British Academy Writing Workshop ‘De-centering knowledge and training opportunities: Supporting the development of the next generation of researchers in African linguistics’

As part of this project we will run two writing workshops in Kenya for Early Career Researchers in linguistics to work with experienced editors, improve writing skills and strengthen scholarly networks.

This project is a collaboration between the University of Essex, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, and SOAS University of London. It builds on the successful previous Writing Workshop project entitled ‘Eroding dichotomies: description, analysis and publishing in African linguistics’. It provides an opportunity for early career researchers from across Eastern and Southern Africa to work with experienced editors on the preparation of high-quality outputs, improve their writing skills and strengthen scholarly networks.

It also provides an opportunity to critically engage with the perceived dichotomies which shape linguistics – such as North-South, theory-data, description-analysis, local-regional, regional-international and Open Access-established journals. The follow-on series of two in-person workshops brings together participants from the 2022 workshop as ‘senior participants’ who will be joined by ten new ‘junior participants’ from the research community in Kenya. 

The project allows for continued mentorship, engagement between participants and experienced journal editors, and explicitly works with the research community outside of the capital city Nairobi in a bid to decentre knowledge and training opportunities.