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Graduate Programme African Studies

The African Studies Centre Leiden has its own Graduate Programme African Studies (GPAS) for PhD candidates who are supervised by one of the ASCL Professors. The Head of the GPAS is Prof. Rijk van Dijk.

The mission of the GPAS is to enhance the pursuit of PhD degrees in African Studies at Leiden University, by providing the necessary support and intellectual resources to ensure their academic quality, relevance, and originality. In addition, the GPAS seeks to offer academic grounding in African Studies for PhD candidates working on/in Africa at any of the three Faculty Graduate Schools that we collaborate with, viz. the Faculties of Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, and Law. In doing so the GPAS seeks to foster the mutual exchange relationship between its graduate programme and those of the three faculties’ Graduate Schools. The GPAS offers a monthly PhD exchange seminar to its candidates, alternating a review seminar with a presentation seminar.

Self-financed PhD

We receive many requests from potential PhD candidates who express a wish to do their PhD research in the framework of the GPAS. For all of these requests the following requirements need to be considered:
- Are you in a position in which you can finance your PhD research yourself? Although Leiden University does not (yet) charge tuition fees for PhD candidates, doing empirical research can be very costly. The ASCL is not in a position to sponsor PhD candidates.
- Do you hold an MA/MSc diploma?
- Do you have a certificate of proficiency in the English Language (at least IELTS 7.0, TOEFL 100 or Cambridge CPE/CAE 185). This requirement does not apply for students who have completed their education in any one of the following countries: The Netherlands, Canada (except Quebec), USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia (other exceptions may apply).
- You are required to identify one of the ASCL professors as your supervisor. However, the ASCL professors are limited in the number of PhD candidates they can supervise. That means that the professor best suited for your line of research may not be in the position to supervise you.

If you are interested in doing a self-financed PhD, and you are financially in the position to do so, please send an email to: m.a.westra@asc.leidenuniv.nl. The email must include ALL of the following documents:
- Research proposal
- Detailed budget providing an overview of the expected costs and coverage of those costs
- CV
- Scan of your MA/MSc diploma and transcripts
- If applicable: certificate of proficiency in the English Language (at least IELTS 7.0, TOEFL 100 or Cambridge CPE/CAE 185)
- A letter from an ASCL professor stating her/his willingness to act as your supervisor

All PhDs must adhere to the rules and regulations of the GPAS.

See a list of dissertations on Africa defended at universities in the Netherlands.

Below you will find an overview of ASCL PhD candidates.

Alice Mapenzi Kubo, Developments in the Shea sector in Ghana and their implications for livelihoods

PhD student:
Alice Mapenzi Kubo
Supervisor:
Marleen Dekker, Michel Doortmont
Project status:
ongoing

Antonio Frank, Interactions between the police and non-state policing actors in the townships of Luanda

PhD student:
Antonio Frank
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz
Project status:
Ongoing

Belindah Okello, Challenges of Integration: A Case Study of the migrant Luo in Mombasa Kenya, 1902-2015

PhD student:
Belindah Okello
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Crépin Marius Mouguia, L’enfance et la jeunesse en période de conflit de longue durée en Centrafrique

PhD student:
Crépin Marius Mouguia
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn
Project status:
Ongoing

Francesca Pugliese, Working experience in the Congolese mining sector

PhD student:
Francesca Pugliese
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Gaddafi Abubakar, Radio in Northern Nigeria: A History of Propaganda, 1944-1979

PhD student:
Gaddafi Abubakar
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Gitty Petit, Hidden knowledge in Dodoma, Tanzania: Middle class young adults and healers in relation to objects used for health purposes

PhD student:
Gitty Petit
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Ibrahima Poudiougou, Territories of violence: ethnography of land conflicts and cultural and socio-political dynamics at Mopti (Djenné and Pays Dogon), Mali

PhD student:
Ibrahima Poudiougou
Supervisor:
Wouter van Beek, Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Jacqueline de Vries, 'Your custom was bad. It has been changed by Government': Control over women in colonial Kom (Cameroon)

PhD student:
Jacqueline de Vries
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Jeleel Balyaminu, Natural Resource Governance and Socio-Cultural Conditions in Africa: From Policy to Practice

PhD student:
Jeleel Abiola Balyaminu
Supervisor:
Chibuike U. Uche
Project status:
Ongoing

Joseph Fosu-Ankrah, Common Grounds: Urban Spaces, Religious Encounters and Intercommunality in Accra's Madina, ca 1800-2020

PhD student:
Joseph Fosu-Ankrah
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Julia Foudraine, International labour solidarity: The Netherlands and South Africa during the international anti-apartheid struggle, 1971-1994

PhD student:
Julia Foudraine
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald, Harry Wels
Project status:
Ongoing

