London School of Economics and Political Science Africa Dissertation Funding

The Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa can provide up to £1,000 to LSE Masters students to conduct fieldwork in Africa for their dissertation. The call for funding opens each year in Lent term.

Eligibility

The FLCA puts out a call for Dissertation Fieldwork Funding every year in Lent Term.

To be accepted for funding students must:

• Be enrolled in an LSE Master’s programme
• Provide a letter of authorisation for their fieldwork from their Head of Department
• Provide a letter of recommendation from their supervisoralong with a complete application form.

Students are expected to have also applied for support to their departments, and the FLCA will assess sympathetically applications that are partly funded by their departments.

There is no preference for any methodology, research location, or subfield. However, preference in selection of projects funded will be influenced by current research in the centre and will ideally enhance ongoing work.

Note that fieldwork is likely to involve the submission of Health and Safety Risk assessments and Ethical Review to LSE. It is the responsibility of the applicant and the applicant’s department to ensure that those processes have been completed before fieldwork commences.

Students of all nationalities are eligible to apply but a Master’s thesis must be Africa-related. 

Applications 2020

Applications for dissertation fieldwork funding in 2020 are now open and can be made using the form here.

Once completed, please submit the form to [email protected] for consideration. The form should be accompanied by a letter of authorisation for the fieldwork from the applicant’s Head of Department and a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s supervisor. 

The deadline for applications is 30 April 2020.

Past Recipients

In 2019, 15 students received the MSc Dissertation Fieldwork grant. Recipients studied a variety of topics, from rights-based activism by mining affected communities in South Africa to refugees’ work to sex workers self-perceptions in Ghana.

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Masters Dissertation on Africa Prize

Recipients of the FLCA’s Dissertation Fieldwork Funding are automatically submitted to entry for the Masters Dissertation on Africa Prize. 

Aimed at encouraging and celebrating outstanding fieldwork and research on Africa, the Masters Dissertation on Africa Prize will be awarded to the year’s most innovative and significant Master’s dissertation which furthers our understanding of the continent.

Please see here for more informaton.

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For all enquiries, please contact [email protected]