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Michael P K Okyerefo

Michael P K Okyerefo
Professor
MOKYEREFO@ug.edu.gh

Google Scholar

Education or Qualification:

  • D.Phil. (Sociology), University of Vienna, Austria, 1997 - 1999
  • M.Phil. (Philosophy), University of Vienna, Austria, 1995 - 1997
  • B.A. (Study of Religions with Sociology), University of Ghana, 1989 - 1991
  • Qualified Teacher Status - Department for Education and Skills, England, 2001
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Education (Secondary Religious Studies), University of Cambridge, UK, 2000 - 2001

 

Research interests: 

Sociology of Culture and Sociology of Religion. I have keen interests in advancing Global Sociology through biographical analysis, studying religious groups and their transnational networks, migration, African Social Thought and conceptual categories, as well as engaging in Critical University Studies. 

 

Academic distinctions:   

  • Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP), Michael Okyerefo & Abdoulaye Gueye, 2021 – 2022
  • External Fellow of the Global African Diaspora Studies (GADS) Research Platform, University of Vienna, Austria, 2014 – present
  • Research Fellow, Pius Parsch Institut, Klosterneuburg, Austria, 2010 – present
  • Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge Centre of African Studies, 2007 – 2008
  • Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK, 2007 – present
  • Overall Best Student Award, St. Peter’s Regional Seminary, Ghana, 1992                                          

 

Research abstract: 

Michael Okyerefo aims to advance Global Sociology through biographical analysis, studying religious groups and their transnational networks, migration, African Social Thought and conceptual categories, as well as engaging in Critical University Studies. While a Sociologist by training, he also applies anthropological skills, with emphasis on fieldwork in his research, as these are skills he refined during a fully paid Fellowship on Religion and Public Culture at the University of Cambridge from October 2007 to March 2008. He and Professor Abdoulaye Gueye of the University of Ottawa have been engaged in a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) to strengthen an African Diaspora Support to African Universities project. He is also part of a NIH/FIC funded NYU-UG Research Integrity Training Program to build sustainable research ethics and integrity capacity in Ghana through a joint partnership between the University of Ghana (UG) and NYU. The project has resulted in a Bioethics Program, which awards a master’s degree in Bioethics at UG School of Public Health.

 

 

Publications: 

  1. Books Authored
    Gueye, A., Okyerefo, M.P.K., Diédhiou, P. & Bogale, A. (2019). De la dépendance vis-à-vis de l’Occident à l’expression du besoin de diaspora intellectuelle africaine: L’Université africaine et les défis de son développement. Dakar: CODESRIA. [From dependence on the West to expressing the need for an African intellectual diaspora: The African University and the challenges of its development] by A. Gueye, M.P.K. Okyerefo, P. Diédhiou and A. Bogale (ISBN: 978-2-86978-832-9).
  2. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2001). The Cultural Crisis of sub-Saharan Africa as Depicted in the African Writers’ Series: A Sociological Perspective. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag.

 

Books Edited

  1. Oduro, A. D., & Okyerefo, M. P. K. (Eds.). (2010). Critical Thinking and Practical Reasoning. Legon: Centre for Distance Education, University of Ghana.

 

