Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata gets SOAS Distinguished Research Professorship

We are proud to announce Professor Dzodzi Tsikata as the final recipient of the Distinguished Research Professorship this year. Professor Dzodzi Tsikata will join the Department of Development Studies as Research Professor of Development Studies from January 2023.

University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) previously announced the establishment of five new distinguished research professorships aimed at addressing the global challenges of our time, as framed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are proud to have Professors Olivette Otele, Ha-Joon Chang, Sanjay Srivastava and Shirin Rai join SOAS alongside Professor Tsikata.

Professor Dzodzi Tsikata’s research and publications are in three broad areas- the gendered political economy of agrarian change, informal labour relations and work conditions, and social policy and social development. She is currently leading two pan-African research projects- the Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy for post COVID-19 Africa (GETSPA) and Transregional Research on the Changing Nature of Precarious Work in Africa and the Arab Region.

Professor Tsikata is a leading member of several African and global south research networks- the Agrarian South Network (ASN), the International Development Economics Associates (IDEA) and the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA). She is also a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She is currently a Research Professor at the University of Ghana where she is working with colleagues on a book on the trajectories of Social Policy in Ghana and on several articles on agrarian change and the future of work in Africa.

In reaction to her appointment as a Professor of Development studies and joining SOAS Professor Dzodzi Tsikata said:

“SOAS represents an interesting vantage point from which to continue my research of the last three decades on questions of Africa’s development. SOAS’s plan to reimagine global partnerships and revitalise its research agenda is precisely the kind of agenda to which I can make a real contribution.

I feel energised by the prospect of working with colleagues in Development Studies to produce new knowledge, train a new generation of global leaders and contribute to current debates about the future of development studies.”

Zoe Marriage, Head of the Development studies Department said:

“It is fantastic to have Professor Dzodzi Tsikata joining the Department of Development Studies. Professor Tsikata is a scholar of international stature, and her appointment is particularly significant as she will be bringing a wealth of experience and understanding of the African continent.

Colleagues are anticipating a range of synergies as Professor Tsikata’s work has so many points of contact with research and teaching in the department: on gender, agrarian transitions and questions of citizenship. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Professor Tsikata to our department.”

The establishment of the distinguished research professorships follows on the adoption of SOAS’ new Strategic Plan which seeks to both reimagine our global partnerships and revitalise our research agenda.

Profile of Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata

Dzodzi Tsikata, Professor of Development Sociology, has been Director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at the University of Ghana since August 2016.

Before this, she was based at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) during which time she was Deputy Director and Director of the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) at the University of Ghana. She has a Ph.D in Social Science from Leiden University in the Netherlands. In a career spanning over 30 years, Tsikata’s teaching, research and publications have been in the areas of gender and development policies and practices; the politics and livelihood effects of land tenure reforms, large scale land acquisitions and agricultural commercialisation; and informal labour relations and conditions of work. She has extensive experience with leading multi-disciplinary and multi-national research projects, supervising student theses and examining post-graduate theses.

She is on the editorial advisory board of Journal of Peasant Studies, the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Feminist Economics and a member of the editorial collective of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy and Feminist Africa. Tsikata is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the immediate past President of Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). Dzodzi Tsikata is also active in the leadership of several leading policy advocacy networks in Africa, including the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana, Third World Network-Africa, and Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja.

Education
She holds a Ph.D. (cum laude) in Social Science from Leiden University in the Netherlands (2003). Before then, she was awarded an LL.B. (1984) and M.Phil Sociology (1996) by the University of Ghana and an M.A. Development Studies (1989) by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague, Netherlands.

