Stellenbosch University
Welcome to Stellenbosch University
Call for applications: Graduate Student Fellowship – 2020

​IsiXhosa version follows the English version.

The Stellenbosch University Museum is pleased to invite applications from postgraduate students

from Stellenbosch University for participation in a series of facilitated virtual conversations with students at Michigan State University (United States of America).

Participants in the virtual student dialogues will also gain a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend two weeks as graduate interns at Michigan State University. The purpose of the two-week internship is to provide students with service-learning opportunities abroad.

The goal of the online student conversations is to provide a forum for sharing experiences, to foster cross-cultural understanding and to promote the resolution of real and imagined differences through dialogue. The rise of global social movements such as #Black Lives Matter has made this global conversation more urgent than ever before.

The Graduate Student Fellowship is part of the Ubuntu Dialogues, a broader partnership project between the Stellenbosch University Museum and the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. This three-year partnership is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The virtual conversations bring together South African and American students from historically marginalised backgrounds. The dialogues focus on contemporary issues facing young people across the Atlantic, for example, systemic racism and ongoing movements for decolonisation. They provide participants with the opportunity to connect and rethink national, racial, linguistic and other boundaries and differences.

All applications should be submitted to Natasha Coltman at ncoltman@sun.ac.za on 31 August 2020.

Applications

• Honours, master's and/or doctoral students studying at Stellenbosch University and Michigan State University are eligible to apply for the programme. The fellowship is interdisciplinary, open to students from all fields in the social sciences, law, engineering, medicine and economics.

• We strongly encourage applicants from previously disadvantaged backgrounds to apply.

• Students who have never travelled outside South Africa or the USA are encouraged to apply.

• Students should be registered at Stellenbosch University or Michigan State University for the year 2021 to qualify.

• Students should submit a brief proposal of 500 words. It should highlight their understanding of Ubuntu. Is the concept relevant to the contemporary moment or not? Are there alternatives to Ubuntu?

• Students should also submit a detailed curriculum vitae.

• Successful applicants will be required to submit a summarised biography of not less than half a page and not longer than a page accompanied by a high-resolution photograph of themselves. They will also be required to apply for a USA passport within three weeks of being accepted into the programme. Financial assistance for passports will be made available.

ubuntu dialogues students xhosa word.docx