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Cadbury Research Fellowship Scheme

Thanks to the generosity of the Cadbury family, the Department of African Studies and Anthropology is able to support a range of collaborative activities between the Department’s staff and scholars based at African institutions.

Individual Cadbury Fellowships

The Department has offered individual fellowships to scholars based in African institutions for many years, and recent appointments have typically been at a postdoctoral level. Our recent fellows are

Asa Mudzimu (2025-2026)

During his stay at the University of Birmingham, Asa will explore the multi-layered relationships between population movements and African experiences of disease and environment in Zimbabwe. He focuses on how ideas of disease and environment not only shape knowledge systems but also result in the making and remaking of social identities and shifting relations with political authorities.

Morenikeji Asaju (2022-24)

During her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Birmingham, Morenikeji carried out research on the history of women and marriage in early-twentieth-century Abeokuta, Nigeria. Following on from her fellowship, Morenikeji took up a position at Governors State University in Illinois, USA.

Dr Morenikeji Asaaju talks about her research

Themed Cadbury workshops and conferences

The Department has run a themed annual research programme since 2002. For this programme, the Department selects a research theme, opens a call for visiting fellowship applications, and selects early career scholars based in African institutions.

When visiting fellows arrive in the department, they join in a series of developmental activities organised around the annual research theme and open to members of academic staff and postgraduate students. These activities include presentations of work-in-progress, reading groups, writing groups, speaker events, research methods sessions, and one-to-one meetings. Visiting fellows also have access to the University’s excellent library and research collections.

The final element of the programme is the Cadbury conference, at which fellows present their work, alongside other speakers from around the world.

Cadbury workshops and programme events have focused on the themes listed below along with the year’s invited Cadbury Fellows (2024: workshop participants):

2025: Conventions of creativity: Everyday artistry in Africa (A workshop in honour of Karin Barber)

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Innocent Ngulube (University of Malawi, Malawi)
  • Sikelelwa Anita Zimba (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)
  • Moruff Modasiru (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

2024: Conventions of Creativity. A Workshop at the Lagos Studies Association (LSA), Nigeria

Workshop participants:

  • Clement Tayo Abegunde (Kwara State Polytechnic)
  • Noah Opeyemi Balogun (Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti)
  • Alexander Bud (The Open University, UK)
  • Precious Chinecherem Edemadu (The University of Nigeria at Nsukka)
  • Emmanuel Edafe Erhijodo (University of Ibadan)
  • Yinka Akintunde Fagbile (Lagos State University of Education)
  • Oluwatosin John Ibitoye (Kwara State University)
  • Deborah Jonathan (Federal University of Lafia)
  • Stephen Toyin Ogundipe (Obafemi Awolowo University)
  • Adeolu O. Ogunsanya (University of Ibadan)
  • Raji Lateef Olatunji (Lagos State University of Science and Technology)

2019: Law, Custom, and Urban Property in Africa

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Hamissou Rhissa (Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Niger)
  • Nana-Anna Abaka-Cann (Legal practitioner and University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
  • Fasil Giorghis (Architect, heritage activist, CEO of FG Consult, and Professor of Architecture at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia)
  • Simeon Koroma (Executive Director of Timap for Justice, Sierra Leone)
  • Taibat Lawanson (University of Lagos, Nigeria)
  • Tshenolo Masha (Head of Housing for the legal NGO ProBono.Org, South Africa)
  • Sheila Minkah-Premo (Activist lawyer and legal researcher, Ghana)
  • Aichatou Boubacar Mounkaila (Activist lawyer, Niger)
  • Nompumelelo Seme (Legal practitioner and lecturer in law at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

2018: Slavery, Post-slavery, and Gender Violence in Africa

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Patrick Abungu (Kenya)
  • Melvine Lilechi (Kenya)
  • Bosha Bombe (Ethiopia)

2017: Marriage in Africa (A workshop in honour of Lynne Brydon)

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Rosemary Obeng Hienneh (University of Ghana, Ghana)
  • Roseanne Njiru (Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya)

2016: Bodies of Text: Learning to be Muslim in West Africa

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Issouf Binate (Université Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast)
  • Aboyomi Ogunsanya (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
  • Yunus Dumbe (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana)
  • Aliyu Alabi (Bayero University, Nigeria)
  • Emilie Roy (Al Akhawayn University, Morocco)

2015: Interdisciplinary approaches to the economy of the present

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Muritala Monsuru ( University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
  • Tinashe Nyamunda (University of the Free State, South Africa)
  • Ezinwanyi Adam (Babock University, Nigeria)

2014: Money and Value in Africa

Cadbury Fellows:

  • Anya Egwu (Covenant University, Nigeria)
  • Charles Edaku (Nkumba University, Uganda)
  • Oluwatoyin Omobowale (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)