Research Areas

Gender and Development Policies and Practices
Land Tenure and Agrarian Livelihood Systems
Commercial Land Deals and their livelihood impacts
The Politics of Land Tenure Reforms
Informal Labour Relations and Work Conditions
Gender issues in Higher Education

Current Research and Publication Projects

2015-2022, Co applicant, Land Commercialisation, Gendered Agrarian Transformation, and the Right to Food Research Project, and team leader of eight-member Ghana team. Project is funded by Swiss National Foundation under its R4D programme.
2018-2023- IAS Team leader, Domestic Security Implications of UN Peacekeeping (D-SIP).
2020-2023, PI, Transregional Research on the Changing Character of Precarious Work in Egypt, Ghana and Kenya, Project funded by Carnegie Corporation.
2021-2022, PI Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy in Africa Project, Pan African Research Project funded by Open Society Initiatives for Africa
2022-2024- Assistant Project Director, Building a New Generation of Academics in Africa (BANGA-AFRICA) Phase III Project (UG Project funded by the Carnegie Corporation)

Recent Publications
Dzodzi Tsikata is widely published in journals, edited books and monographs. Her most recent publications are the following:

Edited Books and Special Issue of Journal

Elisabeth Prügl, Fenneke Reysoo & Dzodzi Tsikata (2021) Guest Editors-Forum: Commercialising Agriculture/Reorganizing Gender Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 48: 7 pp. 1439-1536.

Hall, R., Scoones, I., & Tsikata D. (2017) Guest Editors, Forum: Land and Agricultural Commercialisation in Africa, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol 44, Issue 3, Pages 515-593.

Hall, R., Scoones, I., & Tsikata D. (Eds.). (2015). Africa’s land rush: Implications for rural livelihood livelihoods and agrarian change. Martlesham: Boydell and Brewer Ltd.
Rodriguez, C., Tsikata, D. & Ampofo, A.A. (Eds.). (2015). Transatlantic feminisms: Women and studies in Africa and the diaspora. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Moyo, S., Tsikata, D. and Diop, Y. (Eds.). (2015). Land in the struggles for citizenship in Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA.
Book Chapters

Hall, R., Scoones, I. (2015). Introduction: The contexts and consequences of Africa’s landrush. In R. Hall, I. Scoones & D. Tsikata (Eds.), Africa’s land rush: Implications for rural livelihoods and agrarian change. Martlesham: Boydell and Brewer Ltd.
Moyo, S., Tsikata, D. & Diop, Y. (2015). Africa’s Diverse and Changing Land Questions. In S. Moyo, D. Tsikata & Y. Diop (Eds.), Land in the struggles for citizenship in Africa (pp. 1-33), Dakar: CODESRIA.
Rodriguez, C.R, Tsikata, D., & Ampofo, A.A. (2015). Introduction: CollaborativeTraditions and Transcontinental Connections. In C.R. Rodriguez, D. Tsikata, & A.A. Ampofo (Eds.), Transatlantic feminisms: women and gender studies in Africa and the diaspora. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Tsikata, D. (2015). Like your own child? Employers’ perspectives and domestic work relations in Ghana. In C.R Rodriguez, D. Tsikata & A.A. Ampofo (Eds.), Transatlantic feminisms: women and gender studies in Africa and the diaspora. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Yaro, J.A., & Tsikata, D. (2015). Recent Transnational land deals, livelihoods and agrarian change in Ghana. In R. Hall, I. Scoones & D. Tsikata (Eds.), Africa’s landrush: implications for rural livelihoods and agrarian change. Martlesham: Boydell and Brewer Ltd.
Journal Articles

Elisabeth Prügl, Fenneke Reysoo & Dzodzi Tsikata (2021) Agricultural and land commercialization – feminist and rights perspectives, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2021.1974843
Fred Mawunyo Dzanku, Dzodzi Tsikata & Daniel Adu Ankrah (2021) The gender and geography of agricultural commercialisation: what implications for the food security of Ghana’s smallholder farmers?, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2021.1945584
Hall, R., Scoones, I., & Tsikata D. (2017) Plantations, outgrowers and commercial farming in Africa: agricultural commercialisation and implications for agrarian change, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol 44, Issue 3, Pages 515-537 | Published online: 16 Mar 2017.
Tsikata, D. (2016). Gender, Land tenure and agrarian production systems in Sub Saharan Africa. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Vol 5, Issue 1, pp. 1 – 19 First published date: November-15-2016 10.1177/2277976016658738
Tsikata, D. (2016). Understanding and addressing inequalities in the context of structural transformation in Africa: A synthesis of seven country studies. Development, pp. 1-24, doi:10.1057/s41301-016-0002-8.

