MIASA Academic Advisory Board Meeting 16-17 January 2023 in Legon-Accra. On-site participants from left to right: Paul Nugent, Birgit Meyer, Ciraj Rassool, Fatou Diop Sall, Andreas Eckert, Grace Diabah (MIASA Director Ghana), Kokou Azamede, Susann Baller (MIASA Director Germany)

From January 2023 onwards, six new members have joined MIASA’s Academic Advisory Board (AAB). The new members are Kokou Azamede (Université de Lomé, Togo), George Bob-Milliar (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana), Fatou Diop Sall (Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Senegal), Fatima Harraq (University Mohamed V, Morocco), Lyn Ossome (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Ciraj Rassool (University of the Western Cape, South Africa).

MIASA’s AAB is a board of maximally twelve distinguished international members who cover the Humanities and Social Sciences and different geographic areas. The AAB advises the Directors on academic issues of fundamental relevance, and, in particular, is responsible for the selection of individual and tandem fellows and Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups (IFG) at MIASA. Furthermore, it advises the institute towards high standards of academic quality in its research programmes, selection procedures and ethical standards.

Together with six members who have been reappointed for another term - these are  Andreas Eckert (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, Chair of the AAB), Catherine Boone (London School of Economics, United Kingdom), Elisio Macamo (University of Basel, Switzerland), Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University, Netherlands), Paul Nugent (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom), and Björn Wittrock (University of Uppsala, Sweden) - the new members will constitute the board from 2023 until 2025. The board has already convened in its new composition at the Academic Advisory Board Meeting in Accra from 16-17 January 2023. At the meeting Andreas Eckert was appointed Chair of the AAB for another term, Fatou Diop Sall was appointed Vice-Chair.

The MIASA Directorate and Executive Council are grateful for the work the AAB has done in the selection of fellows and their support of the institute throughout the past three years. We would therefore like to take the opportunity to express our gratitude to those members who decided to end their appointment after the first term – these are Zenebework Tadesse (AAWORD, Ethiopia, former Vice-Chair of the MIASA AAB), Fatou Sow (Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal), Ruth Hall (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), and Francis Nyamnjoh (University of Cape Town, South Africa).