The Norbert Elias Fellowship Program
Global challenges need corresponding perspectives. In order to increase the diversity of perspectives in ZiF research projects and to make African researchers more visible, ZiF offers two fellowships annually for African scholars: the Norbert Elias Fellowships.
The funding, formerly supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, started in 2020. Since then six researchers from South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt have been awarded the fellowship and have been taking part in different ZiF research groups. The Norbert Elias Fellows of the upcoming research group “Internalizing Borders: The Social and Normative Consequences of the European Border Regime” arrive at ZiF with the research group's official start in October.
Every year, the Norbert Elias Fellows confirm how different the perspectives from countries in the Global South are from those of the Western world and how valuable it is for research groups to integrate these differing views.
All Norbert Elias Fellows gave interviews describing their research and time at ZiF. The interview with Dr. Emelda Chukwu from the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and Dr. Temitope O. Sogbanmu from the Department of Zoology at the University of Lagos in Nigeria has just been published on Bielefeld University’s blog.
All interviews:
Dr. Brenda Kombo (Anthropology, Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Dr. Onyinyechukwu Durueke (Security and Conflict Research, Port Harcourt, Nigeria)
Research Group: „Global Contestations of Women’s and Gender Rights“ (2020/21)
Dr. Adekemi Omotubora (Law, Lagos, Nigeria) and Dr. Sarah Mansour (Economics, Cairo, Egypt)
Research Group „Economic & Legal Challenges in the Advent of Smart Products (2021/22)
Dr. Emelda Chukwu (Microbiology, Lagos, Nigeria) and Dr. Temitope O. Sogbanmu (Environmental Toxicology, Lagos, Nigeria)
Research Group „The Epistemology of Evidence-Based Policy: How Philosophy can Facilitate the Science-Policy Interface (2023)
Sociologist, philosopher and poet Norbert Elias (1897-1990) developed the theory of the ‘Civilization Process’ and worked at ZiF for six years. Elias, who had to emigrate to England in 1933 and was later working in the Netherlands, held his first chair at Accra University in Ghana.