Planning Grant - South Africa Partnership

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a U.S.-South Africa planning meeting for an international social science workshop to foster collaborative research and education. The planning meeting will take place in Pretoria, South Africa in January 2002. Seven U.S. participants in the planning group wish to establish a more coherent and better coordinated international social science agenda, including a focus on research, education, and training. If successful, the goal is to expand the collaboration to include other countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. The organizer of the planning meeting, Willie Pearson, Jr. of Georgia Tech, will work with his counterpart in South Africa, Tyron Pretorius of the University of the Western Cape. An organizing committee will be comprised of an equal number of representatives from the U.S. and South Africa. Over the course of five days, the group will determine appropriate location, time, and topics for a workshop to be held in late 2002 or early 2003.. While in South Africa, the group plans to meet with members of the academic (primarily social science faculty), business, and government funding communities. This will allow for the discussion to be placed in a broader societal context as it relates to policies and practices that address issues of innovation, economic development, social welfare and workforce development. These discussions will serve a vital function by permitting the committee members to gain a deeper understanding of the most significant social science related issues in South Africa. The planning meeting will serve as the beginning of a dialogue (both electronic and verbal) among the organizing committee members. The end product of the planning meeting will be a workshop. The resulting collaboration and partnerships will enhance discovery and understanding between the U.S. and South Africa while promoting teaching, training, access to higher education, and curriculum reform.