PhD in social anthropology with focus on Uganda

Funded in the context of Project FamilEA: The Remaking of the Family in East Africa, a project sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation (2023-2027, ref. CRSII5_213547).

Project FamilEA seeks to understand the dynamics of family transformation in East Africa by combining four strategies: 1) building a common interdisciplinary conceptual foundation; 2) combining a range of methods from across the social sciences and the humanities to build a common core dataset; 3) implementing, in two neighbouring countries with distinct family patterns, a comparative study design involving men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, capital cities and countryside, and various socio-economic groups and trajectories; 4) including discipline-specific individual projects that will stand in close dialogue with one another and with the core theory and data sets. The project focuses on Kenya and Uganda, neighbouring countries where demographic changes show a mixed picture of similarities and differences.

At the core of our data, a qualitative-quantitate survey, conducted in the two East African capitals of Kampala and Nairobi, will document the size and structure of families along a number of parameters: co-residence, kinship, subjective importance, frequency of contacts, and physical distance. It will further document exchanges, obligations, rights, and conflicts between family members. Family members’ place of residence, access to resources, and life trajectories will also be captured, as well as their health and well-being and exposure to risks and vulnerabilities. The survey will consist of a first layer of qualitative data followed by a second layer of ethnographic fieldwork.

Your role & Key Responsabilities :

The successful candidate is expected to attend FamilEA’s opening conference in Geneva (8-9 June 2023), and to take part in a collective fieldwork round in Nairobi and Kampala (mid-July to mid-August 2023).

NB:

• This call is one of two concurrent calls for doctoral scholarship at the Geneva Graduate Institute in the framework of Project FamilEA. Candidates may apply to both positions, in which case they must adjust their application and especially their research project.
• Special consideration will be given to equally qualified candidates from the Global South, as well as from Ukraine.

Necessary requirements:

• An MA degree in a field relevant to the position
• Excellent knowledge of English
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team
• Willingness to relocate to Geneva and to conduct multiple rounds of fieldwork in Uganda

Assets:

• Established familiarity with East Africa, notably through ethnographic research
• Experience with interdisciplinary research and with the application of mixed methods
• Experience with academic collaborations and with interdisciplinary research projects
• Knowledge of additional languages spoken in Uganda, as well as French

Application documents

The application should include the following :

• A letter of motivation (one page)
• Research proposal (three pages max)
• Complete CV (including academic outputs, if applicable)
• Names and contact details of two referees

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, marital status, disability status, race, national origin, color, gender, sexual orientation or religion.