DocLinks Summer School a Success!

The DocLinks Summer School was organized in Helsinki from July 2nd to 5th by UniPID in cooperation with the University of Helsinki.

The DocLinks summer school was organized in Helsinki from July 2^ndto 5^th by UniPID in cooperation with the University of Helsinki. The summer school aimed to increase understanding and establish better links between African and European doctoral candidates and early career researchers by inviting 23 students from all over Africa and Europe from a wide variety of disciplines to share their research and ideas.

The overarching focus of the summer school was "Bridging Research and Policy for Sustainable Development”. Under this theme various issues related to researchers’ academic responsibilities and roles, and the communication of research findings were widely discussed. Students took part in lectures and working groups, contributed to the discussions as well as presented their own work.

Straight from the opening session and the lively debate it sparked, it was clear that this year’s students were an active and highly articulated group. The opening words from Elina Oinas from the University of Helsinki and the keynote "Bridging research and Policy for Sustainable Development” by Professor John Wood from the Association of Commonwealth Universities as well as the commentary lecture "Higher Education and Development: Implications for and of Knowledge-based Economy and Society” by Gutu Wayessa from the University of Helsinki all highlighted the changing world of academics and universities as well as the increasing need of highly educated people, especially in regions like Africa where the numbers of universities are rapidly increasing. Other important issues like the role of information, movement of people, social media and roles of development narratives were discussed.

The first day ended with a workshop from Diana Coates from Development Research Uptake in Sub Saharan Africa (DRUSSA). The workshop served to help students define their own research uptake and beneficiaries. At the same time, the workshop also provided an important forum to discuss issues such as: the relationship between the current realities of research funding and its implications to research practices and topics, and the more idealistic notions attached to academic freedom and the role of researcher in thinking through also issues that may counter funder interests.

The second day started with two interesting lectures by Professor Kopano Ratele from University of South Africa and Carli Coetzee from SOAS, University of London, also the editor of the Journal of African Cultural Studies. In his lecture on "Translating Theory to Other Languages” professor Kopano brought forward the complexities between research and genuine research findings and the needs of policy makers. Through practical examples from his own research, Professor Kopano posed the question of how to simplify complex problems and solutions into a clear three point program that policy makers can handle without compromising the research as a whole. Carli Coetzee continued from where professor Kopano left off with a lecture on "Images of Africa” to discuss the role of words and language and the problems that oversimplifications and one sided writings on Africa can pose. Many terms that are widely used hold hidden meanings and can strengthen stereotypes and also define the outset of the research unintentionally. What was evident after the lectures was the need to learn the language of the trade and also to hold oneself accountable on the language one chooses to use.

The lectures were followed by a visit to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs where Riikka Laatu and Katja Ahlfors discussed with the students on the Finnish development policy, its focus areas, the role of partner countries and also the role of research and higher education cooperation in Finnish development policy. The visit also sparked discussions around the relationship between researchers and policy makers and practitioners, as well as issues like corruption.

The long day finished with another workshop discussing the differences between general descriptions of research and press releases, with a focus on how to talk to different audiences.

The third day was solely reserved for working on academic writing. The day started with some basic pointers on how to publish a peer reviewed journal article from Janet Remmington of Francis and Taylor Publishers, Carli Coetzee from SOAS and Elina Oinas from University of Helsinki. The students received practical tips on how to choose the right journal, how to tailor the article to fit the chosen journal and how to structure a publishable article. The rest of the day was spent in small groups working on individual article abstracts. To end the day there was a short panel on research funding opportunities and cooperation opportunities by Dr. Erol Kulahci and Eva Kagiri.

The last day began with a panel on "Academic freedom, responsibilities and roles: Negotiating ideologies, politics and values in research”. The panel started with a keynote from Dr. Magdalena Ngaiza from the University of Dar es Salaam. Dr. Ngaiza discussed widely the role of a researcher in local communities and pointed out some obstacles in forming a functional, yet accountable, relationship with the local community and some countering interests that locals may have. The discussion was taken forward by Professor Kopano Ratele (University of South Africa), Professor Berhanu Abegaz (African Academy of Sciences), Professor Leapetswe Malete (University of Botswana) and Peter McEvoy (Irish African Partnership), who brought forward issues such as: research and activism, the role of ideologies, innovation, technological development and the role of universities.

To end the summer school, the participants were asked to complete one more assignment - to draw a hand of key moments along with an engagement ring - the thing you will take with you for the rest of your life. It was truly inspiring to see sharing and learning from academics from very different disciplines.