In 2014, the Gerda Henkel Foundation initiated a scholarship programme supporting young humanities scholars from Africa and Southeast Asia in honour of the foundation's founder, Lisa Maskell. It is the largest international support programme for PhD students in the history of the Foundation. The Lisa Maskell Fellowships aim to strengthen universities in the partner countries, to counter the outflow of qualified young scholars and to ensure the doctoral students enjoy excellent academic training.
In the following months, L.I.S.A. will publish interviews with the Lisa Maskell Fellows from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, in which they will talk about their research projects as well as their experiences during their academic career and the Lisa Maskell fellowship.
This week, we welcome Yustina Komba from Tanzania. After graduating from the University of Dar es Salaam, she started her PhD in History with the thesis The Impact of Coffee Production on Land Use and Local Ecology in Mbinga District, Tanzania, from the 1950s to 2000 at Stellenbosch University in 2018.