human rights | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 6

Returning Scholars Fellowship Program, USA: Social Sciences and Humanities

The Returning Scholars Fellowship Program, as part of a conscious strategy to combat “brain drain” in the social sciences and humanities, supports talented young scholars who, after earning a postgraduate degree abroad, seek university positions and academic careers in their home countries.  The program operates in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.
Securing the services of such scholars is essential to the revitalization of academic departments and the sustainability of higher education reforms, to which Academic Fellowship Program also contributes. The program offers scholars financial, institutional, and professional development support, as well as opportunities for further professional growth as program alumni.
Returning Scholars and partner departments also benefit from the presence of Academic Fellowship Program-supported International Scholars, who provide expert mentorship in such areas as professional development, curriculum development and reform, research methods, and teaching/learning methodologies specific for their discipline.
The program supports scholars from the aforementioned countries who have received (or will receive by the start of the fellowship) eligible degrees in the following fields: anthropology, area/cultural studies, economics, gender studies, history, human rights & public law, international relations, journalism/media studies, philosophy, political science, psychology, public policy/ environmental studies, public policy/public health, social work, and sociology. The program does not support scholars in philology, the visual and performing arts, and business.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 11 April 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application

Call for Proposals: Documentary Photography Audience Engagement Grant, USA

The Open Society Documentary Photography Project is offering a grant to support alternative models for presenting and disseminating documentary photography to the public.
The Audience Engagement Grant (formerly called the Distribution Grant) supports photographers to take an existing body of work on a social justice or human rights issue and devise an innovative way of using that work as a catalyst for social change.
We are interested in well-designed projects that inspire audiences visually and create meaningful interactions with photographic content.
Projects should combine existing bodies of work with programming or tools that give viewers a deeper, more nuanced understanding of issues and empower them to participate in the process of improving their own or others’ realities. Projects should also include a partnership between a photographer and an organization that combines expertise in documentary photography with experience working on the topic or community the project addresses.
Five to eight grants of $5,000 to $30,000 will be awarded.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 13 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application

DANIDA Research Partnership Program 2011, Denmark: Human Rights

The Research Partnership Programme (RPP), funded by the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) and organised by The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) offers a small number (4-6) of researchers from developing and transitional countries the unique opportunity of becoming a guest researcher at the DIHR for a period of no more than five months, during the semester August – December 2011.
For 2011, the programme operates under the thematic focus of “Informal Justice Systems” (IJC), and the topics selected by prospective applicants should ideally fit under this theme. The terms informal, non-state or local justice systems encompass a wide range of adjudicative mechanisms using a variety of normative foundations, forms and structures, and adjudicative procedures. They present opportunities for access to justice where state systems lack outreach and forums in which a diversity of cultures and values can be respected. They also present challenges and weaknesses in respect of compliance with human rights standards concerning participation and accountability, fairness of procedures (including the protection of the vulnerable) and substantive outcomes.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 1 February 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application