Within the award funding gap: the im-possibility of an All Ireland Africanist network in 2020



Belluigi, Dina Zoe ORCID: 0000-0003-4005-0160 and Joseph, Ebun ORCID: 0000-0002-9845-0186
(2023) Within the award funding gap: the im-possibility of an All Ireland Africanist network in 2020. African Identities, 21 (4). pp. 857-879.

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Abstract

Patterns of research funding in the UK clearly evidence unequal awarding to the detriment of applicants of African descent. This paper presents a case from ‘within’ this larger machine of knowledge production: a failed funding application made by two applicants to establish a social science network connecting African/ist scholars in Northern Ireland (UK) to those of its neighbouring Republic of Ireland (EU). Rated highly in the positive peer reviews of those appointed by the funding agency, the deficit cannot be readily placed on the content of the application nor on the universities of the applicants at the time, both highly positioned within the institutional stratifications in the UK and ROI. To illuminate from within this darker side of structural knowledge delegitimation in the global North, we situate this application as an insider example of the conditions which militate against advancing marginalised study areas. We do so to work against the prevailing impression of such work being impossible; turning to that which is not structurally delineated by institutions nor national funding mechanisms. In publishing this paper, we re-assert our ethical obligations and agency as intellectuals to bring to light the defunding of such endeavours and the larger genealogies of influence in our times.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 15 Feb 2023 10:07
Last Modified: 30 Oct 2023 21:11
DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2021.1986367
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2021.1986367
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3168427