EU gives Africa project €2.2m research grant

University of Sussex Professor Steph Newell has been awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant of €2.2m to lead a five-year survey of contemporary urban life in Africa as revealed in attitudes to and perceptions of “dirt”.

‘The Cultural Politics of Dirt in Africa, 1880-present’ (DIRTPOL) is fundamental research that is expected to inform public health policy and practice. It will involve an interdisciplinary team of 14 media and communications scholars, sociologists, cultural historians and others led by Newell, exploring African attitudes to dirt.

The research will draw on in-depth interviews with communities and schools in two African sites – the multicultural cities of Nairobi in Kenya and Lagos in Nigeria. Two teams of three postgraduate researchers will conduct extensive surveys of public discourse, across a number of African languages, on public health and other issues (pamphlets, newspaper articles, radio phone-ins) and carry out archival research.

DIRTPOL will involve collaboration with two African universities. Dr Mbugua Wa Mungai of Kenyatta University in Kenya has been appointed Nairobi regional co-ordinator for the project, while Dr Patrick Oloko of the University of Lagos in Nigeria will be co-ordinator in Lagos.

The project pulls together two important research themes – African popular culture and the exploration of multiple and conflicting definitions of “dirt” to understand how people of similar or different backgrounds perceive each other.