As always, GSA was very present and active in the 60th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association from 16-18 November in Chicago, which coincided with Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary. Here a few highlights, in words and pictures:
- Carina Ray was awarded the 2017 Women’s Caucus Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize for Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana.
- Jennifer Hart was short-listed for the 2017 Herskovits Prize for Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation.
- Two books by GSA members debuted at the ASA Book Exhibit: Bianca Murillo’s Market Encounters: Consumer Cultures in Twentieth-Century Ghana, and Jeffrey Ahlman’s Living with Nkrumahism: Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana.
- We had productive GSA Business Meeting attended by over 60 people, including (excitingly) many graduate students attending their first meeting.
- GSA sponsored 3 panels and one roundtable and unofficially supported a couple more:
Roundtable: Ghana (Studies) @60
Chair: Nana Akua Anyidoho
Panelist: Jean Allman, Larry Yarak, Dennis Laumann, Dodzi Tsikata, Ato Quayson[the abstract submitted for the roundtable]In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Ghana’s independence, the Ghana Studies Association (GSA) is organising a panel of distinguished scholars to speak to research on Ghana in the past six decades. The roundtable will bring out the ways in which the study of Ghana (and GSA itself) has changed over time in terms of areas of focus; methodological preferences; and participation by scholars in different geographic and disciplinary locations, among others. Roundtable participants will illustrate this bigger Ghana Studies story with descriptions of their own research trajectories and influences. We envisage that the current generation of researchers of Ghana and Africa can draw both direction and inspiration from narratives of research careers within an area study.Belief in Colonial Ghana: Change & Continuities
Chair: Pierluigi Valsecchi
Discussant: Alessandra BrivioReligious Change and Modernity in Ghana: Against the Materiality of Religion
Alessandra Brivio, Università degli Studi di Milano-BicoccaDefining Islam: Goods, Movement, and Ritual in Colonial Ghana
Sean Hanretta, Northwestern UniversityWorld Religions and Core Beliefs in Colonial Nzema
Pierluigi Valsecchi, University of PaviaReflecting on Ghana@60: “How far?”
Chair: David Owusu-Ansah
Discussant: Ben TaltonGhana @60: Reflections on National Disability Programs and Disability Rights
Jeff Grischow, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityGhana at 60: Bridging Gender Inequality Through Men’s Participation in Domestic Unpaid Work
Hubert B. Asiedu, University of AucklandWomen’s Political Representation in Ghana: ‘They Think They are Doing You a Favour by Letting You into Parliament’
Gretchen Bauer, University of DelawareBack to the Root; Agriculture and the Small-Scale Farmer in Ghana
Yaa Oparebea Ampofo, Yale University and Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of GhanaGhana@60: Evolving Pan-Africanism
Chair: Kwame Essien
Discussant: Harry Odamtten“Dubois” Years in Ghana: An Analysis and Reconstruction of Existing Historical Literature
Eric Kesse, Michigan State University“Pan Africanism: Pioneers, Repatriates and Memory”
Robert Hanserd, Columbia CollegePan-Africanism then and Now
Harry Odamtten, Santa Clara UniversityAuthor Meets Critic: Brazilian-African Diaspora in Ghana
Chair: Hermann W. von Hesse, University of Wisconsin – MadisonClifford Campbell, Lafayette College
Harry Odamtten, Santa Clara University
Hermann W. von Hesse, University of Wisconsin – MadisonBeing in the Market: Celebrating the Work of Gracia Clark
Chair: Jennifer Hart, Wayne State UniversityJennifer Hart, Wayne State University
Timothy Scarnecchia, Kent State University
Dorothy L. Hodgson, The State University of New Jersey – Rutgers University
Brittany Sheldon, Indiana University Bloomington
Kathryn Boswell, Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Kathleen Sheldon, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
