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Published: 18 May 2022 1,677 views
The Centre for African Studies at the University of Basel calls for applications for two doctoral positions in Social Anthropology or African Studies covering a period of three years funded by the Humer Foundation for Academic Talent.
Over the past three decades, in Africa as elsewhere, the effects of urbanization and market liberalization, emerging modes of value production, consumption, and social reproduction, and shifting forms of governance have also given rise to new kinds of mobility and migration. For many, sexuality has been central to imagining and actualizing migratory trajectories. Sexual economies in large urban areas and tourist resorts attract youths with the possibility of quick wealth, conspicuous consumption, or travel abroad. Queer people and sex workers often move as migrants or refugees to places where they hope to gain access to public health or sexual rights advocacy groups. Meanwhile, NGOs, religious organizations, and state officials seek to attend to the myriad social, medical, and moral implications of these various forms of sexualized mobility. As eroticized commodities and media circulate more widely on African markets, members of a growing middle class also travel domestically and internationally, engaging in humanitarianism, consumption, or religious reforms that revolve around sexuality.
This research initiative examines comparatively various forms of movement that produce and deploy racialized and/or ethnicized sexualities as central means of consumptive fantasies, modes of value production, disciplinary regimes, and strategies of investment in the future. Examining the implications of new forms of sexualized mobility for gender, kinship, and domesticity; money and the moralization of wealth; ritual and religion; rising forms of moral securitization and militarization; and new forms of consumption, embodiment, style, and self-making, this project takes sexuality as a key domain for understanding the politics of contemporary mobility and its continuities and discontinuities with colonial discourse and practice, both on the African continent and between Africa and the wider world.
The University of Basel has an international reputation of outstanding achievements in research and teaching. Founded in 1460, the University of Basel is the oldest university in Switzerland and has a history of success going back over 550 years. As a comprehensive university offering a wide range of high-quality educational opportunities, the University of Basel attracts students from Switzerland and the entire world, offering them outstanding studying conditions as they work towards their bachelor’s, master’s or PhD degrees. Today, the University of Basel has around 13,000 stu... continue reading
| Application Deadline | 31 May 2022 |
| Country to study | Switzerland |
| School to study | University of Basel |
| Type | PhD |
| Sponsor | University of Basel |
| Gender | Men and Women |
We offer an international, multidisciplinary work environment and excellent research infrastructure and a workplace in the heart of Basel. Compensation will be according to the guidelines of the University of Basel.
1. a letter of motivation (not exceeding two pages);
2. a curriculum vitae (not exceeding two pages and including a list of publications, if applicable);
3. a short proposal (1500-2500 words) relating to sexuality, mobility, and political economy.
4. copies of undergraduate and postgraduate diplomas complete with transcripts (please note that the overall grade received for the Master degree is relevant for admission);
5. the contact details of two referees (university professors or lecturers);
6. one or two writing samples (including Master's thesis or equivalent).
Submit your application as PDF files using only the recruiting online tool of Basel University.
For more information, please visit our website: https://zasb.unibas.ch or contact Prof. George Paul Meiu [email protected]
The application deadline is 31 May 2022.
