Hearing from 2024 AfOx Fellow Dennis Masaka
David Damtar (Nominating Academic), Dennis Masaka (2024 AfOx Fellow), Alberto Giubilini (Nominating Academic), and Mostafa Abdelaal (2024 AfOx Fellow) (Left to Right), in front of the the Radcliffe Humanities Building.
"This is my short story about my two-months visit to Oxford University on an Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) fellowship. I must say it has been an opportunity of a lifetime to get such a prestigious one-year AfOx fellowship, two months of which must be spent at an Oxford Institute where one’s collaborator is based. My project is titled; Collective Responsibility and collective meeting of needs, and the question of Land redistribution in Zimbabwe. So, Uehiro Oxford Institute was the main station for my two-months visit to Oxford. I got lots of support from my collaborator, Alberto Guibilini (who contributed invaluable comments to my draft presentation), the director, Roger Crisp, and other members of the Institute and fellows. They all helped in finetuning thoughts I shared in my presentation that was titled; ‘Collective meeting of needs’ and pursuit of land justice: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s land redistribution exercise. I am thankful for this invaluable support, which I am sure will help further develop the paper into a publishable piece!
This story will be incomplete without the AfOx team and TORCH team who made sure that I got so much visibility by ensuring that my profile was on their websites and that of the Institute, and social media handles. I am so grateful for this invaluable initiative meant to amplify and showcase the project I am working on to the scholarly community not only at Oxford but also the global scholarly community. I hope that through these initiatives, I will be able to link up with many scholars and organisations who are interested on my research focus, and possibly will open opportunities for future funding and collaborations. I am also grateful to the AfOx team for affiliating me with Rueben College. Reuben College enabled me to attend some exciting events the college held especially the Tuesday evening presentations. I am indebted to Genevieve Helleringer for showing me around Rueben College and for sending me calendar events for the college. These events enabled me to network with scholars from diverse fields. So, I express my sincere thanks to Reuben College for their generous support and for allowing me to attend their exciting and thought-provoking calendar events.
I also benefited a lot from a debriefing session that was conducted by TORCH. It was an opportunity to engage in a conversation with the TORCH team on what it offers in terms of opportunities and support for fellows. It was also an opportunity to share and reflect on my exciting experiences during the two-month academic visit to Oxford, the progress on my project, the networking and possible collaborations with Oxford-based scholars.
The story will not be ended without mentioning the networking that I had with AfOx fellows. I met many great AfOx scholars from diverse fields and countries. In this age of interdisciplinary research, the great mix of fellows from different disciplines could be an opportunity for interdisciplinary collaborations for research projects and grant applications. It is my hope that these networks will result in future research collaborations that will be beneficial to me and other fellows."
- Dr Dennis Masaka.
The AfOx Visiting Fellowship Programme supports outstanding African researchers across all disciplines in building international research networks and pursuing collaborative projects with Oxford-based scholars. Each fellowship includes a 12-month affiliation with the University of Oxford, comprising ten months of virtual engagement and a two-month in-person residency during Trinity Term. Keep your eye on this space for updates for the next application round of the 2025-26 AfOx Visiting Fellowship Programme.
