The Institute of African Studies is delighted to announce that Melissa Armstrong, a doctoral candidate in the department of History, has been awarded a Vanier Scholarship, valued at $50,000 per year for three years. Her research, a continuation of her Master’s project, concerns the provision of health care by the African National Congress (ANC) and its military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa between 1963 and 1990. In March of 2014, she published the preliminary findings of her research in the South Africa Historical Journal in a article entitled: “Healthcare in Exile: ANC Health Policy and Health Care Provision in MK Camps, 1964 to 1989.”
Winning a Vanier Scholarship is the most recent of Melissa’s many achievements. In 2013 she won a Commonwealth Scholarship Plan that would have enabled her to continue studying at Oxford University, where she obtained her MA in African Studies, but she turned down the offer in favor of Carleton University. When asked why, she answered:
“Carleton provides students with amazing opportunities to excel academically and enjoy the graduate student experience. Our University is home to the first and only Institute of African Studies in Canada, to which more than forty faculty members from a wide variety of fields are affiliated. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to be working with Professor Susanne Klausen. She is a very talented historian and her work is on the cutting edge of South African medical history. I have full confidence that her supervision will dramatically strengthen my research; she has already extended my academic networks by introducing me to a number of key South African historians. The existence of the Institute facilitates the building of a community of Africanists on campus and provides opportunities for students to both hear new research as well as share and receive meaningful feedback on their work. I have already been given opportunities to present my research at events organized by the Institute.”
Additionally, Melissa values Carleton’s location in the capital city, which is ideal for meeting officials that work at or visit the African embassies based in Ottawa. “There is potential,” she says, “to meet officials at events organized by either the university or the African diplomatic community.”
Melissa is certain she wants to teach African history when she completes her PhD. Therefore, another reason she chose to study at Carleton is to have the opportunity to teach a course in African history after completing her comprehensive exam. Last year, through Carleton’s Educational Development Centre, she took the certificate course “Preparing to Teach,” a 3-month-long extra-curricular course made up of 12 students dedicated to becoming better teachers in a university setting. She believes these experiences will make her competitive when in future she enters the academic job market.
The Institute of African Studies is proud to have attracted such a dedicated and impressive young scholar to Carleton University and wishes Melissa success in the archives when she returns to South Africa next year to conduct her doctoral research.
