Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. March 2018

Second Workshop of the Fellows in the Humanities

This Second Workshop in the Humanities had a twofold aim: To share and discuss first results of fieldwork conducted during the first year of the project, and to spark one's academic writing skills and motivation.

© RKT 2018
Humanities Group with PostdocPartners in Kampala
© RKT 2018
audience during presentation
© RKT 2018
host Dr Saudah Namyalo giving her Welcome Address
Several senior scholars honored the VW fellows' meetings with their presence and expertise.

Professor Edward Kirumira, Dr Elizabeth Kyazike, Dr Tugume Hassan, Dr Aaron Mushengyezi, Professor Abas Kiyimba and Professor Susan Kiguli all contributed considerably to this workshop by giving speeches, commenting on paper presentations and conducting the writing workshop. The whole team is grateful for the close collaboration with Makerere University and its staff, as well as with Dr Elizabeth Kyazike from Kyambogo University, which was enabled and facilitated by the hosting Makerere fellow Dr Saudah Namyalo.

© RKT 2018
distinguished scholars from Makerere and Kyambogo University partaking in the meeting
© RKT 2018
Prof. Reinwald with the Principal of the College of Humanities
© RKT 2018
Susan Kiguli

Part One: Sharing Results

Dr Wazi APOH from the University of Ghana, Accra, gave a presentation on “Museum Exhibits as Sites of Contested Memory and Reflections: Showcasing the Findings on the Archaeology of German Colonization and Missionization of German Togoland.” He was commented on by Dr Plan SHENJERE-NYABEZI  from the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr Pastory M. BUSHOZI  from the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania presented his findings about “The Pattern of Technological Innovations and Chronological Setting of the Kisele Industry at Mumba Rock-Shelter, Northern Tanzania.” This was commented on by Dr Elizabeth KYAZIKE, Senior Lecturer and Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kyambogo University, Kampala.

Dr Halkano Abdi WARIO from Egerton University, Kenya talked about “Counter-Narrativity as Peace, Love and Unity: Citizenship, Belongingness and Re-Appropriation of Kenyan-ness in the De-Radicalization Discourses.” Dr Tugume Lubowa HASSAN, Senior lecturer and Head, Department of Religion and Peace (Makerere University, Uganda) commented on this presentation.

Dr Saudah NAMYALO (Makerere University) and Dr Zarina MOLOCHIEVA (University of Kiel, Germany) gave a shared presentation about “The Vitality and Endangerment of Ruruuli-Lunyala: Facts and Perspective.” Dr Aaron MUSHENGYEZI, Dean School of Languages, Literature and Communication (Makerere University, Uganda) commented on their findings.

Dr Plan SHENJERE-NYABEZI presented “The Zimbabwe Culture in north-western Zimbabwe and the Nambya State: Archaeology, History and Ethnohistory.” Comments were made by both Dr Jan HÜSGEN (National Art Collection, Dresden, Germany) and Dr Wazi APOH (University of Ghana, Accra).

Historian Dr Joseph MUJERE  from the University of Zimbabwe gave a talk on “Dealing with uncertainty: Everyday life in South Africa's informal settlements, c. 1994-2016.” This presentation was followed by a comment by Prof. Brigitte REINWALD (Leibniz University Hanover, Germany.

Part Two: Writers' Workshop

Workshop "Academic Writing" with Professor Susan Kiguli

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audience involved with the Academic Writing Workshop
© RKT 2018
Professor Susan Kiguli during her talk
© RKT 2018
Susan Kiguli, a lively orator

From Professor Susan Kiguli the fellows got several important tenets, some of which are documented below:

"The key progress in academic writing is writing."

"Simple is effective."

"Talking about writing is an important key to becoming a productive writer."

"Academic Writing is made of inspiration and thorough planning."

"Writing is a dialogue with the papers written and the later readers."

 

During the groupwork part of the workshop, Professor Kiguli asked the participants to introduce and present someone else's paper as if it were an own work. Suggestions for improvement, helpful hints and other advice was also to be directed at the wildcard owner of the text to save the real owner from embarrasment. This technique lead to many comical situations, but yielded positive results for the authors too, because the distanciation enabled objective insights and a different assessment of the text.