Refereed working papers and contribution to special reports

Darkwah, A., Tsikata, D. 2021. Home-based work and homework in Ghana: An exploration, ILO Working Paper 22 (Geneva, ILO).

Tsikata, D. 2018 Promoting Change in Domestic Work Conditions from Outside the State in a Context of Regulatory Inertia: The Case of Ghana, LLDRL Working Paper Series, WP # 9.

Tsikata, D. (2015). The social relations of agrarian change (IIED Working Paper). London. Retrieved from http://pubs.iied.org/17278IIED
Helen Dancer, H. & Tsikata, D. (2015). Researching land and commercial agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa with a gender perspective: Concepts, issues and methods. (Working Paper 132, FAC/LAC).
2015- Akosua Darkwah and Dzodzi Tsikata. Work, Employment and Social Development, Ghana Social Development Outlook 2014. Legon: Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER).
Teaching and Supervision
Dzodzi Tsikata has taught the advanced gender studies course in the Ph.D. Development Studies Programme at ISSER (ISDS712) since 2014. Before then, she developed and taught the Gender and Development Course in the M.A. Development Studies Programme at ISSER (ISDS605) between 2002 and 2012.

Extension
University of Ghana Boards and Committees

2010 to date: Member, Academic Board
2016 to date: Member, Business and Executive Committee
2016-2020: Member, Security Committee
2016 to date: Member, Office of Research and Development (ORID) Management Board
2016 to date: IAS Management Board
2018 to date: Humanities Assessor, UG
2018 to date: Representative of UG Appointments Board on College of Humanities Appointments and Promotion Board.
2016 to date: Representative of College of Humanities on CBAS Board
2016 to date: College of Humanities Academic Quality Assurance Committee

Board Memberships and Committees outside University of Ghana

2021 to date: Executive Secretary International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS)
2020 to date: President, Executive Council, Maria Sybilla Merian Institute of Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA).
2019 to date: Vice Chair, Board of the Institute for Economic Justice
2016 to date: Board member, GILBT
2016 to date: Board member, Ghana National Theatre
1999 to date: Member of the Steering Committee of the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana, (2003-2005- Convenor of Network).
2009 to date: Deputy Chair, International Governing Council, Centre for Democracy and Development.
2015-2018-President, CODESRIA
2015-2017: Commissioner, National Development Planning Commission
2014-2019: Board Member, International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)
2013-2018: Member, UN Committee for Development Policy
2006 to 2020: Member of Executive Committee, Third World Network Africa.

Membership of Editorial Boards of Peer Reviewed Journals

2019 to date: Editorial Advisory Board, Oxford Development Journal
2018 to date: Editor, Feminist Africa Journal
2018 to date: Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Modern African Studies
2016 to date: Editorial Board, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society.
2014 to date: Editorial Advisory Board, Feminist Economics.
2014 to date: International Advisory Board, Canadian Journal of Development Studies.
2011 to date: Editorial Board, Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy.
2009 to date Editorial Board, Ghana Studies, Journal of the Ghana Studies Council
2007 to date: International Advisory Board, Journal for Peasant Studies
2006 to date: Editorial Advisory Board, African Sociological Review
2003 to 2018: Member, Editorial Advisory Group, Feminist Africa, Journal of the Africa Gender Institute, University of Cape Town.

Professional and Civil Society Associations

African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA)
Agrarian South Network
African Studies Association (ASA), USA.
African Studies Association Women’s Caucus.
Council for the Development of Social, Science Research CODESRIA
Ghana Studies Council, USA
International Association of Feminist Economics (IAFFE)
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAS)
Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT).
Third World Network Africa.