Background

This call for abstracts is under the new U.S. Studies Center in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration supported by the U.S. Mission Uganda. As part of the startup grant for the Center, funds were earmarked for the initiation of the research agenda on the Study of the United States. The research agenda is pitched on how Uganda’s civilizational experience—related to progress in culture, economy, peace, science, and technology; can be strengthened by leveraging fraternal relations between the people of Uganda and the United States. Therefore, the Department of Political Science invites contributions to a special publication on, “Relationality Between Uganda and the US since 1945”.

The sense of “Relationality”

We take “Relationality” to connote encounters between civilizations. It speaks to the debate on how civilizations can transform each other through engagement. Where civilizations are suggestively transformed on account of relationality, the outcome is “relational interdependence”— relating to how the aspects drawn from other civilizations become constants in the national life of a people. Relational interdependence is a debate and it is sufficient to note that its generative power is drawn from “cross-fertilization—relating to enriching the existing ways of knowing and understanding life in general and “sharing”—relating to forms of exchange among people from different civilizations.

We, therefore, invite researchers from the disciplinary boundaries of humanities and social sciences to engage with the notions of “cross-fertilization” and “sharing” to examine how Uganda-United States relations have impacted Uganda’s civilizational experience as reflected in the different domains of (our) Uganda national life, including:

1. Peace and Security
2. Development/Foreign Assistance
3. Public Health
4. Education
5. Press and media
6. Socio-economics
7. Political organization
8. Arts, Music
9. Literature, Language
10. Visualization of national history and heritage

The researchers should interrogate the extent to which relations between Uganda and the United States have impacted one of the domains of Uganda’s national life (as listed above) since 1945.

The Plan

1. We plan to commission researchers to undertake studies on the domains of Uganda’s national life and how Uganda-US relations have impacted them since 1945. We shall publish an edited book volume with Routledge Publishers as part of the dissemination of the findings.
2. We thus ask interested researchers to submit 500-word abstracts proposing a paper contribution to the research agenda. The abstracts should revolve around one of the domains of Uganda’s national life. Researchers should also provide the titles of two recent publications on related topics.
3. Selected researchers will receive a research grant of USD 4000, to facilitate data collection and writing.

The Process

A. Abstracts should be submitted by 15^th January 2025, to the investigators:

1. Dr. Edward S Kaweesi (PI) edward.kaweesi@mak.ac.ug
2. Prof. Paul Omach (Co-PI) paul.omach@mak.ac.ug
3. Prof. Phillip Kasaija(Co-PI) phillip.kasaija@mak.ac.ug

B. The selection process will be concluded on 20^th January 2025, and the results will be communicated on 22^nd January 2025
C. The meeting between the selected researchers and the investigators will take place on 30^th January 2025.
D. Launch of the research agenda will take place on 21^st February 2025.
E. Data Collection will take two months, from 1^st March to 1^st May, 2025
F. Review meeting, 9^th May 2025
G. Writing process to take two months, from 15^th May to 15^th July
H. Peer Review of the first drafts (August)
I. 15 August, 2025, U.S Studies Center Public Dialogue on “Relationality Between Uganda and the United States since 1945”.
J. Revision of the drafts to take one month (September)
K. Peer review of the second drafts (October)
L. Revision of the drafts to take one month (November)
M. Submission of the final paper, 1 December 2025
N. Editorial Review and Proof Reading (January 2026)
O. Submission to the Publisher (February 2026)

Please direct inquiries to the investigators listed above.