Key Note Speech "Writing to Grow" by Professor Abasi Kiyimba

© Stefanie Wefers i3Mainz 2018
Prof. Kiyimba giving his Key Note Speech

Abasi Kiyimba's Key Note Speech: "Writing to grow after Writing to graduate" addressed the challenges of writing that may occur after the PhD honeymoon phase.

 - Even though they have just proven being able to collect a large corpus of data in an organized way and being qualified to bring forth a publication about that, many young scholars tend to abstain from writing, he said, because they are burdened with teaching, course-related work and exams, or spend large amounts of time in university committees and admission meetings. Nevertheless, Kiyimba asserted, they should participate in the production of knowledge beyond the classroom. Knowing the many demands on their time that scholars are facing, how can this be enabled?

Professor Kiyimba first emphasized the many strengths that scholars at that stage have. He sees strong analysis and problem solving skills, explained how the writing process has necessitated the ability to form and defend independent conclusions, to have developed organizing principles, and gauged the fellows capable to understand and synthesize data, as well as to design and analyse surveys. Apart from that they also have interpersonal and leadership skills (as writing a PhD is also "an exercise in PR", as he put it): post-doctoral scholars have been able to convince their supervisors both on a personal level and on the level of writing, they learned to respond to positive and negative feedback, they are supervising their own students in evaluations and reports, are managing funds for prolonged periods of time, are teaching concepts to others, etc. Therefore, Kiyimba stated, concerning self-management and habits a scholar with PhD already proved a lot of dedication and discipline, both of which he or she can resort to as a ressource for further research projects.

 

Kiyimba estimated that every PhD thesis can yield at least 3-5 academic articles, e.g. in form of published (and polished) chapters of the thesis. Additionally, there is usually a lot of undigested data which had to be left out of the thesis for reasons of conciseness and clarity, or unexplored areas which have been outside the main line of the argument. Therefore, young scholars usually have a corpus of unpublished data available in which to dig for publications might be rewarding, he suggests.

Usually, the first attempts in academic writing (seminar papers, classroom and homework essays, Bachelor or Master Thesis, and even the PhD Thesis) have been rather writer-centred. As students no one has to bother about the reader, since the supervisor has to read that paper (Kiyimba coined the term “captive audience”). Students may tend to write for display, to show their knowledge, to convince their supervisor to give them a good grade. Writing at a later stage of the academic career though requires a reader-centred approach: you have to persuade the reader to read your text! You have to make your significance clear. It is required and assumed that you have a grasp on the topic and on your writing as well, otherwise no peer-reviewed journal will publish the text.

Professor Kiyimba shared his huge experience from decades of writing in the academia. From strategies against writer’s block (“write: ‘I can’t write’”) to different writing techniques (pre-writing, rewriting, social writing), from how to deal with disappointments (“try again at another journal”) to being careful with style sheets, word limitations and claims for authority, he supplied a wide array of ideas and inspirational clues.

This speech was eagerly followed by the audience, because it revealed the immense passion that Professor Kiyimba has for writing, and was well presented with humour and understanding. Not least it vividly wrapped up what Professor Kiguli had tought the group the day before.

Part Three: Cultural Excursion to the Uganda National Museum

Photos from the Cultural Excursion

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guide Nanyombi explaining the exhibition
© RKT 2018
traditional Ugandan instruments are on display, a fellow trying his skills
© RKT 2018
getting insights into an original Model T

The conference was concluded by a visit to the Uganda National Museum. As Wikipedia informed us beforehand:

"The museum exhibits ethnological, natural-historical and traditional life collections of Uganda's cultural heritage. It was founded in 1908, after Governor George Wilson called for "all articles of interest" on Uganda to be procured. Among the collections in the Uganda Museum are playable musical instruments, hunting equipment, weaponry, archaeology and entomology."

There is a lot to find out about, especially for Researchers in the Humanities that the VW Foundation group consisted of. Our competent guide Nanyombi Alice indeed intended to show us all of the above, but since our tour started in Stone Age findings, crossed over to a special exhibit about milk both in Uganda and Switzerland, touched a technical innovations exhibit, the Slave trade and missionary past, as well as the collection on Ugandan Olympic teams and athletes, we simply ran out of time at some point. The Museum is well worth a second visit.