Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West-Africa
The interdisciplinary Graduate School ‘Performing Sustainability’ is a collaborative training network for graduate students run by the University of Hildesheim (Germany), the University of Maiduguri (Nigeria) and the University of Cape Coast (Ghana).
The initiative focuses on innovative research that brings together approaches from performance, arts and culture to bear on sustainable development as defined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A specific focus lies on issues of peace and conflict resolution.
Through a structured PhD program, twelve PhD and six Master’s degree students will be trained within the first three years. All students will consistently mediate and disseminate the knowledge they acquire throughout the course of their future academic careers. Following the focus on theory-practice relationship of the University of Hildesheim, program participants are encouraged to start working on projects in the educational, socio-cultural or cultural policy field to implement SDG 16 into their society.
By arranging two-month guest research stays for African academics in Germany, a yearly three-month stay of a guest researcher at one of the African universities and three-month doctoral research stays at the Unversity of Hildesheim, the cooperation among all university partners will deepen through the exchange of research concepts and teaching methods. Three short-term scholarships for German postgraduate students in Ghana or Nigeria will enable collaborative research projects with African students. This collaboration will contribute to mutual quality control of the work and link the cultures of knowledge.
