The Chevening West African Manuscripts Crowdsourcing Project Fellowship

Applications are invited for the 2023 Chevening West African Manuscripts Crowdsourcing Project Fellowship for postgraduate researchers, fully funded to St Pancras site in London and benefit from unique research and professional development experience.

The Chevening Fellow will develop a community crowdsourcing project to improve the discoverability of approximately 10,000 digitized West African manuscripts in Arabic script. The EAP team is keen to ensure these manuscripts are assigned Arabic titles within the Library’s catalog, making them more accessible to local communities. There is a current imbalance between titles being in the original script, English, or non-standard transliterations. The Library’s Digital Research team will provide guidance to the Fellow on all aspects of setting up and overseeing the crowdsourcing elements of the project.

The Fellow will oversee and promote the crowdsourcing project, drawing upon their already established contacts and developing new ones. The Fellow’s understanding of West African manuscript culture and interested communities will bring expertise, support, and guidance to the project, harnessing contributions from the crowdsourcing project and preparing the integration of the new data into the Library’s catalog.

Tasks

  • Set up a crowdsourcing project for West African manuscripts using Zooniverse (guidance will be provided)
  • Promote the crowdsourcing project within West Africa as well as relevant institutions outside of the region
  • Engage with the community of contributors
  • Help promote the project more widely through blog articles and collection highlights on the Library’s webpage, to encourage further engagement with the collections

Duration: A 12-month period of project-based activity at the British Library

Benefits

  • Living expenses for the duration of the fellowship
  • Return economy airfare from home country to the UK
  • Up to £1,000 from the British Library for approved project-related expenses
  • Access to a program of cultural events and activities organized by the FCDO and the Chevening Secretariat
  • Access to a highly regarded global network of over 50,000 Chevening Alumni
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Eligibility


To be eligible for the Chevening West African Manuscripts Crowdsourcing Project Fellowship, applicants must:

  • Demonstrate the potential to rise to positions of leadership and influence
  • Demonstrate that they possess the personal, intellectual, and interpersonal attributes reflecting this potential.
  • Be a citizen of the listed countries, outlined respectively in the fellowship theme pages.
  • Return to their country of citizenship at the end of the period of the fellowship.
  • Have a postgraduate level qualification (or equivalent professional training or experience in a relevant area) at the time of application.
  • Have significant professional and/or academic research experience (at least five years).
  • Be currently employed or a currently enrolled PhD candidate.

To apply for the Chevening West African Manuscripts Crowdsourcing Project Fellowship, click here.

Deadline: November 01, 2022.

For more information, visit the official site.