Sylff Research Grant for FY2022

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce that 53 fellows have been named to receive a Sylff Research Grant (SRG) for fiscal 2022 (April 2022 to March 2023).

SRG was launched to enable a wider range of research activities during the pandemic, which had forced the suspension of all Sylff support programs (except SRA without Overseas Travel) since April 2020. It is designed to compensate for the resulting loss of funding opportunities and overcome the challenges posed by the lingering restrictions on international travel and large gatherings.

We were delighted to receive a great number of outstanding applications from fellows all over the world. The selection was highly competitive, and all applications were carefully reviewed from the perspectives of adherence to prescribed format, clarity of the statements, academic and/or social significance of the research, and feasibility of the proposals.

Congratulations to all the awardees! We hope the research conducted with this award will bear much fruit, both for the fellow and for society. The list of the 53 awardees and their research themes can be viewed at: List of SRG Awardees FY2022

You may find their Sylff profiles at: https://www.sylff.org/fellows/?p=SRG

Participants:
—Sylff Steering Committee, Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe”
• Giovanni Notari, SJ, Director (top row, third from left)
• Massimo Massaro, Sylff Chair (top row, left)
—Sylff Fellows, Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe”
• Zeno Franchini (top row, right), (middle row, left to right) Francesco Montagnani, Danila Taccone, Federico Prestileo, Luca Carmelo Aiello
—Sylff Association Secretariat, Tokyo Foundation
• Mari Suzuki, Executive Director, Tokyo Foundation (top row, second from left)
• Yoko Kaburagi, Program Officer (bottom row, left)
• Maki Shimada, Program Officer (bottom row, right)

An online orientation for the Sylff Program 2022–23 was organized by the Institute of Political Education “Pedro Arrupe” on April 1, 2022, with members of the Sylff Association secretariat attending.

After an introduction to the Sylff Program by the Sylff Association secretariat, the new fellows made presentations of their action-oriented research topics designed to benefit the local community. The Institute’s Sylff program is called the “Idea-Action Research Program,” which provides a framework for fellows to apply scientific ideas to the resolution of real social issues through community engagement The following are their research topics:

Zeno Franchini: The status and effectiveness of inclusion practices in Palermo and how to create the foundations for new forms of activism and political and social struggle

Francesco Montagnani: The marginality in contexts undergoing redevelopment, with an emphasis on the decision-making practices that direct them through the construction of legitimate knowledge of the territory starting from the rearguard

Danila Taccone: Survey on the awareness regarding the rights, skills and vision of the future of girls in the age group 16-30 of a marginal neighborhood of the Palermo area in order to facilitate a process of self-narration based on the use of new technologies

Federico Prestileo: The effects of the change in public space that took place in the village of Sant'Erasmo in Palermo starting from some urban regeneration interventions that have changed its face

Luca Carmelo Aiello: Investment in the civil economy sector, with reference to the management and support of sustainable entrepreneurship paths from an economic and social point of view

The meeting ended with speeches by Mari Suzuki, Executive Director of the Tokyo Foundation, and Father Giovanni Notari, SJ, who both reaffirmed the goals of the Sylff program.

Despite the physical distance between Italy and Japan, the orientation session served as a great opportunity for the Sylff Association secretariat to learn more about the unique features of Institute’s program, notably the alignment of research and action at the grassroots level.

The island of Sicily, where the Institute is located, is one of the most marginalized areas in Italy with high unemployment and poverty rates but also with great potential not fully expressed. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, it is home to a large number of immigrants, contributing to its diversity while at the same time posing the question of their effective integration into local society. Fellows at the Institute are tackling such issues through multiple approaches, including not only academic research but also community action focusing on minority groups.

We hope that the new fellows will take full advantage of the Sylff program to advance their research and social activities and embody the Sylff mission in becoming leaders capable of transcending differences.

(from left: Payoshni Mitra and Rimple Mehta)

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to share wonderful news submitted by two fellows from Jadavpur University in India.

Payoshni Mitra (Photo: IWG Women & Sport)

Payoshni Mitra, a 2005–07 fellow, was appointed the first-ever Chief Executive Officer of the UNESCO-affiliated Global Observatory (GO) for Gender Equity & Sports, newly established in January 2022 in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, Switzerland, to promote gender equity in and through sports.

Mitra is a prominent athlete rights advocate and a gender and sports scholar. She has been fighting for nondiscrimination and inclusion of women athletes for over a decade, addressing human rights violations in sports, influencing important institutional changes, and helping athletes win legal cases.

Read the IWG Women & Sport press release on her appointment:

https://iwgwomenandsport.org/fr/athlete-rights-advocate-payoshni-mitra-announced-ceo-for-global-observatory/

Another Jadavpur fellow, Rimple Mehta, 2011–13, who is now Lecturer and Associate Dean, International (South and Southeast Asia) of the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, has published Women, Incarcerated: Narratives from India. The book, co-edited with social anthropologist Mahuya Bandyopadhyay, is based on a social action project Mehta undertook on “Carceral Logics and Social Justice: A Dialogue between Practitioners, Scholars and Activists,” supported with a Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI) grant.

(photo: Oriental BlackSwan)

Mehta has been researching the issue of women’s imprisonment in India since 2008 when she met Bangladeshi women who had been incarcerated for illegally crossing the border to India. After a decade of research, her work has expanded to advocate against discrimination of women prisoners in the country, which was socially a neglected issue. She has been working to raise awareness of this issue by networking with activists, scholars, social work practitioners, and public administrators, as well as through her widely discussed first book, Women, Mobility and Incarceration.

Congratulations to both fellows for their important achievements, and we wish them even greater success henceforth in realizing their vision for a more just and inclusive society.

Sylff Research Abroad without Overseas Travel for FY2021

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce the 11 recipients of SRA without Overseas Travel awards for fiscal 2021 (April 2021 to March 2022). Like last year, this year’s Sylff Research Abroad was modified to accommodate restrictions on international travel due to COVID-related health and security concerns. We were delighted to receive a great number of outstanding applications from fellows all over the world in spite of the current constraints.

We reviewed all applications carefully from the perspectives of eligibility, the feasibility of the proposals, and the relevance of the proposed research to the applicants’ academic pursuits. The awardees were at different stages of their research, some taking advantage of SRA without Overseas Travel to collect fundamental data for their doctoral dissertation, with others using the opportunity to verify their findings and receive further advice from overseas experts.

The secretariat was heartened by the initiative and leadership demonstrated by fellows intent on taking advantage of the support program despite the pandemic-induced setbacks to their research endeavors. We are also grateful to Sylff steering committee members at each Sylff institution for their cooperation in encouraging fellows to apply.

Congratulations to all the awardees! We send them our best wishes and hope the research conducted with this award will be fruitful in advancing their doctoral research. The 11 awardees are as follows:

* Listed in alphabetical order.