Dismantling epistemic and systemic challenges to writing and publishing: A mentorship programme for early career scholars in Southern Africa

Research shows that the work of African-based scholars in the Humanities is underrepresented in high-impact international academic journals. Explanations for this include a lack of research funding, difficulties in gaining access and exposure to academic journals, as well as challenges in accessing the institutional knowledge of the publishing process needed to submit to high-impact international journals. It is against this background that we seek to build upon existing networks to establish a new mentoring scheme between early-career researchers in the Humanities based predominantly in Southern Africa, with senior academics and journal editors from across Africa and the globe. To this end, we hope to organize a publishing, mentoring, and grant writing programme. The programme is interdisciplinary and aims to enhance the capacity of early-career researchers in Southern Africa through interactive and collaborative activities, which will prepare participants to write articles for high-impact journals from the region.

Workshop Team: Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, University of Sussex; Dr Victor Gwande, University of the Free State; Dr Godfrey Hove, National University of Lesotho.