Adjunct Researchers

CAS presents her collection of supporting Adjunct Researchers (ARs) involving a transcontinental network of academics, researchers, policy specialists and activists interested in Africa-Asia relations in all its dense and varied ramifications. The role which is a voluntary one involves collaborating with CAS on research and other projects; writing commissioned Working Papers and Policy Briefs and generally supporting CAS's work in ways that are mutually beneficial to the Centre and our ARs.

 

Dr. Seidu Alidu is currently an Associate Professsor at the University of Ghana, Department of Political Science.  He is also an adjunct lecturer at the Centre for SocialPolicy Studies (CSPS) and the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD) at the University of Ghana; a Donahue Institute Scholar on United States political thought at the University of Massachusetts in the United States. He has worked closely with and for numerous policy think tanks including the Partnership for African Social Governance and Research based in Nairobi Kenya; Centre for International Development Issues, Nijmegen based in Netherlands; the Institute for Democratic Governance; the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung; The United Nations Development Programme; the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex; the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, and the German-African Governance Partnership Organization. He is a visiting lecturer at the School of Public Policy and Administration at Mzumbe University in Tanzania and the School of Public Policy and Governance at Maseno University in Kenya. He has published widely, and presented conference papers on different specialization areas including conflict resolution, democratization and governance, transitional justice, civil society and social policy, as well as human rights.

 

Dr. Seyram Avle, studies digital technology cultures and innovation in the global south. Her key areas of interest are tech entrepreneurship, digital production, design, and policymaking. Her most recent project is a transnational one which examines innovation and tech entrepreneurship cultures between China, Silicon Valley, and Ghana. Her peer reviewed publications can be found in Proceedings of SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Information Technologies & International Development, Journal of Information Policy, among others, in addition to chapters in a number of edited volumes. Currently she is a research fellow at the University of Michigan. Her next appointment is as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

 

Dr. Nene-Lomotey Kuditcher is a Senior Lecturer in political science at the School of Social Sciences, College of Humanites of the University of Ghana. His research focuses on the politics and political economy of elite systems and natural resource governance particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Methodologically, Nene-Lomotey Kuditchar is specialized in the application of meta-power tools of analysis, critical realism and historical institutionalism. He is influenced in his thinking by scholars such as Claude Ake, Roy Bhaskar, Giovanni Sartori and Arend Lijphart.

Dr Elisa Gambino is a Lecturer in Global Development – Global Political Economy at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, UK.

Her research focuses on the intersection between China’s outward economic engagement and Africa’s development trajectories. Elisa studies the internationalization of Chinese capital in the African infrastructure, trade, and mining sectors, placing particular emphasis on the roles of transnational networks in fostering the expansion of Chinese companies.

Recently, she has been working on Sino-Ghanaian transnational networks in the mining and trade sectors. Elisa was an LSE Fellow in the International Politics of China in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She obtained her PhD in African Studies at the University of Edinburgh as part of the European Research Council-funded project “African Governance and Space” (AFRIGOS), to which she contributed research on the internationalization of Chinese state-owned companies in Kenya’s infrastructure sector. Elisa has also worked as a consultant in the private and public sectors, including for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development office of the UK Government.

Costanza Franceschini is a Cultural Anthropologist.

She is currently wrapping up her doctoral work in Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. Her current project focuses on China-Africa relations and China’s infrastructure development cooperation in Ghana.

Between October 2021 and December 2022, she conducted fieldwork research on Chinese infrastructure projects and Chinese state-owned companies in Ghana; her field work has thrown up fascinating insights on the subject. Her research interests include the anthropology of China, China-Africa relations, the anthropology of development, and linguistic anthropology. She has conducted ethnographic research in Italy, China (Yunnan, South-Western China), and Ghana. As an AR, Constanza will support CAS on our research and other projects.