Kassim Assouma, Increasing Political Leverage of Informal and Formal Workers’ Organisations for Inclusive Development: The case of Benin

PhD student:
Kassim Assouma
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz, Mayke Kaag
Project status:
ongoing

Kauthar Khamis, Beauty Practices: A Modality of Religious Co-existence Amongst Christian and Muslim Women in Madina

PhD student:
Kauthar Khamis
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Kershan Vikram Pancham, Performing Bodies across gender, race and spirit borders in South Africa

PhD student:
Kershan Vikram Pancham
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk, Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Kim Molenaar, Godly Gays? Sexuality and a Pentecostal Morality in Gaborone

PhD student:
Kim Molenaar
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Konstantin Valkov, How skateboarding is influencing the social transformation and the construction of identity of South Africa’s youth

PhD student:
Konstantin Valkov
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn, Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Loes Oudenhuijsen, Islam, everyday ethics, and its gendered contestations: ‘wicked’ women in Senegal from 1950 to the present

PhD student:
Loes Oudenhuijsen
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Mandipa Ndlovu, Urban Governance and Bulawayo's Political Economy in Independent Zimbabwe

PhD student:
Mandipa Ndlovu
Supervisor:
Marleen Dekker
Project status:
Ongoing

Marie-Louise Wijne, Digital Data in Development Cooperation

PhD student:
Marie-Louise Wijne
Supervisor:
Marleen Dekker
Project status:
Ongoing

Martin Luther Darko, The Quest for Health in Madina: Health seeking across Religious Boundaries

PhD student:
Martin Luther Darko
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Modibo Galy Cissé, Le conflit (terrorisme-djihadisme) dans le Delta Central du fleuve Niger au Mali

PhD student:
Modibo Galy Cissé
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn, Han van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Mpalang’a-Maruv Liévain Mwangal, Musumb and its emperors (17th-21st century). Laboratory History of cities in Central Africa

PhD student:
Mpalang’a-Maruv Liévain Mwangal
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Nilza César, Participatory Assessment of Development of the Eduardo Mondlane University (1976-2013)

PhD student:
Nilza César
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz
Project status:
ongoing

Paul Deutschmann, Data-driven political campaigns in West Africa: the use of political micro targeting strategies in elections in Senegal and Ivory Coast (2018-2022)

PhD student:
Paul Deutschmann
Supervisor:
Jan Abbink, Abdourahmane Idrissa
Project status:
Ongoing

Penina Olum, Dynamics of Power Balance and Accountability amongst livelihoods implementing INGOs Operating in Koboko, And Yumbe Districts, West Nile Region, Northern Uganda, between 2011 and 2021

PhD student:
Penina Olum
Supervisor:
Marleen Dekker
Project status:
Ongoing

Peter Lindhoud, Ecumenical concern about racial differences and rapid social change in Northern Rhodesia 1924-1964

PhD student:
Peter Lindhoud
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk, Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Rashida Adum-Atta, Food and Interreligious Coexistence in Madina

PhD student:
Rashida Adum-Atta
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Reinder Schoonhoven, Exploring Continuities and Contestations of Ancestral Worship in Igede, Benue State, Nigeria

PhD student:
Reinder Schoonhoven
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Rishuai Chen, Digital practices and transnational connectivity among African merchant migrants in China

PhD student:
Rishuai Chen
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald, Mayke Kaag
Project status:
Ongoing

Rosine Tchatchoua Djomo: Decentralized land governance and legal pluralism in Burundi

PhD student:
Rosine Tchatchoua Djomo
Supervisor:
Han van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Tinashe Chimbidzikai, (Re)production and imagination of urban social space by Pentecostal Christian migrants in South Africa: A narrative ethnography

PhD student:
Tinashe Chimbidzikai
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk
Project status:
Ongoing

Tycho van der Hoog, Blood, Bullets, and Bronze: The Relations Between North Korean and Southern Africa, 1960-2020

PhD student:
Tycho van der Hoog
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald
Project status:
Ongoing

Victoria Manya, The African Start-up Ecosystem: funding, informality and the trajectories of maturity

PhD student:
Victoria Manya
Supervisor:
Akinyinka Akinyoade, Marleen Dekker
Project status:
Ongoing

Completed PhD research projects

Aenne Post, Existence Versus Extinction. Human-hippo conflicts in Lake Victoria Area, Kenya

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

André van Dokkum, Deliberating “democracy” in Mozambique

PhD student:
André van Dokkum
Supervisor:
Jan Abbink

Angela Kronenburg García, Land struggles, the Naimina Enkiyio forest conflicts and leadership among the Loita Maasai of Kenya

Supervisor:
Han van Dijk

Anika Altaf, Reaching the ultra poor: comparing NGO approaches in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Benin

