IRD–Wits–IFAS-Research Fieldwork Bursaries

PhD Students based in Gauteng, South Africa

Deadline: 23:59 on Monday 20th October 2025

⬇️ Download this call in .pdf
⬇️ Complete the online application form.

The Beyond Binaries project, a collaboration between the University of the Witwatersrand School of Social Sciences, IRD—the French National Research Institute, and IFAS-Research, invites current PhD students registered at Gauteng-based South African universities to apply for one of ten R10,000 fieldwork bursaries. These bursaries can be put towards expenses associated with fieldwork and ethnographic research – interviews, participant-observation, focus groups etc – to support the successful completion of doctoral dissertations. This is a fieldwork specific call, with the ultimate goal being to support the next generation of researchers who are doing innovative and original fieldwork in Africa. All disciplines within the Humanities, broadly conceived, are welcome here.

The Beyond Binaries project responds to the inadequacy of entrenched binaries—north/south, west/rest, civilized/uncivilized—in explaining today’s interconnected challenges, from climate change and pandemics to authoritarianism and economic inequality. Instead, it explores global circuits of influence and exchange, where ideas, practices and solidarities circulate multi-directionally, disrupting deficit framings of Africa and Eurocentric knowledge economies.

More information on the project is available here.

To apply for a fieldwork bursary you need to:

• Complete an application form via this hyperlink. Your fieldwork plan should include a rough sense of how you propose to spend the available funding. You should also outline how you intend address larger questions relating to research ethics and knowledge production as part of your planned fieldwork. If your fieldwork takes place in another African country you will also need to confirm how you will resolve any national requirements associated with getting your research officially approved.
• Email 1) your current CV and 2) your ethics approval paperwork/certificate to Beth (2987838@students.wits.ac.za) and Léa (Lea.Jobard@frenchinstitute.org.za).

Applicants must be:

• Prepared to complete your funded fieldwork by July 2026.
• Based in Gauteng and available to travel to Wits for events associated with the project, including a conference at Wits in September 2026 focusing upon ethics, extraction and knowledge economies.
• Prepared to draft a short paper which reflects upon your fieldwork experiences, and to contribute to events where these papers will be refined with a view to eventual publication in a special issue/collection (the project team will provide mentorship, training and editorial support to help develop your paper).

We look forward to hearing about your fieldwork! Successful applicants will be notified in the first half of November. If you have any questions, please contact Beth and Léa.