Nisrin Elamin awarded fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies

Nisrin Elamin has been awarded a 2024 fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. Photo credit: Diana Tyszko.

Nisrin Elamin, an assistant professor with the Department of Anthropology and the African Studies Centre in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been awarded a 2024 fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

The fellowship is presented annually to scholars who are poised to make original and significant contributions to knowledge in any field of the humanities or interpretive social sciences, and is intended to support six to 12 months of sustained research and writing.

Elamin’s work investigates the connections between land, race, belonging and empire-making in Sudan and the broader Sahel region. Her ACLS fellowship will support the completion of a book project entitled Stratified Enclosures: Land, Capital and Empire-Making in Central Sudan. This work focuses ethnographic attention on Emirati and Saudi land investments in Sudan’s agricultural Gezira region, and on the varied forms of resistance they have inspired over the last decade.

“I am incredibly honored to be among so many wonderful scholars chosen for the ACLS award,” says Elamin. “I am very grateful to be afforded the time and space to focus on writing and learning through this fellowship, particularly given the impact the ongoing war in Sudan has had on the issues I explore in my work and on the people whose lives have been upended by militarized state violence.”

Originally published on April 8, 2024 by Cynthia Macdonald of A&S News