Prof. Akosua Keseboa Darkwah

Professor

Contact info adarkwah@ug.edu.gh

About

Google Scholar

Akosua K. Darkwah is Professor of Sociology at the University of Ghana and has expertise in qualitative research methods including innovative approaches such as the river of life approach. Her research interests focus on both the ways in which global economic policies and practices reconfigure women’s work in Ghana as well as the gendered ways in which migration reconfigures households. She was a member of the second and third phase of the Migrating out of Poverty (MOOP) research project which was run by the University of Sussex. She is currently one of the editors of the African Studies Review and Feminist Africa as well as Managing Editor of the Ghana Journal of Sociology and Anthropology.  She is a member of the International Sociological Association, the African Studies Association (USA), the Ghana Studies Association, and the Ghana Sociological and Anthropological Association.  Her current research funded by the Hewlett Foundation explores the ways in which government policies (dis)empower women economically.

Education

  • PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2002
  • MSc, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998
  • BA, Vassar College, 1996

Research Interest

  • Development Sociology
  • Labour Studies
  • Gender Studies

Publications

  1. Darkwah, A. K. (2024). Different time periods, different locations but same problem: Reflections on Anastasia Kiourtzoglou’s Invisible Womanhood: 4500 BC – 2020 AD.  In E. Just & M. Uden (Eds.), Voices from Gender Studies: Negotiating the Terms of Academic Production, Epistemology, and the Logics and Contents of Identity.  Routledge.  Pp. 166-170.
  2. Awumbila, M., Garba, F., Darkwah, A. K., & M. Zaami. (2024). Migrant political mobilisation and solidarity building in the global South.  In H.   Crawley & J. K. Teye (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of South-South  Migration and Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan.  Pp. 719-740.
  3. Darkwah, A. K.  (2024).  The economy and the changing nature of work.  In A. K. Darkwah, & K. Puplampu (Eds.), Social Change in a Global Era: Introduction to Sociology in Ghana. Sub Saharan      Publishers.  Pp. 227-256.
  4. Puplampu, K., & A. K. Darkwah. (2024). The Historical and Contemporary Dimensions of Sociology in Ghana.  In A. K. Darkwah, &    K. Puplampu (Eds.), Social Change in a Global Era: Introduction to Sociology in Ghana. Sub Saharan Publishers.  Pp. 1-27.
  5. Bauer, G., & A. K. Darkwah. (2024).  Who will open the door?  Women in Parliament and Cabinet in Ghana.  In S. Strauss, & A. M. Tripp. (Eds.), The state, ethnicity and gender in Africa: intellectual legacies of     Crawford Young. University of Wisconsin Press.  Pp. 274-292.
  6. Wayack-Pambe, M., Thorsen, D., & A. K. Darkwah. (2024). Burkina Faso.  In A. Altaf., D. Tsikata, G. D. Torvikey, & M. Dekker (Eds.), Equity in COVID-19: Mitigation and Policy Responses in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan.  Pp. 43-68.
  7.  
  8. Anyidoho, N. A., & Darkwah, A. K. (2024).  From Makola to Insta@:  Changing the Narrative of Ghanaian Women Traders.  Ghana Studies 26,   60-77.
  9. DelVecchio, M., Ofori-Dankwa, J., & Darkwah, A. K. (2024). Microenterprise performance amidst environmental turbulence and resource scarcity: an integrated capital approach. Journal of Small Business  and Enterprise Development 31 (4), 679-704.
  10. Teye, Joseph. K, Awumbila, M., & Darkwah, A. K. (2024).  Gendered dynamics of the flow and use of migrant remittances in Northern Ghana.   African Geographical Review 43 (2), 298-310.
  11. Bobie, A. O., Darkwah, A. K., & Gough, K. V. (2025).  Career  geographies in the Ghanaian fashion industry: From brain drain to brain  gain and brain circulation. Globalisation, Societies and Education 23(3),  604-617.
  12. Teye, J., Darkwah, A., Thorsen, D., Abutima, T., & Boateng, D. A. (2025). Negotiating Gender Roles and Power Relations through the Management of International Migrant Remittances in a Patriarchal Community in Ghana.   Journal of Asian and African Studies 60 (1), 36-50.
  13. Alber, E., Bauer, G., & Darkwah, A. K. (2025). Rethinking women’s political power in West Africa.  Africa Today 71(3-4), 1-11.
  14. Ampah, G. A., & Darkwah, A. K. (2025).  Out of place?: Mixed race identities in Ghana. Ghana Studies 28, 197-219.

MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES

  •  Ghana Sociological and Anthropological Association
  • African Studies Association, USA
  • Ghana Studies Association
  • International Sociological Association
     

EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES

  • Editor, Feminist Africa (2023-)
  • Associate Editor, Feminist Africa (2020-2023) Editor, African Studies Review (2020-2026)
  • Managing Editor, Ghana Journal of Sociology and Anthropology (2021-2024) Co-editor, Ghana Studies
  • (2013-2016)
  • Editorial Board Member, Gender and Society (2014-2016)