Book Chapters

  1. Laar AK, Ganle J, Owusu, A, Tenkorang E, Tuakli-Wosornu Y, Soyiri I, Okyerefo M, Senah K (2020). Representing health: an Afrocentric perspective. In: Practicing health geography: The Africa Context. Eds: Prestige Tatenda Makanga, PT. Springer International Publishing. DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-63471-1
  2. Okyerefo, M.P.K. & Setrana, Mary B.  (2018). Internal and international migration dynamics in Africa. In A. Triandafyllidou (Ed.), Handbook of Migration and Globalisation (pp. 281-296). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  3. Adomako Ampofo, A., & Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2014). Men of God and gendered Knowledge. In B. Cooper & R. Morrell (Eds.), Africa-centred Knowledges: Crossing Fields and Worlds (pp. 163-177). Oxford: James Currey.
  4. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2014). The Upsurge of Pentecostalism in Ghana: 1980-2012. In D-B. S. Dzorgbo & S. Tonah (Eds.), Sociology and Development Issues in Ghana: A Reader in Sociology (Social Science Series Vol. 9, pp. 104-114). Accra: Woeli Publishing Services.
  5. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2013). Scottish Missionaries in Ghana: The Forgotten Tribe. In A. Adogame & A. Lawrence (Eds.), Africa in Scotland, Scotland in Africa: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Hybridities (pp. 251-262). Leiden: BRILL.
  6. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2013). African Catholic Communities in Europe: A Nostalgic Lived Experience. In J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, A. Fröchtling, & A. Kunz-Lübcke (Eds.), Babel is everywhere! Migrant readings from Africa, Europe and Asia (pp. 215-224). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
  7. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2013). Spirituality and Historic Mission Christianity in Africa: Ghanaization in Roman Catholicism. In W. Ma & K. R. Ross (Eds.), Mission Spirituality and Authentic Discipleship (Vol. 14, pp. 38-46). Oxford: Regnum Books International.
  8. Adomako Ampofo, A. & Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2013). Neo-popular Femininity Discourse in God’s Name: Ambivalent Masculinity Rhetoric. In S. Owoahene-Acheampong (Ed.), African Studies and Knowledge Production, University of Ghana Readers (pp. 125-144). Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers.
  9. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2011). The Gospel of Public Image in Ghana. In H. Englund (Ed.), Christianity and Public Culture in Africa (pp. 204-216). Ohio: Ohio University Press.
  10. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2010). Was ist Kausalität im interkulturellen Dialog? In M. Benedikt, R. Knoll, F. Schwediauer & C. Zehetner (Eds.), Verdrängter Humanismus - Verzögerte Aufklärung: Philosophie in Österreich 1951 bis 2000 Auf der Suche nach authentischem Philosophieren (Vol. 6, pp. 1104-1111). Vienna: Wiener Universitätsverlag.

 

