Welcome to Department of African and Endogenous Studies

Our progrommes

Programmes currently on offer in the department include the following:

1. 1. PhD African Discourse Studies (3-year regular programme)This programme brings in an added dimension to researching and practicing development in contemporary African societies where the situated discourses, cultural life and realities of the people in the developing world, particularly Africa, is of utmost importance.
   2. PhD Endogenous Development (3-year regular programme)This programme is based on the development philosophy that sustainable development must start from within a people’s culture, worldview, and inherent potentials as a basis for solving problems and engendering transformation and sustainability in their localised development processes.
   3. MPhil African Discourse Studies (2-year regular programme)This programme pays particular attention to enhancing competencies and skills in analysing social process, discursive events, and situated socio-political relations and knowledge for sustainable development in contemporary Africa, and the rest of the developing world.
   4. MA African Discourse Studies (1-year regular programme)This programme enhances the skills and competencies of development-oriented practitioners to pay particular attention to African development and the development discourses of the rest of the developing world for sustainable development.
   5. BA African Discourse Studies (4-year regular programme)This programme promotes local and international development scholarship and practice. It emphasizes cultural and knowledge integration to increase the understanding of contemporary complex and interconnected societies and social actors, from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, for a better world.

Research Focus Areas

The department is particularly interested in exploring relations between language, social actions, and cultural practices in Africa in relation to the rest of the world. Studies on how to apply discourse and communication approaches to researching and managing social change and development, with emphasis on promoting socially just, cohesive, and sustainable societies are of particular interest in the department.

Doctoral students in DAES are encouraged to pay attention to changes happening in local communities, institutions, organisations, identities, environment and climates, markets, economies, technology, among others, in contemporary African societies in relation to the rest of the world. In addition, doctoral students should focus on how the changes are represented in discourses and discursive practices, through different modes. Doctoral students’ research proposals should be in line with DAES research focus areas, which include but are not limited to sustainability discourse, environmental discourse, climate discourse, political discourse, discourses on language policy and development in Africa, marketization discourse, stakeholder discourse, health care discourse, multimodal discourse, discourses about gender, development and social protection and cohesion, discourses about social inequality, postcolonial and decolonial discourses, among others. In terms of scale, doctoral students may consider selecting research themes ranging from transnational phenomena and international relations, intercultural and intra-regional issues of changing identities and everyday experiences past and present. An understanding of the historical and ongoing processes and those concerned with their origin, context, conflict, and consequences of projects/topics in relation to themes above are of importance to us.

Research Groups

DAES has instituted five research groups to promote active academic environment, collaborations, and knowledge dissemination. The research groups include the following:
1. Gender, Social Protection and Cohesion (GSoPCo)
2. Governance, Politics and Society (GPSo)
3. Organisation, Culture and Communication (OCCom)
4. Climate Resilience (CRes)
5. Science, Technology and Society (STS)

The research groups emanate from our departmental vision and programmes in relation to the vision of FIDS and mandate of SDD-UBIDS. They are interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and discourse orientated towards Africa and the rest of the developing world within the larger global context. All senior members of the department and graduate students belong to at least one of the research groups. Also, membership is open to scholars within and outside SDD-UBIDS for the purposes of collaboration, networking, knowledge and technology transfer, as well as the cross fertilisation of scholarly ideas. The head of department (HoD) is the head and supervisor of all the research groups. However, each research group has a coordinator appointed by the HoD to coordinate and promote the activities of the group, locally and globally.

Career Prospects

Programmes in the Department are targeting the youth or young and active population who will take up employment in contemporary African societies and the rest of the developing. Graduates of the Department could also work in the public and private sectors, including but not limited to public and civil services, teaching/research institutions, national and transnational development agencies, and local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as donor agencies. They could as well set up their own consultancy agencies to offer consultancy services to both the private and public sectors organizations in Ghana, as well as to international institutions engaged in development practice in Africa or the developing world.

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Guide for preparing application and proposal (template)

For applicants to PhD programmes (PhD in African Discourse Studies and PhD in Endogenous Development) in DAES, their research proposal will be assessed based on the logic, clarity and feasibility of a detailed project description.

Also, please, include in the application the following:

1. Curriculum vitae (CV)
2. Sample of published or unpublished written work (optional)
3. A project proposal (max. 10 pages) should include the following:

1. Project title
2. Introduction
3. The research problem that will be examined
4. The main question of the research project
5. The objectives of the research project
6. Significance of the Study the research field
7. Describe state-of-the-art research within the research field of the project (Literature Review).
8. Explain the theory/theories guiding the study.
9. Discuss the methods to be used.
10. Indicate the project’s potential contribution to scientific development.
11. References (use APA style guide – 7^th Edition).
12. Provide a work plan, which describes the main phases of the project in three (3) years.

Enquiries

Email: puorideme@ubids.edu.gh ;

Mobile: +233 594 786 883

WhatsApp: +45 71375360

Admissions

Call: +233(0)392097256 or +233(0)392097257; 

Email: admissions@ubids.edu.gh ; WhatsApp: +233550918837