King’s College London Africa Studentships (2023/24 entry): African Fashion

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Award details

Project Title: African fashion: creative innovation, sustainable practices and socioeconomic transformation.

This project seeks to understand how fashion producers in Africa use knowledge, technology, capital and inputs to create social, economic and cultural value for domestic and global markets, and how this influences socioeconomic change. Creative economies enable broader readings of value across economic, social and cultural spheres, presenting opportunities for conceptual innovation in this project. Current debates on global production, such as with global value chains, have tended to neglect ideas of lead firms in Africa due to narrow understandings of value. The project therefore aims to move beyond visions of Africa as resource-constrained to focus on creativity, ideas and innovation, including in sustainability, emerging across the continent. The PhD will focus on generating new data on fashion economies relevant to industry and pursue concept-building on lead firms in the global South.

We envisage the researcher using mixed-methods case study research, including (for example) analysis of industry data, surveys, interviews, focus groups and observations, but these will be defined more specifically during the project. The project will focus on one (or more) African country case/s. This will complement existing case studies conducted by the supervisors (Nigeria, Kenya). The supervisors have established partners in South Africa, including SACO (South Africa Cultural Observatory), which would facilitate a research focus on South Africa. However, the team are open to exploring alternative contexts.

Award value

The studentship covers the following for four years:

• Tuition fees at the higher international/overseas rate;
• An annual stipend (living allowance): at the UKRI rate (for the year 2022/23, this was set at £19,688);
• Research costs up to £5,000 per annum.

Eligibility criteria

African Leadership Centre, King’s College London

International political economy, creative and cultural studies

African nationals and be permanently resident in an African country;

• Plan to commence a full-time MPhil/PhD programme at King’s College London in the 2023-24 academic year (Ideally we would like to candidate to start in October 2023 but by no later than January 2024).
• Meet the academic requirements for enrolment for the PhD degree in the Faculty of Social Science and Policy at King’s College London.
• You should hold or expect to obtain a High Merit or Distinction at Master’s level (or equivalent) in any subject.
• Disciplinary areas of particular relevance would include but not be limited to: International Political Economy; Political Economy; Fashion Management; Business; Development Studies; Culture, Media & Creative Industries; Policy; Sociology; Geography; Social Sciences.
• A strong interest in fashion and the creative economy (academic, professional, personal).
• Good team-working, observational, organisation and communication skills.
• Experience of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Application process

The selection process will involve a pre-selection based on documents – CV, cover letter explaining your interest in the project and how your prior experience is relevant, and sample of written work (i.e MSc/MA thesis). Please email these documents to Dr Ikpe and Dr England in advance of applying through the KCL portal. If selected, this will be followed by an invitation to an interview. If successful at the interview, an offer will be made for PhD study and scholarship funding.

The selected candidates must then apply via King’s Apply online application system. Details are available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply

Please apply for Leadership Studies (with reference to Security and Development) (MPhil/PhD) and indicate Dr Eka Ikpe as your desired supervisor and the project title in your application and all correspondence.

Details on the PhD programme are available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/areas/leadership-studies-with-reference-to-security-and-development

In the funding section of the application (Award Scheme Code or Name) use the following code: 2324-AFRICA.

Contact:

For any questions relating to this scheme, please get in touch with the supervisors:

• Ekaette Ikpe: Ekaette.ikpe@kcl.ac.uk
• Lauren England: lauren.2.england@kcl.ac.uk