Fellows for
Working Group “Multiple Futures through Time” in Winter 2013-14
Call for Proposals

The Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, currently working on the topic “Future Africa – Visions in Time”, is happy to invite applications for its second round of guest fellowships. During the Winter Semester 2013-14, the Academy will run a working group on “Multiple Futures through Time“, focusing on the diversity of conceptualisations of ‘future’ in Africa, in African diasporas, and in other parts of the world. In a systematic and comparative perspective we will investigate how these notions are shaped by, and have shaped in turn, different historical contexts. The debates within this Working Group will develop new insights into how and why such ideas change through time and how they relate to each other through transfer, memory, and references. This Working Group is hosted by one of the Academy’s five sub-projects titled “Narratives of the Future in Modern African History”.

The Bayreuth Academy welcomes proposals for this international Working Group which will meet on a regular basis between mid-November and late January 2013-14. It offers a number of short-term guest fellowships within this period to junior (postdoc) as well as senior scholars working on aspects related to our theme. Scholars who are interested to share their ideas with other researchers from both inside and outside the Bayreuth Academy are invited to submit a proposal. The aim of the Working Group is to bring together research and debates from a wide range of disciplines and approaches. It will provide space for innovative encounters.

Guest Fellows of the Working Group should work on at least one of the following four questions:
- How did ideas, practices and representations of ‘future’ change over time? How do or did they change in specific periods and contexts?
- How can we categorise and periodise visions of 'future', and how does its diversity and changeability challenge us to rethink our disciplinary or regional perspectives?
- Which temporal, social, political, logical and aesthetical dichotomies are involved in concepts of ‘future’? To what extent are historical, biographical, communicative or environmental processes related to concepts of ‘future’?
- To what extent are (or were) earlier concepts, practices and representations of ‘future’ included in more recent concepts and on which conditions? To what extent are such concepts of ‘future’ transferred across social, cultural or regional boundaries?

Guest Fellows may stay for a period of one week up to two months, any time between mid- November 2013 and late January 2014. All Guest Fellows who intend to come for a short period only should plan to include into their stay either the second week of December 2013 or the third week of January 2014, when important workshops will be held. Guest Fellows are expected to participate in all meetings of the Working Group and discussions and exchange with Fellows of the Bayreuth Academy and other Guest Fellows as well as in other academic and public events. They are expected to contribute to joint publications and facilitate new research projects.

Applications should be submitted by September 4th, 2013, to bayreuth.academy@uni-bayreuth.de and be accompanied by a CV and a brief statement of the proposed contribution to the Working Group’s theme. Proposals will be reviewed and selected on a competitive basis. Depending on the employment status of successful applicants, guest fellowships are granted either with a salary or with a per diem allowance.