Letter to fellows

July 22, 2013

Dear CARTA Fellow,

We look forward to welcoming you to JAS 3.

Overall the purpose of JAS 3 is to provide you with protected space to:

• Analyze and write up your thesis  

• Present sections of your work

• Reflect on your own work

• Offer collegial critique to other fellows

• Make use of the resource people who will be available at JAS 3

It is in your best interest to be well-prepared and thus we think it is helpful to make our expectations of you explicit. These include that:

• You will bring your data with you and that you will have adequate data to analyze.

• You will complete and bring to the JAS all the chapters preceding the data presentation section of your thesis.

• You will bring the thesis writing guidelines/format from your institution.

• You draw up a plan of what you want to get out of JAS 3 prior to your arrival at JAS 3.

• You should arrive with a detailed  analysis plan (we have appended some useful examples of these to assist you in case you do not have this yet - you will be using this in the first day of the JAS  so please have it with you).

• As one cannot write without reading, we assume that you have been doing an on-going literature search. Please make sure that you bring the relevant literature and your endnote library with you to JAS 3. You will need this when interpreting and writing up your data.

• Prior to attending JAS 3, please make sure you have had a detailed discussion with your supervisor(s) so that you are well-prepared to make the best use of JAS and are able to bring your supervisor’s expertise to bear on the way you approach the write-up of your thesis.

During the JAS, we expect you to be able to articulate your needs and be self-directed and thus make full and appropriate use of the resource people available.  Find out which facilitators have what skills and make use of them. Some will be qualitative scholars, some quantitative researchers and yet others will have expertise in data interpretation and use of databases etc. Also remember that some of the resources and skills will be located in other fellows. 

At the end of each week, you will benefit most out of the JAS if you review what you have achieved and develop a work plan for the next week – you need it at the diagnostic session at the start of every week. Do please email a copy of your plan at the end of each week to carta@aphrc.org.

Remember also that in academic work you may have to make a judgment call about competing advice. You will have excellent and important advice primarily from your supervisor(s). At JAS 3, you may also get feedback from the various facilitators and fellows. It is possible for all the advice and feedback that you will receive to be complementary, but they could also be contradictory. You need to make your own judgment of how to use the advice and be able to justify why you are taking a particular approach to your analysis or interpretation of your data. The important thing is that your justification is coherent and well-argued. Being open to critique and engaging with it however is important. To be able to change your mind on the basis of new evidence is also very important.

We believe that JAS 3 will be a very creative time and we wish you all the best as your progress to the next stage of your PhD. Once more, we look forward to welcoming you to Ibadan.  

All the best,

Chima Izugbara, PhD

For CARTA