Akosua Adomako Ampofo

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ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5080-5881 External link, opens in new window.

Akosua Adomako Ampofo is an Emerita Professor at the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy, University of Ghana (CEGENSA), and a leading public intellectual on gender, race, class and knowledge production.

She is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, was CEGENSA’s foundation Director, and co-founder and immediate past President of the African Studies Association of Africa.

Research

Focusing on the intersectionality of gender, race, class and culture, Adomako Ampofo’s work integrates critical theory with artistic expressions, highlighting the transformative power of the arts in advocating for marginalized voices.

Her research interests include African knowledge systems (especially decolonizing knowledge and praxis); the politics of higher education; black masculinities; and popular culture.

As the 2025 Claude Ake Chair she focused on chronicling (autobiographical) stories of justice work as a strategic methodology for peacemaking and healing.

Current positions and affiliations

Chair, Advisory Board of “Africa Multiple” Cluster of Excellence, University of Bayreuth External link, opens in new window.
Chair, Governing board of the Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF) External link, opens in new window.
President, Scientific Committee of the Journal Global Africa External link, opens in new window.
Member, Advisory Council, North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of International Affairs External link, opens in new window.
Member, Advisory Board, Women at Work project (sponsored by the European Research Council, ERC)

Background

Akosua Adomako Ampofo was the 2025 Claude Ake Chair. She has been the Wangari Maathai Visiting Professor at the University of Kassel, and an honorary Professor at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Birmingham.

She serves or has served on the boards the U.S African Studies Association; the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria; the Perivoli Africa Research Centre, University of Bristol; Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town.

Her work has been variously recognized: as a three-time Fulbright scholar (Junior; New Century; and a Senior Scholar-in-Residence); Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio centre; and a Mellon Fellow at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

In 2010 she received the Sociologists for Women and Society’s Feminist Activism Award. She is co-founder and CEO of 715House Productions Ltd., a dynamic and visionary media production company dedicated to reshaping narratives about (global) Africa.