Freiburg Africa Talks - "International Partnerships: Reciprocity and Academic Freedom"

Akosua Adomako Ampofo is Professor of African and Gender Studies at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. She describes herself as an activist scholar and at the heart of her work are questions of identity and power – within families, political and religious spaces, and the knowledge industry. Her areas of interest include African Knowledge systems; Higher education; Race and Identity Politics; Gender relations; Masculinities; and Popular Culture.

In 2005 she became the foundation Director of the University’s Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy and from 2010-2015 she was the Director of the Institute of African Studies. Adomako Ampofo is past President of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA); an honorary Professor at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Birmingham; and a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is Editor-in-Chief, Contemporary Journal of African Studies and Co-Editor, Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa blog. Her recent book co-edited with Josephine Beoku-Betts is titled Producing Inclusive Feminist Knowledge: Positionalities and Discourses in the Global South (Bingley: Emerald Publishing 2021). She co-produced the documentary When Women Speak with Kate Skinner (directed by Aseye Tamakloe, 2022) as part of a project titled Archive of Activism: Gender and Public History in Postcolonial Ghana. The goal of this project is to constitute a publicly accessible archive of, and documentary on gender activism and “political women” in postcolonial Ghana. Adomako Ampofo’s work has been variously recognized and in 2010 she was awarded the Feminist Activism Award by Sociologists for Women and Society (SWS). Adomako Ampofo is The GPN Wangari Maathai Visiting Professor at the University of Kassel (Oct 2023- March 2024).

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Andreas Mehler, Director of the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut, Director of ACT,  Professor of Development Theory and Development Policy

Language: English

Location: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, KG I, Hörsaal 1098

Recording available in the video portal of University Freiburg