“The goal is here to promote a certain interdisciplinarity in how much African scholars in social science and humanities could collaborate together. Secondly, it is also for networking. The ones who are meeting here in the context of this workshop could continue to work together and constitute a network of researchers.”
MIASA’s writing school for Africa-based early career researchers would be an avenue for researchers with focus on governance, democracy, and green energy to hone their skills in effective communications. The program was designed to assist early career and mid-career scholars in Africa by providing the best writing assistance and promoting interdisciplinarity and networking among African scholars. The program is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is a collaboration between the University of Ghana and four German partners.
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Story by: Ebenezer Lartey | univers.ug.edu.gh
