MIASA Public Round Table in collaboration with CEGENSA

Women’s Leadership in Academia: Perspective from the Social Sciences and Humanities

Speakers:

Dr. Georgina Yaa ODURO (University of Cape Coast, Ghana)

Dr. Sharon OMOTOSO (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

Dr. Aïdas SANOGO (Centre universitaire de Manga, Burkina Faso)

Prof. Adobea Yaa OWUSU (University of Ghana, Ghana)

The public is the welcome to join the roundtable on-site.

Abstract

The Round Table is part of an annual MIASA workshop on Female Academic Careers in Africa, organised in collaboration with the German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP) and the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA), University of Ghana (UG), from 7 to 9 September on Legon campus. Twenty early- and mid-career female academics from the Social Sciences and Humanities, who are based at universities or research institutes across the African continent, participate in this workshop.

The workshop offers time and space to discuss the challenges and opportunities for women in academia in African contexts. Participants from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa are accompanied by a professional coach through different modules that address the issues of (i) how to build up efficient teams, (ii) how to deal with university hierarchies, (iii) how to address conflicts at the workplace, and (iv) how to proceed an academic career with multiple time constraints. The workshop explores professional relationships in academic practice.

The coaching aims at assisting participants to define their own working and leadership style, but also to consider how to adapt oneself to different contexts and challenges. The overarching purpose is to encourage early- and mid-career female academics in Ghana and other African countries to further build up their careers, to develop strategies for keeping a work-life-balance that allows for prospering in one’s research and academic work, and to become ready for taking up leadership positions and/or seizing other professional opportunities.

Conveners:

Dr. Susann Baller, Director (MIASA)

Dr. Grace Diabah, Director (MIASA)

Dr. Deborah Atobrah, Director (CEGENSA)

Prof. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, Head of Department of Geography, former Director (MIASA)