LUMS and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) are inviting research proposals for 3 fellowships in the Fall Semester 2016 (September 2016 to January 2017). The aim of the fellowship is to groom and train young scholars in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies and promote innovative, empirical research and fresh approaches to the study of conflicts and peace building. LUMS interest is in the following areas:
1. New approaches to Peace and Conflict in Pakistan. LUMS would like to shift researchers away from published, secondary sources or printed works towards empirical study of conflicts. This is the primary interest. LUMS believes that without fieldwork, case studies or without first-hand experience of investigating a conflict we cannot produce any meaningful study or scholarship. The university would like to groom Fellows in the use of empirical methods that would best suit their research problem.
2. Contemporary Conflicts in Pakistan. The focus should be conflict situation in Pakistan today—radicalism, sectarianism, ethnic nationalism and threat of separatism and Talibanization. Besides, there are social conflicts like tribal feuds and conflicts over resources. Political violence is another area of interest. LUMS would also invite proposals on internally displaced persons, refugees and internal migration demonstrating impact on social stability and order.
3. Peace Building. LUMS is interested in proposals that explore relevance of traditional social, political or other channels of peace building and how they can be used to help settle specific conflicts. A proposal may assess if these mechanisms have lost relevance and efficacy, if so, what lessons from rest of the world can Pakistan apply in peace building.
4. Conflict Resolution. Proposals should be informed by theoretical literature on conflict resolution and case studies of conflicts from other countries. They should offer research-based solutions to wide range of contemporary conflicts in Pakistan.
Eligibility: Pakistani nationals with BS Honors (16 years education) MA MA, MPhil, PhD or equivalent degree from a well-recognised university in the following fields: Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science, International Relations, Defense and Strategic Studies, History, Anthropology and related subjects. Our preference will be for graduates with high academic merit and achievements. All candidates must have an interest in research and teaching profession.
Compensation and Tenure: Each fellow will have a fixed, non-renewable tenure of six months and will be paid PKR 70,000 per month and PKR 70,000 for the field work relating to his or her paper. LUMS will provide work space, internet facility, access to library and online resources and research assistance. During the fellowship period, the Fellows will be on leave from their parent organisations, if any, and will not take another job or assignment. At LUMS, they will work full-time, participate in the academic activities and make one in-house presentation on the subject of their research.
Faculty Advisors: A faculty advisor will be assigned to each fellow, depending on the convergence of research interests of the two. Each fellow will meet his/her advisor twice a month. The Fellows will be with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Fellows will be devoted fully to research and not teach or work at LUMS or any other place.
Deadlines: last day of submission of research proposals is February 17, 2017. Apply on Prescribed application form.
Only short-listed candidates will be called for interview in the third week of February. Candidates may send soft copies of application along with CV to
Mehreen Jamil,
Programme Coordinator at: mehreen.jamil@lums.edu.pk
Phone: 042-35608114
For inquiries regarding the programme contact: