ASCL researchers and members of the ASCL Community have started to write blogs about the spread of COVID-19 through Africa, and the impact of the pandemic. Community member Charmaine Williamson writes about the survival of human and natural ecologies during and beyond COVID-19 and wonders: Will enough lessons be learned to re-balance this unbalanced universe?

Out of a total of 120 applications, four successful candidates have been awarded PhD studentships in African Studies through the partnership between the universities of Edinburgh and Leiden. The PhD candidates will be fully funded for four years and will start in September 2020. The Leiden based candidates are Mandipa Ndlovu (Zimbabwe) and Kershan Vikram Pancham (South Africa). The Edinburgh based candidates are Brindley Fortuin (South Africa) and One Pusumane (Botswana). Each candidate will spend at least one year at the other university.

The ASCL is pleased to announce that PhD candidate Rishuai Chen has been awarded a CSC scholarship for his research project on Digital Practices and Transnational Connectivity Among African Merchants in South China.
Rishuai Chen will begin his studies at the ASCL in September 2020. His promotors are Jan-Bart Gewald and Mayke Kaag. Rishuai Chen was previously educated at The London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc Social Anthropology) and SOAS (MA research Social Anthropology).

What will the immense population growth in Africa mean for Africa and the world? In his contribution to the series 'Africa: 60 years of independence' in Clingendael Spectator, ASCL researcher Ton Dietz predicts that the increasing wealth in Africa will lead to more migration to Europe, but also that Africa might well become the world's most attractive growth region in the second half of this millennium.