Constance Awinpoka Akurugu is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies in Ghana, where she has been teaching since 2006. Professor Akurugu is a feminist researcher and activist with extensive experience. Her research interests include decoloniality, other-than-human ontologies, neoliberalism, the welfare state, and the intersections of gendered power relations, social inclusion, and equity.

Professor Akurugu has significant experience in research and advocacy on disrupting oppressive gender and social norms, women’s empowerment and gender-based violence and its impact on vulnerable populations, such as women, persons with disability and ethnic minorities, and persons living with HIV. As an ethnographer, she has strong theoretical and methodological expertise in conducting cutting-edge research on socio-cultural norms, gender equality and practices that oppress differently situated women and men. She is the gender advisor on “INTERFACES— Supporting Pathways to Sustainable Land Management in Africa”, a three-year project sponsored by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Professor Akurugu is a visiting fellow and PhD co-supervisor at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Her research has been published in reputable international journals such as African Affairs, Feminist Theory, and Hypatia. She has many peer-reviewed articles on neoliberalism, gender norms and power relations, women’s economic empowerment, gender-based violence, and equity in northern Ghana. Her most recent publications include: ‘Reinvigorating Social Support Systems in Rural Northwestern Ghana: Towards Affective Empathy in a Neoliberal Age’ and ‘Marriage, bridewealth and power: Critical reflections on women’s autonomy across settings in Africa’.

For more information about Professor Akurugu’s research and publications, click here and here.