Ghana: Origins of African Identity

Faculty and Staff

Daniel Kodzo Avorgbedor, Ph.D., Academic Director

Daniel Kodzo Avorgbedor, Ph.D.
Dr. Daniel Kodzo Avorgbedor was born and raised in a well-known weaving and fishing village in the Volta Region of Ghana. After completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Ghana (Legon), he was awarded a graduate scholarship, which enabled him to pursue studies in the US, specifically an M.A. at Truman University (1978) and Ph.D. from Indiana University (1986). Dr. Avorgbedor has since taught at the University of Ghana, Legon (1986-1989), Bretton Hall College (UK, 1989), and the City College of New York (1990-1994). Additionally, he served as associate professor and coordinator of the ethnomusicology program (2004-2009) and co-director of the Lusophone Research Working Group (2008-2009) at The Ohio State University in Columbus. He also served as editor of RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1990-1994). He designed and led a study abroad program to Ghana for OSU (2000-2004) and has served as advisor to study abroad programs focusing on Ghana.

Dr. Avorgbedor’s research and teaching specializations include African Diaspora—theory and method; world music theories and pedagogy; urban cultures; music in relation to human mobility and diasporic formations; contemporary Christian music and dimensions of sacred-secular continua; African retentions in African American performance and expressive cultures; and musical traditions of the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana. Dr. Avorgbedor also conducts workshops and lectures on African drumming and indigenous Ewe narrow-strip loom weaving. He led a weaving residency/workshop at the Art Institute, Chicago in 1998.

Dr. Avorgbedor has published widely, including essays in Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (1998), New Grove Dictionary of Music (2000), African Folklore: An Encyclopedia (Routledge, 2004), Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2004), and Ewe Handbook, Vol. 3 (Woeli, 2005). He edited the collection essays, The Interrelatedness of Music, Religion and Ritual in African Performance Practice (Mellen, 2003) and also guest-edited a special issue of World of Music on “Cross-Cultural Aesthetics” (2003). Additional essays appeared in Ethnomusicology, World Music, Oral Tradition, Research in African Literatures, Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, among other publications. He has received grants from NEH, Guggenheim, Wenner-Gren, and the Lilly Endowment. He was a research fellow at Humboldt University, Berlin (ZFL) in 2010.

Ebo Sam, Program Assistant
Mr. Ebo Sam holds a post-secondary teachers certificate and has taught for several years at the junior high school level in the Ghanaian school system. He joined SIT in 1996 as a host father for students before moving into an administrative role. He is responsible for general logistics and acts as the backbone of the program.

Lydia Johnson, Office Assistant
Lydia Johnson joined the SIT Ghana program in Cape Coast in 2006. She holds a higher national diploma in marketing. In addition to supporting students during the program periods in Ghana, she serves as the program’s office assistant.

Lecturers for this program typically include:

Professor Joseph Benjamin Afful, Ph.D.
Professor Afful is currently head of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He obtained his M.Phil. in 1998 from the University of Cape Coast and a Ph.D. in 2005 from the National University of Singapore with specialties in language use and the relationships between language and cultural communication. Professor Afful has taught at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and served as a visiting lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa from 2006-2007. His teaching areas include research methods, discourse and pragmatics, and sociolinguistics.

Professor Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, Ph.D.
Professor Ampiah is an associate professor, as well as the dean of the Faculty of Education, at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He served as head of the Department of Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Cape Coast from 2008-2010. Professor Ampiah obtained his M.Phil. in science education in 2005 and a Ph.D. in 2002 in science education from the University of Cape Coast. He has been a visiting research fellow at several international institutions, including University of Sussex (UK). His national research projects include CREATE (2007-2010); Baseline Research Survey for Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STM) Project in Ghana; Mid-term Evaluation of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STM) Project in Ghana (2002), and many others. Professor Ampiah is a member of several national and international associations, including the Ghana Chemical Society and the British Association for International and Comparative Education. He is also a member of CICE’s editorial board at Hiroshima University, Japan. He has published 34 refereed articles and book chapters, as well as 33 papers presented at various national and international conferences.

Professor Akosua Anyidoho, Ph.D.
Professor Akosua Anyidoho studied at the Advanced Teacher Training College in Winneba, Ghana, and at Ormskirk College of Education, England. She holds a B.A in English and linguistics from the University of Ghana, Legon and a master’s and Ph.D. in foreign language education (applied linguistics) from the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Anyidoho joined the Department of Linguistics at the University of Ghana, Legon in 1984, where she taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses until her retirement. In 2004, Professor Anyidoho was appointed the director of New York University-Accra (Ghana), but she continues to supervise postgraduate students’ research and other projects in the University of Ghana’s Department of Linguistics. Her research interests include women’s oral culture in Africa, language and gender, mother tongue education in multilingual Africa, and second language teaching and learning.

Professor Ato Delaquis, MFA
Professor Delaquis obtained a BFA in painting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 1971 and an MFA in painting and print-making from Temple University’s Tyler School of Arts in 1975. He has taught creative painting at KNUST College of Arts for over thirty years, becoming a full professor in 1999. He served as the college’s dean from 2002 to 2005.

Professor Delaquis first began building a reputation in creative painting in Ghana’s art scene during his teens. Well known in African contemporary art circles, he is considered a pioneer in the use of modern African lifestyles in urban centers as the basis of artistic expression. He has exhibited internationally and achieved many awards; he has participated in more than seventy exhibitions (both solo and group) since the 1970s. His art is featured in various books, journals, and magazines on contemporary African art. His life and work are featured in the visual arts textbook for secondary school students in Ghana. In addition to his creative painting, Professor Delaquis has been an avid illustrator of books and magazines since the 1960s. He is among the few African artists who also write on various aspects of contemporary African art, and he has published in this area.