Dr. Agya Boakye-Boaten, chair and associate professor of Africana and interdisciplinary and international studies at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, has received a 10-month Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant to teach and conduct research in Ghana at the University of Cape Coast.
Dr. Agya Boakye-BoatenA Ghana native and former social worker in the country, Boakye-Boaten aims to research the interconnections of culture and traditional practices with child labor and trafficking. His teaching will focus on moving away from Eurocentric analyses of Africa to “engaging the study of Africa from critical perspectives and African epistemologies through decolonial thinking and critical analysis of historical and contemporary issues,” the university said in a news release.
“My aim is to understand the role culture plays in child trafficking and child labor, and reasons why the phenomenon continue to exist in the country,” Boakye-Boaten said. “The results of my research will be shared with partner agencies, and be published to contribute to the intellectual discourse on child trafficking and child labor, which are of great concern to many in Ghana and the world in general.”
Boakye-Boaten has previously been awarded the 2017 Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship for work at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He also serves as UNC Asheville’s “Discover Ghana” program director, having led more than 10 study abroad trips with more than 150 students.
