From left to right: Dr. Susann Baller (MIASA Director Germany), Prof. Samuel Ntewusu (Director Institute of African Studies), Dr. Grace Diabah (MIASA Director Ghana),                                                                  Prof. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante (Head of Department Geography and Resource Development, former MIASA Director Ghana)

The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) at the University of Ghana has a new director from the Ghanaian side. In August 2022, Dr. Grace Diabah was appointed as new director “Ghana”. She is senior lecturer at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Ghana. After graduating from the University of Ghana, she obtained her PhD at the University of Lancaster (UK). She has published widely on language & gender, sociolinguistics, critical discourse analysis, language & politics, media discourses and language in business.

In line with MIASA’s dual directorship, Dr. Grace Diabah has joined Dr. Susann Baller, who has held the position of director “Germany” at MIASA since January 2022. She is taking over from Prof. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante (University of Ghana), who served as director “Ghana” from September 2021 until July 2022 and who was appointed Head of Department at the Department of Geography and Resource Development in August 2022.

Grace Diabah and Susann Baller will be working jointly in further developing MIASA’s academic profile and in strengthening its visibility in the academic world internationally. MIASA was implemented in 2018 as the fourth institute of the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana, while its academic activities have, from its beginnings, been funded through the Maria Sybilla Merian programmes of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research via MIASA’s German partners.