scholarly journals POLLY HILL: CROSSING AND CONTESTING THE BOUNDARIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AFRICAN STUDIES, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-296
Author(s):  
Robert W. Dimand ◽  
Kojo Saffu
Keyword(s):  
Development Economics ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Secure Base ◽  
Tenure Track ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Indigenous Entrepreneurs ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

Polly Hill spent her long, productive, and at times controversial career crossing and contesting disciplinary boundaries. She graduated in economics at Cambridge, but her doctorate was in social anthropology—with economist Joan Robinson as dissertation supervisor. Her thirteen years at the University of Ghana were initially in economics, then in African studies, and her readership at Cambridge was in Commonwealth studies. As a woman in several male-dominated academic disciplines without a secure base in any (and with distinctive, unorthodox opinions in each), she never obtained a tenure-track appointment despite ten books and fifty scholarly articles. Her books drew attention to the underrecognized agency of indigenous entrepreneurs while her Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for the Prosecution (1986) critiqued a discipline, disciplinary boundaries, and outside experts, both mainstream and radical.

scholarly journals POLLY HILL: CROSSING AND CONTESTING THE BOUNDARIES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AFRICAN STUDIES, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Dimand ◽  
Kojo Saffu
Keyword(s):  
Development Economics ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Secure Base ◽  
Tenure Track ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Indigenous Entrepreneurs ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

Polly Hill spent her long, productive and at times controversial career crossing and contesting disciplinary boundaries. She graduated in economics at Cambridge, but her doctorate was in social anthropology – with economist Joan Robinson as dissertation supervisor. Her thirteen years at the University of Ghana were initially in Economics, then in African Studies, and her readership at Cambridge was in Commonwealth Studies. As a woman in several male-dominated academic disciplines without a secure base in any (and with distinctive, unorthodox opinions in each), she never obtained a tenure-track appointment despite ten books and fifty scholarly articles. Her books drew attention to the underrecognized agency of indigenous entrepreneurs while her Development Economics on Trial: The Anthropological Case for the Prosecution (1986) critiqued a discipline, of disciplinary boundaries, and of outside experts, both mainstream and radical.

First International Congress of Africanists

1963 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
pp. 38-42
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
International Congress ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Boundary ◽  
Preliminary Planning ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana ◽  
African Intellectuals ◽  
Boundary Lines

After more than two years of preliminary planning, the First International Congress of Africanists convened at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 11, 1962. More than 600 scholars and observers attended the sessions, and both the size of the Congress and its organizational problems make an adequate report difficult. This brief summary by the editor of the Bulletin has been compiled with the assistance of other ASA members present in Accra; it attempts to convey a sense of the conference atmosphere as well as record its formal sessions. The proceedings of the Conference will be published by UNESCO. The conference opened with an address by President Nkrumah in which he stressed the importance of African studies in revitalizing Africa's cultural heritage, and in developing a sense of nationality and Africanness. He considered in detail the development of African studies as a serious academic study, the coming of age of African intellectuals, and the necessity of utilizing a subject such as sociology in planning for an African future, contrasting this with anthropology which he felt had little to offer modern Africa. His speech helped to establish a tone for the conference; in addition to academic matters strictly defined the conference participants found themselves concerned with such questions as the role of African and non-African Africanists, differing viewpoints of English and French speakers, and geographic and disciplinary boundary lines. Perhaps naturally at a first international conference, there were many preliminary problems to sort out before serious scholarly discussion could take place.

Akwaaba! My Welcome to Ghana

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 134-139
Author(s):  
Alma Riggs
Keyword(s):  
Short Distance ◽  
Capital City ◽  
African Studies ◽  
State University ◽  
Master's Program ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
African Soil ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

I first landed on African soil in August 1999, prepared to begin a yearlong master’s program in the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. During my final year as an undergraduate majoring in international affairs at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, I had applied for and was awarded a scholarship from the Rotary International Foundation. Although I had about nine months to prepare myself for my stay in Ghana, the reality of everything I saw and experienced there defied and often surpassed my expectations. The university is in Legon, a short distance north of the capital city of Accra. Accra is an enormous, sprawling city, and I really didn’t expect it to be quite so big. But with a map in hand, it was fairly simple to get from place to place, and people went out of their way to make sure I got to where I was going, if I asked for help. There is a lot of poverty, a lot of children who are on the streets selling odds and ends rather than going to school, and a lot of pollution (air, water, land, noise—you name it). But there is also an enormously warm feeling there, which is somehow indescribable. Friendliness and helpfulness seem to be characteristic, and despite the healthy dose of precaution I tried to maintain, I had the feeling (and I have been told, as well) that Accra is a very safe city.

The Future of Africa's Past: Observations on the Discipline

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 453-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Western World ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
The Future ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The University

In April 2007 David William Cohen and his graduate students held a symposium on the future of African Studies at the University of Michigan. David Cohen, two graduate students—Isabelle de Rezende and Clapperton Mavhunga—as well as five invited speakers with different disciplinary backgrounds—Pius Adesanmi, Tim Burke, Jennifer Cole, Paul Zeleza, and myself—contributed papers. The purpose of the conference, entitled “2020: Re-Envisioning African Studies,” was twofold. First, it appeared timely to reflect yet again on the state of African Studies in disciplinary-based and area studies departments. Second, David Cohen had the idea of 2020 representing both the utopia of ideal vision and the concrete question of what the field might look like when the graduate students participating might conceive their second book projects. What follows are the thoughts—not a list of solutions—by a historian who has studied in three academic contexts—Germany, Zimbabwe, Britain—who has taught in as many—Britain, Germany, USA—and who has gathered experience both in area and disciplinary-based departments.Finding one's intellectual home in area studies is problematic for a range of reasons, not least for the exoticization and marginalization of non-western world regions in the global flows of ideas. At the same time, African Studies make for a comfortable sense of belonging. This is a community of scholars who provide a productive and engaging, if at times impassioned, conversation with colleagues across disciplinary boundaries, time periods, and the great diversity of African and diasporic societies and regions. The question is: what place does the historical discipline occupy within this field, and what is its future?

