Call for Papers: Resilient Urban Communities Conference & PhD Seminars – Strathmore University

PhD Seminar Call and Purpose

The PhD Seminar aims to improve the research work of current PhD students and broaden their perspectives by giving them the opportunity to discuss their research ideas and results in a supportive environment, where they receive constructive feedback from an audience consisting of peers as well as senior researchers in the field, reflect upon publication and career strategies, provide a forum for the interaction among the PhD students and an opportunity to network with the international RUC community. The PhD Seminar Call 2022 is open to all enrolled doctoral students doing research in non-profit studies, urban studies, development economics, or related fields at all stages of their doctoral studies. Those PhD students doing research on social entrepreneurship, NPOs and Philanthropy including the social economy are particularly encouraged.

The key themes for PhD Seminar include supportive ecosystems, participatory urban governance, management structures of SEs and NPOs, and their resilience/sustainability. Some of the seminar topics (but not limited to) are building resilience during PhD work, incorporating diverse points of view in your research, types of research approaches and designs, managing the relationships with supervisors /receiving feedback and publication of high-quality academic articles. The central attractions to this PhD Seminar are

the small group sessions: each student is allotted time to discuss her/his work and obtain feedback from peers and faculty. The PhD Seminar also includesopening and closing plenary sessionsand at least one professional development session with presentations by leading scholars in the field. Additionally, the PhD Seminar shall feature the 3-minute Thesis Competition (voluntary). The winner will be awarded a monetary prize and their presentation will be featured on the RUC website. The seminar is envisaged to take place on a face- to-face basis, but in case of restrictions due to COVID, we are prepared to switch to a virtual session. RUC shall provide limited scholarships to attend the seminar expected to take 1 and 1⁄2 days. Each application for the PhD seminar should include:

•  A research paper not exceeding one and a half pages that refers to the stage of your thesis (e.g., proposal, literature review/ theoretical development, methods, incipient results (a proposal template will be provided).
• A personal motivation statement of about 3⁄4 page length and what you hope to get from Seminar.
• An official document confirming your status as a doctoral student at your University.

Eligibility

• Be doctoral students, particularly at early stages of their research work. If you expect to defend your dissertation before December 2022, you do not apply as you will not likely benefit from the Seminar.
• Be conducting research connected to non-profit-organizations and social enterprises in deprived communities and in policy fields such as housing, education, social services with a special focus on governance arrangements and business models.
• Be able to participate in the entire PhD Seminar to be held in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Be prepared to present and discuss their doctoral work with peers and faculty, and to participate in anactive and constructive way in group discussions.

Early Research Career (ECR) Seminar Call and Purpose:

ECRs generally face far greater difficulty at research work and even publications with often inadequate understanding of the publishing models including open access journals. The ECR Seminar shall allow you to build ideas about your research teams, establish the collaborations and networks necessary for your professional growth, establishment as independent researchers how to lead unique and innovative programmes of research within your domains. For this seminar, the ECRs are expected to have some initial but limited postdoctoral experience and not yet ready for independence or to lead their own groups but expected to have started to make important contributions to research. They will be in the initial stages of driving their own research (usually evidenced by publications) but they still require more time to consolidate their existing skills and explore new scientific realms, under the guidance of an experienced researchers or sponsors.

The seminar targets ECRs who are able to articulate and drive their own research ideas and form collaborations, but are not yet ready to lead their own independent research groups. The ECR Seminar Call is open to researchers within 5 years after their PhD qualification doing research in non-profit studies, urban studies, development economics, or related fields. The costs of research career mismanagement are high and include stagnation in growth, reduced ability to generate research funding and impact of research project completion among others. Some of the seminar topics (but not limited to) are leading research teams: the challenges, exploring the transition to research leadership, managing performance and underperformance, collaboration and fostering interdisciplinary research and publications of high-quality journal articles. The seminar is envisaged to take place on a face-to-face basis, but in case of restrictions due to COVID, we are prepared to switch to a virtual session. RUC shall provide limited scholarships to attend the seminar expected to take 1 and 1⁄2 days. Each participant application should include:

• A research profile that includes the qualifications, your recent publications and your research summary in thearea of focus
• A personal motivation statement of about 3⁄4 page length and what you hope to gain from the Seminar
• An official document confirming your status as a Researcher or Faculty at your University

ECR Seminar Eligibility

• Be researchers with at most 5 years PhD qualification and trying to set their research career on track.
• Be conducting research connected to non-profit-organizations and social enterprises in deprived communities and in policy fields such as housing, education, social services with a special focus on governance arrangements and business models.
• Be able to participate in the entire ECR Seminar and Conference to held in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Be prepared to share their current research with peers for networking and identification of collaboratorsin an active and constructive way in group discussions.

Resilient Urban Communities (RUC) Conference

The programme focuses on social enterprises (SEs) and non-profit organizations (NPOs) as subsidiary social service providers and vehicles for participation and integration in African mega cities that contribute to the resilience of urban communities. Organizations of the civil society or development space, such as social enterprises (SEs) and non-profit organizations (NPOs) are important players in the labour market of African economies. The presentations for the Conference shall majorly be from the research being undertaken though the organizers will allow exceptional research contributions closely related to the research domain, including invited speakers. The PhDs and ECRs with close related researches shall be invited to make presentations after reviewing their extended individual abstracts. The full research papers fof the accepted presentations by the PhDs and ECRs, that meet individual journal requirements shall be forwarded for publication in different journals that RUC Consortium team subscribe within the research domain.

Proposed Programme for the Conference and Seminars

• Monday, 5th December 2022 (RUC Consortium Meeting and Visit to Social Enterprises)
• Tuesday, 6th December 2022: (Whole Day) PhD and ECR Seminars
• Wednesday, 7th December 2022: (Morning) PhD and ECR Seminars
• Wednesday, 7th December 2022: (Afternoon) Peer Mentor Sessions and Visit to National Park
• Thursday, 8th December 2022: (Whole Day) Resilient Urban Cities ConferenceConference Deadlines:

Conference Deadlines

• Call for Papers: 2nd May 2022
• Submission of Abstracts Deadline: 3rd August 2022
• Acceptance of the Abstracts Deadline : 3rd September 2022
• Acceptance of Presentation Videos Deadline: 3rd October 2022
• RUC Conference and Seminars: 5th to 8th December 2022