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Arnold Pannenborg, The financial, political and prestigious reasons for administrators and club officials to run and sponsor football in Ghana and Cameroon

PhD student:
Arnold Pannenborg
Supervisor:
Wouter van Beek

Bethuel Kinuthia, Comparing Malaysia’s and Kenya’s foreign direct investment and industrial development policies

PhD student:
Bethuel Kinuthia
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Blandina Kilama, Cashewnuts: comparing Vietnam and Tanzania

PhD student:
Blandina Kilama
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Djimet Seli , Mobile Phone and its impact on the social relations in the marginalized regions and their diaspora

Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn

Doreen Kobusingye, Embedding Land Conflict-Decentralized Land Governance and Conflict Transformation in Uganda

Supervisor:
Han van Dijk

Doreen Setume, Modernity: a gender based assessment of changed courtship patterns and cohabitation in Botswana: a case study of Bakwena of Molepole

PhD student:
Doreen Setume
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn, Rijk van Dijk

Fatimata Diallo, The technologies of information and the communication and the construction of the State under the rule of law in Senegal

PhD student:
Fatima Diallo
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn

Gerda Hooghordel, Transformations in healing processes of female Zulu sangomas in the transition from a rural to an urban society

PhD student:
Gerda Hooghordel
Supervisor:
Wouter van Beek, Rijk van Dijk

Harrie Leyten, Objects with power

PhD student:
Harrie Leyten
Supervisor:
Wouter van Beek

Henrietta Nyamnjoh, Communication technologies, politics and mobility in the Bamenda Grassfields and amongst Bamenda Grassfielders in the South West Province of Cameroon and in the diaspora

PhD student:
Henrietta Nyamnjoh
Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn

Inge Butter, Navigations of a Globalizing Chad: Nomadic Walad Djifir Grounded in Connectivity

Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn

Joseph Mangarella, The Politics of African Oil-bearing Communities: New Perspectives from Gabon

PhD student:
Joseph Mangarella
Supervisor:
Jan Abbink, Klaas van Walraven

Karin Nijenhuis, The mobility of farmers in relation to access to land and conflict in Mali

PhD student:
Karin Nijenhuis
Supervisor:
Han van Dijk, Mayke Kaag

Karin van Bemmel, Mental health and the conceptualization of illness in a post-conflict area

PhD student:
Karin van Bemmel
Supervisor:
Rijk van Dijk

Lotje de Vries, Facing Frontiers, Everyday practice of state-building in South Sudan

Supervisor:
Han van Dijk

Margot Leegwater, Land access and local conflicts in Rwanda

PhD student:
Margot Leegwater
Supervisor:
Jan Abbink

Martin van Vliet, An in-depth empirical study of the democratic consolidation process in Mali

PhD student:
Martin van Vliet
Supervisor:
Jan Abbink

Maru Shete, Land grabbing in Ethiopia

PhD student:
Maru Shete Bekele
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz, Marcel Rutten

Melle Leenstra, Beyond the façade: instrumentalisation of the Zambian health sector

PhD student:
Melle Leenstra
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz, Jan-Bart Gewald

Mercy Derkyi , Forest governance and conflict management in Ghana

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Michael Glover, Cattle and colonialism: an animal-centred history of southern Africa 1652 to 1960s

PhD student:
Michael Glover
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald, Harry Wels

Michiel van den Bergh, Livelihood changes and their impact on land use, habitat and the survival of migratory bird species in Burkina Faso

PhD student:
Michiel van den Bergh
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz, Dick Foeken

Peter Justin: Grounding land governance- Land conflicts, local governance and decentralization in post-conflict South Sudan

Supervisor:
Han van Dijk

Romborah Robert Simiyu, Gender dynamics of urban agriculture in Eldoret, Kenya

PhD student:
Romborah Robert Simiyu
Supervisor:
Ton Dietz, Dick Foeken

Samantha Williams, Access conflicts at the Coast of the Western Cape in South Africa

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Samuel Ntewusu, Settling in and holding on: a socio-economic history of northern traders and transporters in Accra's Tudu: 1908-2008

Supervisor:
Mirjam de Bruijn, Jan-Bart Gewald

Sander Muilerman: Cocoa governance in Ghana

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz

Sebastiaan Soeters, How has the introduction of motorized transportation shaped the social and economic lives of Tamale's rapidly increasing, urban population?

PhD student:
Sebastiaan Soeters
Supervisor:
Jan-Bart Gewald

Verina Ingram, Non-timber forest product governance in Cameroon

Supervisor:
Ton Dietz
Posted on 6 March 2012, last modified on 29 April 2021
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Source URL: https://www.ascleiden.nl/content/graduate-programme-african-studies