SPP 1448 Knowledge Transfer Project - Curriculum Development

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This knowledge transfer project (KTP) will jointly develop curriculum in Science and Technology Studies (STS) with the following application partner universities: Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg (WISER, South Africa), the Child Health and Development Centre at Makerere University (Uganda), the Fourah Bay College at University of Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation at University of Liberia (Liberia) and the Centre for Research in Anthropology and Human Sciences, N'Djamena (Chad). The project primarily targets graduate and post-graduate students, faculty at our application partner universities and practitioners in development cooperation. The courses in STS will contribute to curriculum development at African higher education institutions (HEIs). The outcomes will be: (1) new course material and teaching methods developed at partnering African HEIs based on the findings from the SPP 1448 on the uses of technologies in the production of order and disorder on the African continent; (2) in addition to the STS courses, we will develop a free STS e-learning tool; (3) the free STS e-learning tool aims to broaden access to STS teaching and enhance the international visibility of African scholars and African universities by producing African e-lectures (4) finally, this KTP will open new lines of scientific research on the production of knowledge infrastructure in African countries. The STS s will provide a reflexive understanding of current technological and social transformations in African countries by combining methodological and conceptual perspectives derived from anthropology, STS and area studies. We emphasize that the subject matter of the STS courses is grounded in the lived experiences of technologies in African contexts. We will develop the free STS e-learning tool through a field experiment, which connects field school exercises, empirically grounded analysis of mass media technologies, with interdisciplinary perspectives on media practices in Africa, to develop alternative modes of teaching and research in times of digital globalization. The resulting free STS e-learning tool seeks to address diverse audiences comprising African HEIs, HEIs internationally, government agencies and non-governmental organizations.