10/14/2026
Geography PhD candidate Sibahle Ndwayana has received a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. The award will support his dissertation research, “Sonic Territories: Sounding a Black Sense of Place from Santiago, Cabo Verde.”
Sibahle’s project looks at how sound shapes ideas of place, belonging and Blackness on the island of Santiago, Cabo Verde. He works with methods such as soundwalking, field recordings and sonic archives, including oral histories and LP sleeves. Through these, he explores how people in Santiago hear and voice their sense of place, both within the broader Kriolu identity of the islands and beyond it.
The Wenner-Gren Foundation is one of the leading international funders of anthropological research. Its Dissertation Fieldwork Grant provides up to $25,000 for doctoral research that advances our understanding of what it means to be human. Applications are reviewed for the strength of the research question, methods, and the project’s potential contribution to the field.
