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Grant for new research project: Authoring slavery: Authorship and agency in narratives of slavery in Ghana

New collective research project in collaboration with colleagues from University of Ghana, Cape Coast University and National Museum of Ghana

The Danish Independant Research Fund has generously granted funding for a three-year research project on narratives of slavery in Ghana  to be conducted by researchers at AU in collaboration with partners in Ghana

Short description:

This project engages with contemporary imprints of the complex history of slavery in Ghana, asking the question: How does authorship condition political agency in narratives of slavery in Ghana? The project entails a close collaboration between Danish and Ghanaian researchers working together through a series of seminars and events in both countries. Our central hypothesis is that the contemporary political and cultural narratives related to the contested history of slavery have been shaped through strategic uses of different forms of authorship.. We investigate this thesis through three secondary research questions: 1) How do forms of authorship shape narratives on the memory of slavery in Ghana? 2) How are forms of authorship used to sustain and develop political positions in relation to slavery in Ghana. 3) How do forms of authorship in Ghana reproduce and/or counter global discourses on slavery, aid and human rights?

Participants:

Mads Anders Baggesgaard, AU (PI)

Kofi Anyidoho, UoG

Helen Yitah, UoG

Karen Margrethe Simonsen, AU

Frits Andersen, AU

Emmanuel Saboro, CCU

William Nsuiban Gmayi, NMoG

Anne Green Munk, AU

Lotte Pelckmans, KU/AU

We expect the project to start in early 2021, depending on developments in the global situation.

Independant Research Fund - Grants