New joint-research project with TU Chemnitz

During this research stay in TU Chemnitz (May-June 2016), we finalized a research group linkage project which should take our collaboration into the future. The new project involves 5 junior scientists (4 from Cameroon and 1 from Germany), as well as many senior academics based in Cameroon, in a series of research seminars and academic exchanges. There are a significant number of potential post-doctorate applicants for Humboldt scholarship in Cameroon. We want to work with these junior scientists within a framework of a group so that they are able to submit applications for the Humboldt scholarship.

Participation in academic life at TU Chemnitz

I participated in 2 international academic events organized at TU Chemnitz and presented a paper in a departmental lecture series, CASE 7. The first conference on “Crisis, Risks and New Regionalism in Europe II: Emergency Diasporas and Borderlands” took place from June 1-5 at Altes Heizhaus. This was a DAAD funded conference organized by the department of Intercultural Studies. The second one was the “1st Chemnitz/Dresden Corpus Linguistics & Digital Humanities Conference” organized by the department of English Language & Linguistics on July 18. On July 13, I presented a paper entitled: “Tertiary Academic Writing in Cameroon English in Comparison to Native English: Exploring Quantitative and Qualitative Patterns”. I discussed academic collaboration and publication with Dr Renata Povolna of the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, who also presented a paper entitled: “Cross-cultural Analysis of Conference Abstracts”. We also had very fruitful academic discussions with the Nigerian participant at the event: Professor Alexandra Esimaje of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City Nigeria.

Overall, I had the privilege to contribute to students’ research from BA to PhD. Here are some examples. (1) Gabriela Cosmina (TU Chemnitz): She is working on a BA thesis on the writing of dissertation introductions by Cameroonian students. Her study is based on a corpus of students’ academic writing in Cameroon which I had compiled. (2) Adeiza Isiaka (Lagos, Nigeria): He is completing a PhD thesis on the Nigerian English vowel. (3) Jacinta Sarpong Edusei (Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana): She is completing a PhD thesis on hedging in Ghanaian academic writing.

Cultural activities/excursions

My daughter, Fanyi Joy Nkemleke, and I undertook a number of cultural tours in Germany. We attended the Annual General Meeting organized by the Humboldt Foundation in Berlin from 6-8 of July and also travelled to Freiberg for a cultural tour. Back in Chemnitz, we attended a number of club activities organized by Chinese, Albanian and Cameroonian students studying here at the university. We witnessed many activities (Opera, dance etc.) downtown Chemnitz on week-ends.