The University of Nairobi continues to record honourable milestones after a Kiswahili lecturer from the institution bagged an award in the US.
In a statement from the university released on Tuesday, August 18, Prof. Iribe Mwangi, the Chairman, Department of Kiswahili was awarded by the prestigious Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship.
Mwangi was awarded alongside Prof. Mungai Mutonya of Washington University in St. Louis after presenting a proposal to the fellowship titled "Collaborative Research and Graduate Training and/or Mentoring: Interdisciplinary Focus on Language Contact‚ Migration‚ Innovation‚ and Identity’
The don further revealed that they emerged victorious after several competitive rounds of evaluation by the Advisory Council of Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP).
“Our proposal has been selected for funding by the Advisory Council of Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) after several competitive rounds of evaluation. The proposal is gauged among many others, the process is very competitive.
“The proposal must have an African diaspora researcher. In our case, we have Prof. Mutonya. We wrote a collaborative proposal and the sociolinguistic research we are doing is now fully funded," stated an elated Prof. Mwangi.
The lecturer further revealed that he had made an application to the fellowship in December 2019 and the research was to kick off this year but the Covid-19 pandemic derailed the plans.
"We were to start this year but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will commence next year. The process started in December 2019," he stated.
The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) is a scholar fellowship program for educational projects at African higher education institutions.
The grant, which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) is offered in collaboration with the United States International University Africa (USIU-Africa).
A total of 471 African Diaspora Fellowships have been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
For African scholars to qualify for the grant, they must have been born in any African country, hold a terminal degree and be employed at an accredited college or university.
Some of the benefits of the grant include a $150 (Ksh 15,000) per day stipend, visa costs as well as supplemental health insurance coverage.
The scholar is also eligible for a round-trip international air travel and ground transportation costs to and from the scholar's home to the North American airport.
