The Carnegie Corporation of New York will spend $5-million over the next four years for doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships for African academics in the humanities. The fellowships, which will be administered by the American Council of Learned Societies, will be awarded to about 200 scholars in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The grant money also will be used to help establish a network of advisers and peer reviewers.

The fellowships are something of a departure from most such programs in Africa, which tend to support research and study in science, engineering, and technology. Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie’s president, says that the project grew out of discussions with African higher-education leaders who emphasized the importance of the humanities to social and economic development and voiced concern about the lack of investment in such work.

The effort also builds on Carnegie’s existing work in developing African higher-education infrastructure. —Karin Fischer