Peer-review Journal Articles

  1. Okyerefo, M. (Avril-Mai 2021). Curiosity is the Bedrock that transcends Boundaries and foments African Conceptualization of Critical Categories, Afroglobe - Recherche et Débat sur L'Afrique-Monde, 1(1), 3-24 - L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
  2. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2019). Scrambling for the Centre: Ghana’s New Churches as an Alternative Ideology and Power, Religions 10(12), 668, 1-13.
  3. Fiaveh, D.Y. & Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2019). Femininity, Sexual Positions and Choice. Sexualities, 22(1-2), 131-147.
  4. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2018 December). Philanthropy as Image Politics in Ghana’s New Churches. Journal for the Study of the Religions of Africa and its Diaspora, 4(1), 99-112.
  5. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2018). Deconstructing and Reconstructing. Embracing Alternative Ways of Producing, Classifying and Disseminating Knowledge: An African Perspective. A Discussion on Peggy Levitt & Maurice Crul. Deconstructing and Reconstructing – Embracing Alternative Ways of Producing, Classifying and Disseminating Knowledge. Etnološka tribina: Journal of Croatian Ethnological Society, 48 (41), 27-35.
  6. Laar, A. K., Lartey, M. Y., Ankomah, A., Okyerefo, M.P.K., Ampah, E.A., Letsa, D.P., Nortey, P.A. & Kwara, A. (2018). Food elimination, food substitution, and nutrient supplementation among ARV-exposed HIV-positive persons in southern Ghana. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 37 (26), 1-12.
  7. Laar, A.K., Kwara, A., Nortey, P.A., Ankomah, A.K., Okyerefo, M.P.K. & Lartey, M.Y. (2017). Use of Non-Prescription Remedies by Ghanaian Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Positive Persons on Antiretroviral Therapy. Frontiers in Public Health, 5 (115), 1-10.
  8. Yitah, H., & Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2016). Migration, Cultural Memory & Identity in Benjamin Kwakye’s The Other Crucifix. Diaspora & Returns in Fiction: African Literature Today, 34, 82-102.
  9. Ankomah, A., Kuumuori Ganle, J., Lartey, M.A., Kwara, A., Nortey, P.A., Okyerefo, M. P. K. & Laar, A.K. (2016). ART access-related barriers faced by HIV-positive persons linked to care in southern Ghana: a mixed method study. BMC Infectious Diseases, 16 (738), 1-12.
  10. Okyerefo, M. P. K. & Fiaveh, D.Y. (2016). Prayer and health-seeking beliefs in Ghana: understanding the ‘religious space’ of the urban forest. Health Sociology Review, 1-13.
  11. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2015). “I AM AUSTRO-GHANAIAN” - Citizenship and Belonging of Ghanaians in Austria. Ghana Studies, 18, 48-67.
  12. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2015). “Legon Day of Prayer”: A contested religious activity in the Academe. Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 3(1), 15-34.
  13. Fiaveh D.Y., Okyerefo M. P. K., & Fayorsey C.K. (2015b). Women’s Experiences with Sexual Pleasure in Ghana. Culture and Sexuality, 19(4), 697–714.
  14. Fiaveh, D. Y., Izugbara, C. O., Okyerefo, M. P. K., Reysoo, F., & Fayorsey, C. K. (2015a). Constructions of masculinity and femininity and sexual risk negotiation practices among women in urban Ghana. Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care, 17(5), 650-662.
  15. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2014). “I experience serenity and convenience in the forest” - Achimota Forest turned sacred space to confront the vicissitudes of life. The Journal of the Sociology and Theory of Religion (JSTR), 3. https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/socireli/issue/view/70.
  16. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2014). The role of Pentecostal Churches as an influential arm of Civil Society in Ghana. Ghana Social Science Journal, 11 (2), 77-101.
  17. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2014). Transnational dynamics in African Christianity: How global is the Lighthouse Chapel International missionary mandate? Journal of Africana Religions, 2(1), 95-110.
  18. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2013). Social realism in The Sun by Night – A novel by Benjamin Kwakye. Globus: Journal of Methodist University College Ghana, 2, 122-140.
  19. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2011). Pentecostalism in the city of Accra: a Blossom on functional appeal and urban fecundity. American Journal of Sociological Research, 1(1), 27-34.
  20. Okyerefo, M. P. K., Fiaveh, D. Y., & Lamptey, S. N. L. (2011). Factors prompting pupils’ academic performance in privately owned Junior High schools in Accra, Ghana. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 3(8), 280-289.
  21. Okyerefo, M. P. K., Fiaveh, D. Y., & Asante, K. T. (2011). Religion as a tool in strengthening the democratic process in Ghana. Journal of African Studies and Development, 3(6), 124-130.
  22. Fiaveh, D. Y., Okyerefo, M. P. K., & Fayorsey, C. K. (2011). HIV counseling and testing among men in the University of Ghana: Implications for gender-based HIV and AIDS prevention interventions. Journal of AIDS and HIV Research, 3(5), 90-99.
  23. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2011). “Ausländer!” Pfingstbewegung als human Sozialkapital und Netzwerk für Ghanaer in Wien. Protokolle zur Liturgie – Veröffentlichung der Liturgiewissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Klosterneuburg, 4, 297-326.
  24. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2010). Christianising Africa: A portrait by two African Novelists”. Studies in World Christianity, 16(1), 63-81.
  25. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2009/10). Spiritualität und christliche Missionsgeschichte in Afrika: “Ghanaization” in der römisch-katholischen Kirche. Protokolle zur Liturgie – Veröffentlichung der Liturgiewissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Klosterneuburg, 3, 268-281.
  26. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2009). Pentecostalism and the promotion of human capital in Ghana. Trinity Journal of Church and Theology, 17(2), 54-68.
  27. Adomako Ampofo, A., Okyerefo, M. P. K., & Pervarah, M. (2009). Phallic competence: Fatherhood and the making of men in Ghana. Culture, Society & Masculinities, 1(1), 59-78.
  28. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2008). “Ausländer!”: Pentecostalism as social capital network for Ghanaians in Vienna. Ghana Studies, 11, 77-103.
  29. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2006/7). Trust God! Religious expression at the University of Ghana. Ghana Social Science Journal, 3&4(1&2), 18-32.
  30. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2005). Pursuing an effective pre-university education in Ghana: theory and praxis. Legon Journal of Sociology, 2(1), 33-51.

 

Book Reviews

  1. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2021). African Catholic: Decolonization and the Transformation of the Church by Elizabeth A. Foster, (Harvard University Press, 2019). Journal of World Christianity, 11(2), 303-304.
  2. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2010). Religion and Social Change in West Africa: An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion by Max Assimeng, (Woeli Publishing Services, 2010). Universitas: University of Ghana Inter-Faculty Journal, 12, 166-168. Also (2010, March, 20), The Mirror.

 

Encyclopaedia Entering

  1. Okyerefo, M. (2020). Ghana. In Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Zurlo (Ed.), World Christian Encyclopedia (third edition), Edinburgh University Press, 327-331.

  2. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2012). Ghana. In Encyclopedia of Global Religion, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 443-444.

