Early careers researchers awarded UKRI research grants and fellowships
SOAS researchers Dr Ret'sepile Makamane and Professor Caitlin Procter have received Future Leader Fellowships research grants from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation).
The grants and scheme support researchers to curate and led their own programmes, with four years of funding provided to further innovation in their respective fields.
Dr Makamane’s project ‘Epic Africa: Reimagining Southern Epistemologies Through African Epics’, revolves around African epics – historic and grandiose narratives and stories that have been neglected across global educational and literary frameworks, to rethink and challenge traditional knowledge systems from the Global South through transformative intellectual and structural interventions.
This fellowship will enable me to develop greatly as a researcher, and to establish and lead a new cohort of scholars and a collaborative global network.
Professor Caitlin Procter who is set to join SOAS, and research focuses on migration, has received funding for her project ‘Confronting Catastrophe: The Social Condition of Atrocity and the Politics of Justice in Gaza’, which looks at how communities continue to live amidst atrocity, alongside methodological approaches for future justice and accountability.
Speaking on receiving the fellowship, Ret’sepile said: “I am extremely elated and honoured to have been awarded the Future Leaders Fellowship. This fellowship will enable me to develop greatly as a researcher, and to establish and lead a new cohort of scholars and a collaborative global network to bolster decolonisation of pedagogy and theory on Classics and African Epics, to deliver real-world impact.”
Developing this research alongside outstanding partner organisations will also create real potential for the work to inform policy and contribute to meaningful change beyond academia.
Delving into how the fellowship will support her project Caitlin said: “I’m truly honoured to receive this grant, which represents the opportunity to undertake sustained research on a profoundly difficult subject with the care, rigour, and responsibility that such work demands. Developing this research alongside outstanding partner organisations will also create real potential for the work to inform policy and contribute to meaningful change beyond academia.”
The UKRI is a non-departmental public body of the UK government that directs and further research and innovation funding, to advance knowledge, improve people's lives and drive growth across the country.
