Announcing the Senior AfOx Visiting Fellows

Six researchers from Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Liberia have been awarded the 2020-21 Senior AfOx Visiting Fellowships. Their proposed areas of study cover a range of disciplines: philosophy, history, neuroimaging, astrophysics, public health and research ethics.

Built on the success of the AfOx Visiting Fellows Programme, the Senior AfOx Visiting Fellowships are designed to enable accomplished African researchers to spend up to three academic terms in Oxford to share their expertise broadly with researchers based in Oxford and build broad long-term collaborations between their home institutions and the University of Oxford.

We received over 125 high-quality applications from across the continent, which led to a very competitive multi-stage review and interview process. During their time in Oxford, the Senior AfOx Fellows will work in collaboration with Oxford researchers to advance their work.

Find out more about the Senior AfOx Visiting Fellows below.

Project: Combined Quantum chemical and Kinetics Investigations of H2 formation on Molecular Clusters for Astrochemical Interest

Astrochemists have struggled to explain the formation of molecules in a highly dilute environment such as the interstellar medium (ISM). Understanding the chemistry of the interstellar medium can enrich our understanding of the universe and may help to reveal the origin of life.  During this Fellowship, Boutheina will investigate several icy grain models mainly in the form of nanoclusters, with varying composition and sizes using molecular dynamics and sophisticated quantum chemistry tools.

Aim: The goal of this project is to derive fundamental and molecule specific parameters, like IR spectra (to compare o Observations), reaction rates and diffusion barriers. These can then be included in astrochemical models which simulate ice evolution and complexity over realistic typical timescales.

Oxford Collaboration:  Dimitra Rigopoulou, Department of Physics

Project: The struggle for gender equality in South Africa’s Road to Democracy

During her Fellowship, Kalpana will critically examine women’s struggles for gender equality in South Africa and the role women played in challenging colonial and apartheid governments and how those historical origins affected their position in the post-apartheid state.  Kalpana’s research argues that during the liberation movement, gender and women’s issues were relegated to the periphery in support of nationalistic goals.

Aim: Kalpana’s research will provide a better understanding of how gender issues were addressed in post nationalistic states, particularly in South Africa. Through publications and by engaging with academics and policy makers, she aims to inform policy, and work with the civic society and youth towards a progressive non-sexist society.

Oxford collaboration: Julia Viebach, African Studies Centre

Project: Strengthen Research Ethics Committees in Liberia for Genomic Studies

The unprecedented Ebola outbreak, in December 2013 led to an exponential increase in clinical trials in Liberia with complex laboratory procedures for studying human biological samples such as blood and saliva. This has created sub-regional challenges for the design and implementation of complex study protocols to investigate experimental products for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. During the Fellowship, Stephen Kennedy, will address these challenges and directly contribute to strengthening Liberia’s research ethics evaluation processes.

Aim: The proposed study has the potential to strengthen the ethics platform and research environment in the country and provide guidance to the Ministry of Health to inform programs and policies for the governance of biobanking and genomic research.

Oxford Collaboration: Michael Parker & Patricia Kignori, Ethox Centre

Project: Enhancing clinical decisions that improve outcomes in Africans with stroke and dementia using advanced MRI techniques

Stroke is a major cause of physical and mental disability in Africa, and its management remains a growing problem. Stroke survivors develop significant disability such as post stroke dementia, which affects up to a third of stroke survivors, and progressively worsens despite treatments. In Nigeria, Godwin is working to find effective tools to manage complications caused by stroke. He will investigate imaging modalities including Arterial Spin Labelling with a view to developing capacity for evaluation of cognitive impairments in African stroke survivors.

Aim: This fellowship will enable translation of knowledge between Oxford and Nigeria and other parts of Africa. It will contribute to understanding the distinct patterns of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases in black Africans.

Oxford Collaboration: Peter Jezzard, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences

Project: Water ethics and its contribution to sustainable water resources management

Water is essential for all forms of life and the ecological conditions that sustain them. However, 785 million people lack access to improved drinking water sources and 2 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Water injustices such as dumping of hazardous wastes into streams, rivers and oceans and unilateral exploitation of international transboundary rivers exacerbate the challenge. While there is extensive work on technical, economic and political approaches to water management, the ethical dimensions of water governance have not received sufficient attention.

Aim: During his Fellowship, Workineh will examine the role of indigenous water ethics in addressing the current water crisis in Africa. He will explore different ethical principles (indigenous and modern) that can play an important role in the management of water resources.

Oxford Collaboration: Roger Crisp, Faculty of Philosophy

Project: Research on the Health workforce

A target of SDG 3 is to achieve ‘universal health coverage for all’. An adequately skilled, productive and well-motivated health workforce is essential to achieve this target. Laetitia Rispel will draw data from the WiSDOM (Wits longitudinal Study to Determine the Operation of the labour Market among its health professional graduates) cohort study to generate new knowledge on the career choices and job location decisions of health professionals in South Africa. She will also work on a book project on the nursing crisis in South Africa that uses a historical perspective to shed light on the seemingly dysfunctional and constantly changing health system.

Aim: During the Senior Fellowship, Laetitia will publish the findings of the WISDOM study with the aim of contributing to the development and implementation of national health workforce policies in South Africa. She will complete several chapters of a book on nursing in South Africa during her fellowship.

Oxford Collaboration: Rebecca Surender, Department of Social Policy and Intervention