 

Refereed Conference Papers

  1. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2017, January 16). Philanthropy as Image Politics in Ghana’s New Churches. Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa (CIHA) Blog.
  2. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (2016, February 29). The Gospel for Public Image. Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa (CIHA) Blog.
  3. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2015). Angst oder Innovation: die Prägung katholischen Liturgie durch Pfingstgemeinden in Ghana. In A. Redtenbacher (Ed.), Liturgie lernen und leben – zwischen Tradition und Innovation: Pius Parsch Symposion 2014, (pp. 326-335). Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Verlag.
  4. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2012).  “I am Austro-Ghanaian” - Citizenship and belonging of Ghanaians in Austria. Collected Papers - Migration, Citizenship, and Belonging: African, Caribbean, and European Perspectives, 157-173.
  5. Okyerefo, M. P. K. (2009). Spirituality and Historic Mission Christianity in Africa: Ghanaization in Roman Catholicism. West Africa regional study process on Edinburgh 2010 on the theme ‘African spirituality, Christian mission and discipleship’ at Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Culture. http://www.google.com.gh/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=%27African+Christian+Spiritua  lity+and+Mission%27+%E2%80%93+Akrofi-Christaller

 

Blog Posts

  1. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (July 11, 2019). Feminine Wisdom as an Axis to Traditional Knowledge in Africa http://openair.africa/2019/07/11/feminine-wisdom-as-an-axis-to-traditional-knowledge-in-africa/
  2. Okyerefo, M.P.K. (January 16, 2017). Philanthropy as Image Politics in Ghana’s New Churches http://www.cihablog.com/philanthropy-image-politics-ghanas-new-churches/

 

Strategic Plan

  1. Tonah, S., Okyerefo, M. P. K. & Dzisah, J. (2018). Catholic Diocese of Ho: Diocesan Strategic Plan 2018-2028.

 

Grants 

  • Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP), Abdoulaye Gueye & Michael Okyerefo, 2021 – 2022, $21,000.
  • Funding source NIH/FIC - Prime Award: About $250,312.00 x five years - Sub-Award: UG has an annual budget of 65,616.00 x 5 years = Grant number 1R25 TW010886-01 - Grant title: NYU-UG Research Integrity Training Program PIs/(MPI Caplan, Laar, & Ogedegbe), Co-Is: Adanu, Adongo, Ibrahim, Okyerefo, Atupare. Grant period 04/01/2018-03/31/2023. Project Summary: The program will build sustainable research ethics and integrity capacity in Ghana through a joint partnership between the University of Ghana (UG) and NYU. The ultimate goal of the grant is to establish a Bioethics Program, which will provide master’s degrees in Bioethics, at UG School of Public Health.
  • US$ 30,000.00 CODESRIA Grant on African Diaspora Support to African Universities programme, Co-Investigator with Abdoulaye Gueye, University of Ottawa, Principal Investigator, et al., 2015 – 2019.
  • € 21,910.00 from Klosterneuburg Abbey, Austria, for Sabbatical Research, March 2013 – February 2015.
  • GH¢ 24,999.00 University of Ghana Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID) Grant, on Assessment of non-prescription drugs use among Ghanaian HIV-positive persons on antiretroviral therapy (ART): a pilot study, Co-Investigator with Amos Laar, Principal Investigator, et al., June 2013 – June 2015.
  • Fellowship worth £10,000.00 Visiting Fellowship on Religion and Public Culture, University of Cambridge Centre of African Studies. Duration: October 2007- March 2008.

 

Professional Association

  • ACUSAfrica, Advancing Critical University Studies Across Africa Network, Steering Committee Member
  • Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR)
  • African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR)
  • African Literature Association (ALA)
  • African Studies Association (ASA)
  • American Sociological Association
  • Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS)
  • Ghana Studies Council
  • Global Qualitative Sociology Network
  • International Sociological Association (ISA), Board Member of Research Committee 22
  • International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR)
  • The New Global (De)Centre Research Platform

 

Research Centre

  • Global African Diaspora Studies (GADS)

 

Visiting Professorships

  • Visiting Professor, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada, 2021 – 2022
  • Visiting Professor, Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, 2019 – present
  • Visiting Lecturer, Department of English & Department of Sociology, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany, 2014
  • Visiting Lecturer, Department of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences, St. Pölten, Austria, 2013 – 2019
  • University of Oslo Study Abroad Programme in Ghana, 2012

 

Administrative Experience

  • Dean, School of Arts, University of Ghana, 2018 - 2021
  • Head, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, 2015 - 2018
  • Deputy Head, Centre for Gender Studies & Advocacy, University of Ghana, 2010 - 2012