Early-Stage Researcher (Doctoral Scholarship) Marie Curie ITN Project

Resilience in East African Landscapes: Identifying critical threshold and sustainable trajectories – past, present and future (REAL)

University of Warwick -Department of History

Historical change in the wider Kilimanjaro lowlands (Amboseli-Pangani-Challa-Pare), c.1830 to the present

Kilimanjaro has always had an iconic status among travellers to and cultures of East Africa, resulting in a rich archive of information on landscape dynamics and human-environment interaction. Colonial archival sources and topographic maps, travellers accounts and other forms of printed evidence, historical (aerial and landscape) photographs, local knowledge accumulated from field interviews with farmers and pastoralists, and remote-sensing data available for more recent years, will all be synthesized to give a coherent picture of what is known about landscape change, and its proximate causes, on the Kilimanjaro lowlands over the past two centuries. The project will require archival research in east Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), along with extensive fieldwork in the study area. Knowledge of KiSwahili will be an advantage.

It is the aim of the wider REAL programme to combine the findings of this historical component with palaeoecological data gathered by other researchers to provide a longer historical perspective within which to frame the current rapid transformation of the area, characterized by pastoral communities switching to sedentary agriculture, partly in response to recent decimation of pastoral herds by drought and the ready availability of pumped groundwater. These changes may be indicative of adaptability and long-term resilience to shifting environmental regimes; however, they also resulted in enhanced local human disturbance and human-wildlife conflicts, and may represent an unsustainable trajectory. The comparative and collaborative aspects of the programme will address these broader questions in a multidisciplinary way.

The research will require several months of fieldwork in relatively remote rural locations in Kenya and Tanzania.

Awards available: 1 award available

Funding Details: The scholarship will cover fees (paid directly) and a living allowance to the value of £37,831 gross per annum, provided through an employment contract adhering to standard FP7 Marie Curie guidelines. Funding for the scholarship will also provide an additional monthly mobility allowance depending on family situation. Project funds will also cover field costs and travel.

Length of Award: 3 years (PhD)

Eligibility: Open to Home (UK & EU) and Overseas

Applicants will hold a First Class or Upper Second class BA or BSc degree, and a Masters degree in History, Environmental Studies, Geography, African Studies, or in a cognate subject, the latter to have been received no earlier than October 2009.

Applications will be assessed based on the following criteria:

• Practical experience and academic background of relevance for the project, e.g. experience of work with archives relevant to East Africa, and/or interview based fieldwork in East Africa or in a comparable rural environment
• Knowledge of scientific theory and method of relevance to the research project (i.e. environmental history of Africa)
• Analytical ability and skills in writing, as demonstrated by the submission of written work for assessment by the appointments panel
• The applicants personal references

Application Details: Further details, including information about how to apply can be found on the following webpage: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/news/marie_curie_studentship

For further information, please contact: Professor David M. Anderson, History Department, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, email D.M.Anderson@warwick.ac.uk.

Deadline:  21 June 2013