"That is when we were dreaming." How do the South Sudanese diaspora in the UK negotiate their national identity?

这个奖学金是关于弥合作为一个“学徒”的研究人员作为一个博士生和独立工作作为一个完全成熟的社会学家之间的差距差距。我的博士学位通过专注于研究方法奠定了重要的基础-也就是说，思考我们如何才能理解社会事物，什么是有效的，以及我们的方法如何塑造我们看待事物的方式。我通过这个奖学金的目标是运用这些知识来回答有关移民，社区凝聚力和暴力冲突和解的重要现实世界的问题。我有一个项目的开始与南苏丹社区在英国，汇集了这些重要的问题。南苏丹是世界上最新的国家，在经历了50多年的毁灭性内战后于2011年从苏丹分离出来。然而，在独立的炒作和希望之后，2013年爆发了一场新的内战，打破了新国家公民之间的团结感。通过小组讨论，使用独立运动期间拍摄的照片，我将探讨生活在英国的南苏丹公民如何看待他们的民族身份，这既影响他们在英国的生活，也影响他们在祖国的政治参与。分享我的发现是这个奖学金的重要责任-首先是与英国和国际上的南苏丹社区。联合王国参与管理移民和支持社区融入和参与经济活动的政府、企业和民间社会组织也很重要。在国际上，共同的民族认同感如何支持恢复和平的努力是一个紧迫的问题。通过研讨会介绍、博客和更正式的政策简报，我将确保广大受众能够从这一项目中学习。在移民英国、身份认同和归属感等问题日益凸显的当下，我还将通过一个针对中学生的创造性项目，支持年轻一代努力解决这些问题在他们的社区中意味着什么。作为一名学术社会学家，我还需要磨练一系列技能，如教学、展示研究成果和学术写作。我将根据我的博士学位和我的南苏丹项目向学术期刊提交文章，参加研讨会和会议，将在类似领域工作的人聚集在一起，将我的热情引导到教学学位学生中，并在我需要增长知识和能力的领域寻求培训。除了这个奖学金，我渴望通过比较在英国的南苏丹人与在其他国家定居的人的经历来进一步开展研究。与英国不同，在英国，南苏丹的小社区主要由20世纪80年代和90年代有能力移民接受教育的人组成，澳大利亚积极重新安置了大量来自南苏丹的难民，而南苏丹以外最大的公民群体在邻国乌干达。这些人移民的时间和方式以及他们抵达的非常不同的环境可能影响了他们的经历和观点。为了为这个未来的项目铺平道路，在奖学金期间，我将在澳大利亚和乌干达组织实习和/或网络访问。这将意味着我可以建立联系，并向当地人民和组织学习，以最合适和文化敏感的方式为不同的背景设计研究。做研究需要大量的资源，我也会寻找可能对我提出的问题感兴趣的组织，并设计资金投标，使我能够将这一愿望变成现实。

This fellowship is about bridging the gap between being an 'apprentice' researcher as a PhD student and working independently as a fully-fledged sociologist. My PhD laid important groundwork through focusing on research methods - that is, thinking about how we can go about understanding social things, what works and how our methods shape how we see things. My goal through this fellowship is to apply this knowledge to answer important real-world questions about migration, community cohesion and reconciliation of violent conflict.I have the beginnings of a project with the South Sudanese community in the UK which brings together these important issues. South Sudan is the world's newest country, having separated from Sudan in 2011 after over fifty years of devastating civil war. However, after the hype and hope of independence, a new civil war broke out in 2013 which has shattered the sense of unity between citizens of the new state. Through group discussions using photographs taken during the campaign for independence, I will explore how South Sudanese citizens living in the UK see their national identity, which affects both their life in the UK and their political involvement in their home country.Sharing what I discover is an important responsibility of this fellowship - first and foremost with the South Sudanese community in the UK and internationally. It is also important for government, business and civil society organisations in the UK involved in managing migration and supporting communities to integrate and participate economically. Internationally, how a shared sense of national identity supports attempts to restore peace is a pressing issue. Through seminar presentations, blogs and more formal policy briefings I will ensure that a wide audience can learn from this project. At a time when questions surrounding migration to the UK, identity and belonging loom large, I will also support a younger generation to grapple with what these questions mean in their communities through a creative programme with secondary school pupils.As an academic sociologist, I will also need to hone a range of skills, such as teaching, presenting research and academic writing. I will submit articles based on my PhD and drawing on my South Sudanese project to academic journals, participate in workshops and conferences that bring together people working in similar areas, channel my enthusiasm into teaching degree students, and seek out training in areas where I need to grow my knowledge and ability.Beyond this fellowship, I aspire to take my research further by comparing the experiences of South Sudanese people in the UK with those who have settled in other countries. Unlike the UK, where the small South Sudanese community is mainly made up of people who had the means to migrate in the 1980s and 1990s for educational opportunities, Australia actively resettled large numbers of refugees from South Sudan, while the largest group of citizens outside South Sudan is in neighbouring Uganda. When and how these people migrated and the very different environments they arrived in are likely to have influenced their experiences and outlooks. To pave the way for this future project, during the fellowship I will organise placements and/or networking visits in both Australia and Uganda. This will mean I can develop contacts and learn from local people and organisations to design the research in the most appropriate and culturally sensitive way for different contexts. Doing research requires significant resources, and I will also seek out organisations that are likely to be interested in the kinds of questions I am asking and design bids for funding that will enable me to turn this aspiration into a reality.