Dr. Nana Sapong specializes in 18th to 21st century social history of West Africa, with particular reference to Ghana. He is also a poet/novelist/creative writer, and an alumnus of the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Historical Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2009.
M.A., History, Central Michigan University, 2004.
B.A., English and History, University of Ghana Legon, 2000.
AREA(S) OF SPECIALIZATION
Core Interest: social history of West Africa, from the 18th century to the present.
Specialist Research: social history of Ghana, especially labour, social movements, and student movements.
Urban history, especially history of the city.
Methodology of social history.
SELECTED COURSES TAUGHT
HIST213: Africa and the Wider World in the 19th Century
HIST214: Africa in the International Setting in the 20th Century
HIST421: Aspects of Intellectual History from 1500 to the Enlightenment
HIST422: Modern Trends in Intellectual History
HIST608: Recent Trends in African Historiography
FSSP702: Qualitative Research Methods
HIST703: Theory and Methods in History
CURRENT RESEARCH/FUNDED PROJECT(S)
Investigator/Consultant, “Where Have all the Workers Gone? Labour and Work in Ghana, 1951-2010,” A three-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft DFG) Partnership. Gareth Austin, University of Cambridge and Andreas Eckert, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, are Principal Investigators.
SELECTED PUBLICATION
Books
Aziator, L., Amoah-Boampong, C., Sapong, N.Y.B., & Amfo, N.A.A. (2020). A history of nursing and midwifery in Ghana, 1900-2019. Accra: CSIR. ISBN 9789988306946.
Sapong, N.Y.B. & J.O. Pohl. (eds.) (2014). Replenishing history: New directions to historical research in the 21st century in Ghana. Banbury, Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke. ISBN 9780992843601.
Journal Articles
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2021). Encountering the state in the shadow of Boahen’s sphinx: Revisiting the culture of silence and repertoires of contention in Ghana, 1976 – 1992. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, 20, 93-111.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (forthcoming). The contentious Ghanaian: A historical appraisal of social movements in Ghana. History Compass.
Ashong, T., Sapong, N.Y.B., Smith, V.E., & Ofosu-Mensah, E.A. (2020). Albert Adu Boahen: An agent of change in African historiography and Ghanaian politics. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 53(2), 209-232.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2018). Capitalist exchange, consumerism and power in nineteenth century Gold Coast: Interrogating Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa and the contested personage of the merchant prince. Legon Journal of the Humanities, 29(2), 265-285.
Book Chapters
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2020). The equivocation of reason: Reason and discriminatory exegesis in twelfth century religious disputations. In S. Ntewusu, & N. Paarmann (Eds.), Beyond dichotomies: Aspects of history, gender and culture in Africa and Europe (pp. 155-173). Munster: Lit-Verlag. ISBN 9783643144997.
Sapong, N.Y.B. & Amoako, P. (2020). Women in universities in Africa. In: O. Yacob-Haliso & T. Falola (eds.) The Palgrave handbook of African women’s studies (pp. 1 – 16). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783319770307.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2016). Framing Contentious Politics in the Gold Coast: the Nkrumah Contingency, 1948 – 1951. In: Bea Lundt and Christoph Marx (eds) Kwame Nkrumah Today (pp. 89 – 107). Stuttgart: Verlag Franz Steiner. ISBN 9783515115728.
Baku, D.E.K, Sapong, N.Y.B., and Amoah-Boampong, C. (2014). Bridging the Ivory Tower: Professional history, Scholarship, and Public Engagement in Ghana. In: Samuel Adjei-Mensah, Joseph Ayee, and Abena Oduro (eds.) Changing Perspectives on the Social Sciences in Ghana (33 – 49). Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 9780992843601.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2014). Students at the Barricades: the 1960s and the Revival of Student Radicalism in Ghana. In: N.Y.B. Sapong and J.O. Pohl (eds.) Replenishing History: New Directions to Historical Research in the 21st Century in Ghana (pp. 26 – 46). Banbury: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9780992843601.
Encyclopedia Entries
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2016). Mali Empire. In: J. M. MacKenzie (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Empire. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781118455074.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2016). Asante Kingdom. In: J. M. MacKenzie (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Empire. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781118455074.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2012). Geraldo de Lima. In: E. Akyeampong & H. L. Gates (eds.) Dictionary of African biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN – 13: 9780195382075.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2012). Hilla Limann. In: E. Akyeampong & H. L. Gates (eds.) Dictionary of African biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN – 13: 9780195382075.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2012). Osei Tutu. In: E. Akyeampong & H. L. Gates (eds.) Dictionary of African biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN – 13: 9780195382075.
Book Reviews
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2016). The politics of chieftaincy: Authority and property in colonial Ghana, 1920 – 1950. Africa Studies Quarterly, 16(3-4), 215.
Sapong, N.Y.B. (2009). Dreams of Africa in Alabama. H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24598.