scholarly journals ‘It’s Your Story, Don’t Lose It’ – Using Sound And Image Heritage to Bridge Cultures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Opoku-Boateng
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Roundtable Discussion ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

On 27th October, 2016, the J. H. Kwabena Archives of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana joined forces with UNESCO and other audiovisual archive institutions globally to celebrate “The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage” (WDAVH), a day set aside by UNESCO to raise general awareness of the need for urgent measures to be taken and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents as an integral part of national identity.  The theme for that year’s celebration was “It’s your story, don’t lose it.”  My outfit organized a roundtable discussion on the theme and invited three renowned professors from the University of Ghana, who have had tremendous experience in fieldwork documentation, archiving, and dissemination.  The three discussants were; Professor Daniel Avorgbedor [1], Professor John Collins[2], and J. H. Kwabena Nketia, founder of what is now known as the J. H. Kwabena Nketia Archives.  After the roundtable discussions, I did a solo interview with him on UNESCO’s theme for the day.  This interview collates the views I gathered from Nketia from the roundtable discussion and the subsequent solo interview in the comfort of his home in Madina, a suburb of Accra. [1] http://www.ug.edu.gh/music/staff/prof-daniel-avorgbedor [2] http://www.ug.edu.gh/music/staff/prof-edmund-john-collins

scholarly journals Re-fashioning African Studies in an Information Technology Driven World for Africa's Transformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-137
Author(s):  
J O Akolgo
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
University Students ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
African Studies ◽  
African Society ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

The African Studies programme, launched in the University of Ghana by Ghana's first president, was for “students to know and understand their roots, inherited past traditions, norms and lore (and to) re-define the African personality” and the “inculcation of time honoured African values of truthfulness, humanness, rectitude and honour …and ultimately ensure a more just and orderly African society” Sackey (2014:225). These and other principles constitute some of the cardinal goals of the programme in both public and private universities in Ghana. Considering tertiary education as both a public and private enterprise, this paper seeks to enrich the discourse on African Studies by taking a retrospection of the subject and investigated university students' perceptions of the discipline among public and privately funded spheres. Adopting a qualitative approach, the paper interviewed students on the relevance of the discipline in a contemporary information technology driven world. The outcome of such interrogation was that African Studies is even more relevant in the era of globalization than it might have been in immediate post independent Africa. It concludes by unraveling how the discipline can be re-fashioned for Africa's transformation. 

Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-578
Author(s):  
John Fage
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Economic History ◽  
West African ◽  
African Studies ◽  
African History ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
The University ◽  
Assistant Lecturer ◽  
Full Operation

The Centre of West African Studies has been in full operation since October 1964. Its staff is as follows: J. D. Fage, M.A., Ph.D. (Director and Professor of African History); P. C. Lloyd, M.A., B.Sc., D.Phil. (Senior Lecturer in Sociology); D. Rimmer, B.A. (Lecturer in Economics); R. E. Bradbury, B.A., Ph.D. (Lecturer in Social Anthropology); K. W. J. Post, M.A. (Lecturer in Political Science); A. G. Hopkins, B.A., Ph.D. (Assistant Lecturer in Economic History). A number of other members of the University of Birmingham are closely associated with the work of the Centre, including D. W. J. Johnson, M.A., B.Litt. (History); R. E. Wraith, C.B.E., B.Com. (Local Government); W. B. Morgan, M.A., Ph.D., and R. P. Moss, B.Sc., Ph.D. (Geography); and R. H. F. Dalton, B.A. (Education).

scholarly journals LAW, RELIGION, AND SAME-SEX RELATIONS IN AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71
Author(s):  
M. Christian Green
Keyword(s):  
Moral Issue ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
International Conference ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Political Act ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

Some years back, around 2013, I was asked to write an article on the uses of the Bible in African law. Researching references to the Bible and biblical law across the African continent, I soon learned that, besides support for arguments by a few states in favor of declaring themselves “Christian nations,” the main use was in emerging debates over homosexuality and same-sex relationships—almost exclusively to condemn those relationships. In January 2013, the newly formed African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) held its first international conference at the University of Ghana Legon. There, African sexuality debates emerged forcefully in consideration of a paper by Sylvia Tamale, then dean of the Makarere University School of Law in Uganda, who argued pointedly, “[P]olitical Christianity and Islam, especially, have constructed a discourse that suggests that sexuality is the key moral issue on the continent today, diverting attention from the real critical moral issues for the majority of Africans . . . . Employing religion, culture and the law to flag sexuality as the biggest moral issue of our times and dislocating the real issue is a political act and must be recognised as such.”

An Interview with Marilyn Strathern: Kinship and Career

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 263-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Carsten
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University

The interview was conducted in September 1996 in Cambridge. Marilyn Strathern (MS) and Janet Carsten (JC) had been colleagues at the University of Manchester’s Department of Social Anthropology until September 1993, when Marilyn Strathern left to take up the William Wyse Professorship at the University of Cambridge, where she remained until retirement in 2008. Janet Carsten joined Edinburgh in October of the same year, where she is presently Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology. (Supplementary questions, reflecting back on the earlier interview, were put to Marilyn Strathern by the editors of the special issue in 2013.)

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