Scholars working on Women in Mining across Africa are invited to contribute to an edited book volume which aims to focus on contributions (through labour and otherwise) and roles (through social reproduction or resistance struggles) played by African women in mining/ extractive industries. African mining historiography has largely erased or silenced women and neglected their contribution in mining. In this literature and popular culture, mineworkers are almost always seen as men, as though mines are, and have always been, inhabited by men. This is despite evidence from as early as the 1500s which shows women as ‘pit people’. Scholarship which acknowledges women’s presence tends to portray women as outsiders who inhabit the ‘peripheries’ of mining and hardly as ‘centres’ or key players in their own right. This book project aims to address this bias by revisiting and interrogating, from a feminist perspective, the contributions of women in mining and the historiography of mining in Africa, as a way of re-claiming “her-story” and re-insert it into ‘hi-story’ of mining, to recover and resurrect women’s voices, centre their role and attest to their presence and make visible their contributions in mining. The gaps the editors seek to address include; different roles played by women who work/worked in mining (underground, open cast, artisanal and alluvial mines) and the invisible social reproduction work done by women in mining communities. The editors are also interested in chapters that revisit and critically re-examine archival material, and insert African women in the dominant mining historiography which currently excludes and or marginalises them. Authors who are interested in submitting a paper should, in the first instance, send a short abstract-length proposal (not more than 500 words) outlining the scope of their paper and its novelty by the 20th of April 2017.
Jobs and Announcements
This series of meetings is an opportunity for activists and scholars to contribute to three linked workshops in Africa. Each two-day meeting will debate current challenges and prospects for analysis and action. The organisers are seeking speakers and offers of papers, with a plan to publish a selection in the Review of African Political Economy. The workshops are scheduled in November 2017 in Accra, Ghana; April 2018 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; June 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa; and September 2018 at the African Studies Association in the UK. These workshops will link analysis and activism in contemporary Africa from the perspective of radical political economy, and will be organised around three linked themes: (1) Africa in a ‘post-crisis’ world, (2) Economic strategy, industrialisation and (3) The agrarian question and resistance and social movements in Africa.
The University of Melbourne is offering an online course that will explore the factors affecting the health and wellbeing of young people around the world. The course will be relevant for anyone with an interest in the health and wellbeing of young people. Applicants don't need to be of any particular personal or professional background to benefit from this course, but having some basic undergraduate study experience will be helpful for learning. Financial support is available for learners who cannot afford the fee.
Cochrane South Africa, in its role as coordinating unit of the Cochrane African Network, has bursaries available to participate in the Primer in Systematic Reviews online short-course, running from 1 May to 14 July or 1 October to 8 December 2017. This course is being offered by the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care in collaboration with Cochrane South Africa, as part of the Effective Health Care Research Consortium. It aims to build capacity of participants to find, appraise, interpret and consider the use of systematic reviews of effects of interventions. If you would like to apply for a bursary please complete the application form and submit to ameer.hohlfeld@mrc.ac.za by 14 April 2017. The Primer in Systematic Reviews online short-course duration is 6 weeks (excluding orientation) and requires up to 4 hours of effort a week. The course is purely online and uses an e-learning platform called SUNLearn. At the end of the course participants should be able to: 1. Outline the rationale for research synthesis and phrasing questions 2. Identity the principles of randomised controlled trials and risk of bias 3. Find, read and appraise systematic reviews (SRs) 4. Interpret findings of reviews of effects, including statistical interpretation of meta-analysis 5. Be able to interpret a GRADE profile and Summary of Findings table 6. Outline key components of a systematic review of effects that need to be considered in applying to health policy and practice. See website for application information.
COPASAH is a global network of accountability practitioners who share a people centric vision and human rights based approach to health, health care and human dignity. COPASAH is holding a series of social accountability online dialogues to further share mutual learning through the use of virtual platforms and communication technologies. The online platform will support different streams of accountability practice - such as budget monitoring, struggle based health rights groups, health movements and technical resource groups on community monitoring – to interact and share experiences. COPASAH is looking for partners to facilitate online Social Accountability Dialogues, to facilitate discussions on a range of health rights themes.
Applications are invited for an International Fellowship for urban scholars on any theme pertinent to a better understanding of urban realities in the global south funded by the Urban Studies Foundation. The Fellowship covers the costs of a sabbatical period at a university of the candidate’s choice in either the global north or the global south (facilitating south-south exchange) for the purpose of writing up the candidate’s existing research findings in the form of publishable articles or a book under the guidance of a chosen mentor in their field of study. Funding is available for a period ranging between 3-9 months. Applicants must be early career urban scholars with a PhD obtained within the preceding 5 years who currently work in a university or other research institution within the global south. Candidates must also be nationals of a country in the global south. Preference may be given to candidates from least or low-income countries but middle-income developing countries are not excluded if the need for support is justified. The candidate must make suitable arrangements to be mentored by a suitably experienced senior urban scholar at his/her chosen research institution. The application must include: an outline of the planned research, demonstrating its originality, rigour and value to the field of urban studies; with a statement of the intended research outputs; and further information provided on the website.
This conference is a Joint initiative of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), World Medical Association (WMA) and the School of Public Health at the University of Witwatersrand. The keynote speaker is Sir Michael Marmot, ex-Chair of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.
The theme for the 2017 conference is ‘Pillars of Practice’ in paediatric and children’s nursing and will showcase recent research, clinical practice projects, education and leadership initiatives. The organisers are excited about showcasing good clinical nursing. More and more research confirms the parents vital role in improving outcomes for children, so workshops and conversations about collaboration and innovative strategies of enrolling people are anticipated. The conference themes cover what nurses measure - how and why - and how this is turned into data, clinical leadership, establishing families into the care hub, clinically relevant teaching and sustainable innovation in paediatrics.
The Fordham Urban Law Center, in conjunction with the University of Cape Town (UCT), is pleased to announce a call for participation in the 4th Annual International and Comparative Urban Law Conference, to be held on Monday July 17th and Tuesday July 18th, 2017. The Conference will be held at UCT in Cape Town, South Africa. The Conference will provide a dynamic forum for legal and other scholars to engage and generate diverse international, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspectives in the burgeoning field of urban law. The Conference will explore overlapping themes, tensions, and opportunities for deeper scholarly investigation and practice with a comparative perspective. The Conference is open to urban law topics across a broad spectrum, such as: Structure and workings of local authority and autonomy; urban and metropolitan governance and finance; economic and community development; housing and the built environment; unique challenges facing cities in developing nations and the global south; urban public health; migration and citizenship; urban equity and inclusion and sustainability and resilience. While the Conference will foster a broad dialogue about cities and legal systems in comparative and international perspective, we specifically invite submissions to focus on the role of law in New Urban Agenda adopted this past October by the United Nations at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador. In keeping with this framework, the conference seeks to investigate the role of laws in promoting the New Urban Agenda in a manner that is democratic, sustainable and equitable.
The Civil Society Scholar Awards (CSSA) support international academic mobility to enable doctoral students and university faculty to access resources that enrich socially-engaged research and critical scholarship in their home country or region. Civil Society Scholars are selected on the basis of their outstanding contributions to research or other engagement with local communities, to furthering debates on challenging societal questions, and to strengthening critical scholarship and academic networks within their fields. The Awards are open to the following academic populations:
• Doctoral students of eligible fields studying at accredited universities inside or outside of their home country; or
• Full-time faculty members (must have a minimum of a master’s degree) teaching at universities in their home country;
Who are citizens of: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Kosovo, Laos, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, or Yemen. See more information on the website.