About GSA

The Ghana Studies Association (GSA) began as the Akan Studies Council (ASC) in 1988. It is a multidisciplinary organization of scholars based in Africa, North America, Europe and Asia whose research focuses on the the West African state of Ghana.

GSA is on facebook (Ghana Studies Association) and on Twitter (@GhanaStudiesASA)

President—Kwasi Ampene

Kwasi Ampene is a Professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan. He is the Chair of Society for Ethnomusicology Council, a member of the Editorial Board of SOAS Studies in Music at the University of London, and the immediate past chair of the African Music Section in the Society for Ethnomusicology. Ampene specializes in the rich musical traditions of the Akan people of Ghana. He has presented his research in conferences and speaking engagements at major universities in the United States and around the world. He has also provided expert advice for public engagement projects on Asante and Akan culture and music to the British Library, Tufts University, and Princeton University.

His publications include, Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana: The Porcupine and the Gold Stool (2020); Engaging Modernity: Asante in the Twenty-First Century (2016); and Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana: The Creative Process in Nnwonkorɔ (2005). Kwasi is the leading editor of Discourses in African Musicology: J.H. Kwabena Nketia Festschrift (2015); and author of journal articles. He is the producer of the film documentary, Gone To The Village: Royal Funerary Rites for Asantehemaa Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II (2019).

Kwasi can be reached at: ampene@umich.edu

Treasurer—Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang

Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang is a lecturer at the English Department of the University of Ghana, where he teaches courses ranging from African Electronic Literature through Romanticism to Shakespeare. His scholarly interests revolve around African digital literature, and he is particularly interested in the relationship between oral tradition and digital aesthetics in Ghanaian literature. His research has appeared in journals such as Research in African Literatures, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, and Sens Public, as well as in peer reviewed edited volumes. He has also guest edited special editions of Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds and Hyperrhiz, and is a peer reviewer for Journal of African Cultural Studies, Legon Journal of the Humanities, and Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies.

Kwabena can be reached at members.gsa@gmail.com

Advisory Board

David Owusu-Ansah (James Madison University)

Sandra Greene (Cornell University)

Jean Allman (Washington University of St. Louis)

Dennis Laumann (University of Memphis)

Ben Talton (Temple University)

Ray A. Kea (University of London)

Roger Gocking (Mercy College, retired)

GHANA STUDIES–A Peer Reviewed Journal

GSA sponsors Ghana Studies, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually. The journal’s  co-editors are Carina E. Ray (Brandeis University) and Kofi Baku (University of Ghana).

Ghana Studies JOURNAL