The Africa Oxford Initiative - AfOx Visiting Fellows Program 2024/25

The AfOx Fellowship provides fellows with an opportunity to work on a project of their choice in collaboration with Oxford-based scholars, while benefit from the resources available at Oxford University for research, writing, and strengthening research leadership skills. The Fellowship is open to researchers across all academic fields. Fellows will be affiliated with the University of Oxford for 12 months, including 10 months of virtual engagement and a 2 month in-person visit to Oxford during Trinity Term. To apply for a fellowship  all applicants must have an Oxford based researcher named as their collaborator on their application.

AfOx Fellows will be asked to select which of the AfOx research themes, Healthy People, Innovation for Prosperity, Integrated Societies and Green Futures, their project most closely aligns with.

AfOx fellowships are open to ALL disciplines across ALL the Universities departments. We encourage applications across the full range of academic disciplines and to work with any researcher based at the University of Oxford.

During the Fellowship, AfOx Fellows are associated with a Department and a College within the University. Fellows can apply to work with scholars based in any of the University’s departments. AfOx is a cross-university platform which supports collaboration across all the departments at Oxford University.

We welcome applications from all academic disciplines and particularly encourage applications from female and underrepresented researchers.

All AfOx fellowship applications are made through the same process using the same application portal.

AfOx Visiting Fellowship Partners:

Mathematics Institute

• This AfOx Mathematics fellowship aims to connect a research-active mathematician based at an African institution to faculty based at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford.

• The Mathematical Institute is one of the leading mathematics departments in the world, with strengths in research across the spectrum of fundamental and applied mathematics. It holds a silver Athena Swan award to recognise advancement of gender equality, and aims to provide an inclusive environment in which all can thrive and achieve their full potential.

• Applications are open to researchers with existing research interests compatible with those of the Mathematical Institute current faculty. Applicants must clearly state which one of the Mathematical Institute research groups you feel is closest to your work. While in Oxford the AfOx Mathematics Fellow will work with faculty within the Institute and across other disciplines where appropriate, to develop research ideas, projects and events. This can include research papers, ideas for co-led projects, future joint research developments.

• The AfOx Mathematics Fellow will be welcomed into the research community at the Institute and supported to develop longer-term research connections.

Oxford Department of International Development

• ODID is the focus at Oxford for research on developing countries and emerging economies, and on their relationship with the rest of the world. The department’s four key research groups – the Refugee Studies Centre, Young Lives, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the Technology and Management Centre for Development – are at the forefront of their fields.

• ODID draws on its unique strengths – the exceptional range and depth of disciplinary and regional expertise and extensive connections to networks across the Global South – to generate academically rigorous research into the underlying structures and overarching processes of development. Drawing on this deep scholarship, ODID researchers seek to forge new ways of thinking about development that can help improve the lives of ordinary people, whether by informing policy at the highest level or by changing practice on the ground.

Law Faculty

• The AfOx-Law fellowships target academics holding a full-time position at an African academic institution. The fellowships are aimed at academics with a clearly defined research agenda, the pursuit of which would be enhanced by spending time visiting Oxford as an AfOx fellow. For 2023-2024, the AfOx law fellowship will be linked with the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government. This means that applicants must be pursuing research within at least one of the following subject areas: public law, constitutionalism, law and politics, legal philosophy. In line with the ordinary requirements for AfOx visiting fellowships, applicants will have to identify an Oxford-based researcher as a collaborator. 

• It is intended that one AfOx Law Fellow will be appointed for the 2023-2024 academic year. The AfOx Law Fellow will be affiliated with the Programme for the Foundations of Law and  Constitutional Government for the duration of the fellowship.

African Studies Centre

• Oxford University’s African Studies Centre is one of the world’s leading centres of African Studies. With particular strengths in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, the Centre enjoys a reputation for high quality, relevant research that plays a leading role in academic debates as well as public policy. 

• The AfOx-ASC fellowship provides opportunities for Africa-based scholars to spend time away from teaching and other obligations with the benefit of using the vast resources available in Oxford University for research, writing, mentoring in collaboration with an Oxford-based scholar.

• The fellows are expected to make a presentation of the draft work during or at the end of the fellowship at a ‘writing workshop’ where Oxford-based scholars will provide critical feedback for publication. Applications are encouraged from candidates in every region of Africa.

The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)

• Launched in May 2013, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) provides an important opportunity for Oxford’s humanities scholars to collaborate with researchers across other disciplines and institutions and develop partnerships with public and private institutions. In seeking to connect Oxford researchers with other organisations globally, TORCH supports Fellowships that brings researchers from abroad to Oxford. 

• Applications are open to researchers with interdisciplinary projects from a broad range of research areas in the Humanities. The Fellow will be based in Oxford during Trinity term and work with Oxford researchers in the Humanities, and across other disciplines where appropriate, to develop research ideas, projects and events. This can include research papers, ideas for co-led projects, and future joint research developments in the area of humanities. Examples of areas of priority are research related to environmental humanities, medical humanities, intersectional humanities, race and resistance, digital humanities, performance, cultural heritage, history, languages, religion.

• The Fellow will be welcomed into the Oxford community at TORCH and supported as part of the research community during their fellowship, with a view to develop a longer-term research connection.

Refugee Studies Centre

• The Refugee Studies Centre  (RSC) undertakes research, teaching, and outreach relating to Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. It supports multidisciplinary, independent and critical scholarship on the causes, consequences, and responses to, forced displacement. It has a particular focus on Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, supports students and scholars with lived experience of displacement. The Centre seeks to engage with policy and practice, locally, nationally, and globally.
• Applications are open to researchers who undertake independent, multidisciplinary, academic research on the causes, consequences, and responses to forced migration. We particularly welcome applications which challenge common assumptions and understandings related to forced migration, with important implications for public debate, policy, and practice. Scholars at the Refugee Studies Centre work cross a range of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, geography, history, law, politics, and international relations.