The Yinka Shonibare Thesis Scholarship to Nigeria
The Yinka Shonibare Foundation Guest Artist Spaces in Lagos and in Ikise, Nigeria. Pics by Open House Lagos, photographer: Olajide Ayeni and Andrew Esiebo.
The application for the Yinka Shonibare Thesis Scholarship 2024 is open between September 18, 2023, and October 18, 2023. Students are expected to arrive and stay at one of the Foundation’s Residencies in January 2024. Find out more about the application process.
Yinka Shonibare CBE is a world famous British-Nigerian artist who during his long career has been exploring national identities, the implications of colonialism, the construction of cultural identity and the relationship between Africa and Europe.
During the summer of 2022 he and his studio created the Yinka Shonibare Room in the SSE main building at Sveavägen 65. The artistic fee for this work was generously donated by Yinka Shonibare CBE to the school in order for SSE to create the Yinka Shonibare Thesis Scholarship.
The scholarship program aims to provide the students with field study work on a thesis topic related to global development issues and is primarily aimed at students who will write their thesis on issues related to the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Issues related, for example, to eradicating poverty and hunger, realizing human rights for all, achieving gender equality, ensuring the protection of the planet and its resources, education, economic growth and productive employment, sustainable industry, innovation and infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities. The Swedish part of the program is initiated in cooperation with Stockholm School of Economics Art Initiative.
The students will visit Nigeria for four weeks to study a thesis topic related to UN Agenda 2030 and during that period either work with a local organization, collect data, do interviews or other types of documentation necessary for the thesis. The work is part of the degree projects at the bachelor's or master's level. The visiting program in Nigeria is a minimum of four weeks, with living and local transportation costs covered.
Who can apply?
SSE BSc and MSc students who are to write a thesis from all subject specializations are welcome to apply. However, all projects should have a social science focus, with a topic related to the UN Agenda 2030, and preferably also be related to the economic disciplines, in order to be assessed in a factual and fair manner.
A condition for the scholarship is, of course, that the thesis focuses on Nigeria with development issues.
Yinka Shonibare CBE. Image courtesy of G.A.S. Foundation. Photography by Andrew Esiebo.
About Yinka Shonibare CBE: Yinka Shonibare was born in London in 1962. He grew up in Nigeria and then returned to the UK to study art and has had an outstanding career. His art explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. He was the 2022 artist at the Royal Djurgården and Princess Estelles Cultural Foundation, and a new site-specific sculpture by Shonibare was inaugurated at Djurgården in June 2022 as part of the new sculpture park - the same year as the Yinka Shonibare Room at Stockholm School of Economics was created.
About Yinka Shonibare Foundation: The vision behind the Yinka Shonibare Foundation is "to support the development of new work and ideas, to foster mutual understanding of cultural differences as we break down traditional barriers of privilege and wealth, to build access and create new pathways to education, to forge new networks and a resilient cultural infrastructure that will enable the next generation to thrive, not just survive.” Also “The Foundation’s vision will be implemented through hosting and supporting residencies, education and professional development programmes in the UK and Nigeria.”