Call for Applications: Just Urban Transition in African Cities BA Funded International Workshop

Deadline for Submissions is 4th  July 2025

We invite applications from early career scholars from across the African continent to participate in a year-long series of activities to support and promote their writing and publication in the field of Just Urban Transitions. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with leading publishers and receive mentorship through the programme. 

Faced with a polycrisis of climate change, high levels of urbanisation, youth unemployment, and poor governance, African cities find themselves at the cusp of transition. The key question for many African cities is how to shift towards low-carbon economies, climate resilience and reduced resource consumption, whilst delivering infrastructure that prioritises the needs and aspirations of low-income communities (Culwick Fatti et al., 2023). 

The workshop is constituted through a partnership of Cardiff University, the African Studies journal and the Governing the Just Urban Transition project based at the University of the Western Cape’s Politics and Urban Governance Research Group. The workshop will support emerging scholars who are studying, theorising and exploring the ways that African cities are driving towards Just Urban Transitions. The workshops will enhance African scholars’ capacity for publication in high-impact journals and guide promoting their work on other platforms, through providing ongoing support so that young African scholars make their work known on the global stage.

The workshops consist of: 

• One online event (Sept/Oct 2025) to co-organise and co-design the in-person workshop.
• A face-to-face writing workshop to be held in Cape Town, South Africa (Jan/Feb 2026).
• A final online symposium to present work (May 2026).

Eligibility:

Applicants must:

• Be based at an African institution of research or higher education.
• Be an emerging scholar (i.e. scholars who have not yet been a lead author published in an international journal.)
• Not have been in an established academic post for more than 10 years (excluding career breaks).
• Have a high level of English and be able to write to academic standards in English.
• Be working on a topic related to the Just Urban Transition in Africa.
• Propose a publication based on original research.

Applicants should complete the online form, which requires:

• Motivation statement (max 500 words) outlining your reasons for participating, what you aim to work on during the writing workshop, and your publication goals for the period.
• Education/work/publication experience (e.g. highest degree and date, current employment institution/role/date ).
• Short abstract (300-500 words) of the paper/chapter to be worked on.
• Summary of prior publishing experience, if any.

The working language of the workshops will be English. Participant selection will consider gender and geographic balance, as well as the strength of applicants’ motivation statements and the quality of their submitted abstracts.

The deadline for submissions is 4th July 2025. Please submit using this form: https://forms.gle/cJ7EbroYtkbyVfmHA 

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Margot Rubin on RubinM@Cardiff.ac.uk