Research

The Ford Program supports faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research on the study and practice of human development.  The program places special emphasis on collaborative, community-based scholarship, which not only addresses difficult research questions but also provide solutions to real-world problems.

Student research grants

The Ford Program will provide both undergraduates and graduate students with grants for field research related to human development in sub-Saharan Africa and other places characterized by extreme poverty.

During the program’s first three years, special consideration will be given to students who develop project proposals that reflect collaboration with institutional partners in Uganda: the Millennium Villages Project in Ruhiira and Uganda Martyrs University in Nnindye.

Annual student research conference

An annual conference on human development will give students conducting research focused on a dimension of human development with the opportunity to share their research with scholars in their fields and their peers at Notre Dame and other universities.  Scholars and students from universities in the developing world will receive travel subsidies so as to broaden and enrich conference discourse and build crosscultural relationships focused on human well-being. The first conference is scheduled for November 7–8, 2008.  A call for papers for this conference will go out during the summer.

Faculty research grants

The Ford Program will provide grants for human development–related research conducted by faculty in sub-Saharan Africa and other places characterized by extreme poverty. 

Faculty partnerships

The program will link Notre Dame faculty in development-related disciplines with our partners in Uganda, encouraging them to develop research projects that not only address difficult questions but may also provide solutions to real-world problems. 

Other research initiatives

• research assistantship opportunities for undergraduate students

• visiting fellowships for prominent Africanist scholars specializing in an area of human development studies

• research and teaching fellowships for faculty who specialize in an area of human development studies and who come from universities in countries characterized by extreme poverty (with a preliminary focus on sub-Saharan Africa)

• a collection of literature and data for human development study and research