GSA Conferences
Advancing Ghana Studies through international collaboration and scholarly exchange
The Ghana Studies Association hosts triennial conferences that bring together scholars, students, and practitioners from around the world to engage with critical issues in Ghana Studies.
Kumasi 2026
Forthcoming
Details will be announced soon
Tamale 2022
4th Triennial Conference: "Ghana at Crossroads"
University for Development Studies, Tamale | 18-20 July 2022
Conference Theme
The 4th Triennial Conference Theme is "Ghana at Crossroads" because 2022 marks Ghana's 65 years of independence. Ghana is at an inflection point and is thus due for a complete evaluation of its governance, economy, and society. Building on the last GSA Triennial's exploration of "Ghana as Center," the 2022 conference asks participants to consider Ghana as and at a crossroads—in geographies; in networks of people and ideas; in disciplines and knowledge systems; and between past, present, and future.
It is fitting that this conference takes place in Tamale, Northern Ghana, a historical crossroads of intellectual, economic, political, and religious exchange. As generations of scholars have shown, actors in the region have harnessed the power of movement and networks and have cultivated indigenous epistemologies through scholarly and popular networks.
Subthemes
- •Ghana as/at a Crossroads
- •Ghana's Extractive Sectors, Habitat Destruction and Health
- •Education, Training and Employment
- •Climate Change, Agrarian Change and Green Energy/Technology
- •Knowledge Systems and Knowledge Production
- •Religious Practice, Past and Present
- •Sensing and Centering Race
- •Legislating Gender and Sexuality
- •Spaces and Networks of Activism
- •Popular Culture, Performing Arts and Social Media
- •Migration, Borders and Mobility
- •Elections, Politics and Leading Ghana at the Crossroads
- •Histories and Memories of Enslavement
- •Archaeology and Material Culture
- •Health and Healing
- •Special Topics
Conference Programme
View the full conference programme (PDF) →Accra 2019
3rd Triennial Conference: "Ghana as Center"
University of Ghana | 10-13 July 2019
Conference Theme
Geographically, Ghana is at the center of the world where the Greenwich Meridian meets the Equator. Conceptually, Ghana can be said to be at the center in regards to important themes in the study of Africa, such as pan-Africanism, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, state-building, and development, with their attendant themes of power, materiality, and modernity. At the third triennial conference of the Ghana Studies Association, we engage with what it means to have Ghana truly at the center of African/Ghana Studies scholarship.
Recognizing Ghana at the center invites scholarship that takes Ghanaian models and concepts as a starting point. It also implies recognizing Ghana as both unique and global, not 'a place apart…[but] a site for the generation of ideas and theoretical insights' as well as methodological innovations.
Sub-themes
- •Knowledge Production and Theorizing 'Ghana as Center'
- •Pan-Africanism and the Diaspora
- •Colonialism, Nation-building and Citizenship
- •Globalization, International Relations and Regional Integration
- •History and Archaeology
- •The State, Political Leadership and Elections
- •Literature, Popular Culture and Social Media
- •Theater, Music and the Visual Arts
- •Film, Radio and Television
- •Health, Religion and Spirituality
- •Gender and Sexualities
- •Young people
- •Education, Employment and Development
- •Mobilities (Migration and Transportation)
Conference Programme
View the full conference programme (PDF) →Cape Coast 2016
2nd Triennial Conference: "Global Ghana"
University of Cape Coast | 6-9 July 2016
Conference Theme
This interdisciplinary gathering of local and international students and scholars of Ghana's past and present engaged a wide range of issues related to the theme "Global Ghana." Conference papers were distributed in advance, with select papers invited for resubmission for publication in an edited volume.
Sub-themes
- •Immigration, Emigration, and Tourism
- •Pan-Africanism and the Diaspora
- •Politics and Commerce in the International Sphere
- •Music, Sports, and Popular Culture
- •Media, Technology, and Digital Social Life
- •Gender and Sexuality
- •Human Rights and Humanitarianism
- •Religion and the State
- •Arts, Writers and Intellectuals and International Networks
- •Science, Medicine and Public Health
- •The Environment, Resources, and Preservation
Conference Programme
View the full conference programme (PDF) →Kumasi 2013
1st Ghana Studies Association Conference
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology | 23-26 May 2013
This interdisciplinary gathering of local and international scholars, graduate students, development professionals and artists engaged a wide range of issues related to Ghanaian and African history, culture, society and politics.
Conference Topics
- •Music, the Arts and Popular Culture
- •Sports and Society
- •Media and Information Technology
- •Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and NGOs
- •Politics, Political Participation, and Democracy
- •The Rural Sector, Society, and Natural Resources
- •Public Health, Waste Management, and the Environment
- •Cities, Urbanization, and Labor
- •Spirituality, Religion, and Religious Communities
- •Markets and Trade
- •The African/Ghanaian Diaspora
- •Societies of Pre-20th Century Ghana
- •20th Century Ghanaian/African History
- •Gender, Sexuality and Society