UWC congratulates Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, a former postdoctoral fellow hosted by the Centre for Humanities Research, on her appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana.

Prof. Amfo is the first woman to hold this position at the university. She undertook a residency period in 2010 at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape. She described this time at the CHR and her participation in the centre’s weekly reading groups and seminars as affording the opportunity to learn from other disciplines and to rethink interdisciplinary approaches to future work.

Prof. Amfo also identified the opportunity to present a seminar jointly hosted by the Centre and the Department of Linguistics on May 4, 2010, with the paper titled “Rethinking the Coordination-Subordination Dichotomy: Evidence from Kwa Languages” as the “high point” of the residency period.

Speaking at her induction on Tuesday, 26 October, Prof. Amfo said: “It’s been a long a circuitous process, but in the midst of this faith-refining experience, the overwhelming goodwill and support of countless people have buoyed me this far. I thank all of you who believed in me, who stayed with me and encouraged me.”

Prof. Amfo has 20 years of experience in the higher education sector and is a professor of Linguistics having obtained her PhD and MPhil degrees from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

For the first time in more than 70 years, the principal offices of Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Council Chair and Registrar at the University of Ghana are occupied by women. “I would like to salute every woman who put themselves up for this position. It took four other women competing in previous Vice-Chancellor races until we got our first Vice-Chancellor. Each woman built on the audacity of the previous one, and I would like to pay tribute to all the women academics who went ahead of me.”

Images courtesy University of Ghana (https://www.ug.edu.gh/)

Article by Anél Lewis, Institutional Advancement (UWC)