79 new Gates Cambridge Scholars have been selected for 2022, and Deusdedit (Deus) Kansiime will be joining the Sidney community as the College’s newest Gates Scholar.
The Gates Cambridge scholarship programme is the University of Cambridge’s flagship international postgraduate scholarship programme.
This year’s Scholars come from 30 countries and are studying subjects ranging from food security and bat reservoirs for viral diseases to how gut hormones control food intake and blood glucose levels.
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship aims to identify and select applicants who are academically outstanding and are likely to be transformative leaders across all fields of endeavour.
Deus Kansiime will be arriving at Sidney from Uganda to complete his PhD Research in English.
Discussing his research interests, Deus commented, “During my undergraduate and graduate studies at Makerere University in Uganda, I was fascinated by the gap between the literature we were taught and the literary texts that had currency on the Ugandan cultural scene. These texts were produced by an emerging generation of writers whom my university professors knew so little about and had so little interest in, yet these writers and their writing fraternities constituted the most vibrant literary ecosystem that resonated with contemporary publics. These were the writers dominating shortlists of literary prizes in the region. They associated themselves with non-academic, non-commercial literary organisations – LINGOs.
“I intend to use my PhD to explore the underbelly of this network of literary value in Africa by examining the institutional logic of these literary organisations in light of their posture as expressions of literary activism. By theorising literary activism in a LINGO framework, my PhD project shall help inform publishers, literary award organisations, writers and academics about the emerging literary enterprise in Africa. It will also help demonstrate how the LINGO framework is essential in reconfiguring cultural discourses and creating new spaces for free expression.”
Deusdedit (Deus) Kansiime
The Gates Cambridge Scholars class of 2022 can be viewed on the Gates Cambridge website.
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