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Dr. Pius Siakwah

Position: 
Senior Research Fellow
Email: 
psiakwah@ug.edu.gh
Office: 
IAS oldsite
Section: 
Societies and Cultures
Profile

Pius Siakwah (PhD) is a development geographer with a special interest in political economy, natural resources governance, globalized assemblages, energy geographies, sustainable development, climate change and agriculture, network geographies, and tourism development. Currently, Pius is a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies (IAS), Societies and Culture Section. Before joining IAS, Pius was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, School of Tourism and Hospitality, South Africa where my research and publication centred on natural resources, networks and development, and tourism governance and development in Africa. Pius is a peer-review for Geoforum, Resources Policy, Environment and Society, Energy and Sustainable Development, Ocean and Coastal Management, and others. I have also published a number of articles and books in some of the leading publication outlets globally. Pius teaches various undergraduate and graduate courses. Other engagements over the years included Guest Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin: The making of the third world – Geography Department, March 2015. I also attended the STETS Summer School, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex on emerging pathways on sustainable development in May 2015. Pius received a number of distinguished awards – Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Johannesburg, (2016–2018), Trinity College Graduate Studentship Award, (2013–2016), Brock University Graduate and International Fellowship, (2010–2011), and Quota Scholarship, University of Oslo, Norway, 2008–2010.

Education

Ph.D., Geography, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), 2013–2016.

MA., Geography, Brock University, Canada, 2010–2011.

MPhil., Development Geography, University of Oslo, Norway, 2008–2010.

B.A., Geography and Resources Development, University of Ghana, 2003–2007.

Research Interests and Projects

Research interests:

  • Natural resources governance
  • Energy geographies
  • Network theories and development
  • Development and sustainability, and political economy/ecology.
  • Climate change, agriculture and development.
  • Globalization and development in Africa.
  • Neo-liberalization, democracy and development in Africa.
  • Tourism governance and development.
  • Qualitative research methods

Current Research project:

  • Mapping energy geographies and livelihoods and energy transition in Ghana, 2020 to date
  • Transregional research on the changing nature of precarious work in Africa and the Arab region funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, 2020 – 2022
  • Future DAMS funded by University of Manchester and the UK Government, 2018 - 2020
  • Domestic Security Implications of UN Peacekeeping (D-SIP), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019 - 2023
Teaching & Supervision

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • UGRC220: Appropriate Technologies for Development in Africa.

Graduate

  • AFST601: Research Methods
  • AFST602: Advanced Research Methods
  • AFST722: Ethnography of Community Conflicts in Ghana: The Case of Northern Ghana
  • AFST727: Topics in Research Methods

Supervision

  • Peter Gyamponsah Bembir, ‘Experiences, Practices and Implications from Peacekeeping: A Comparative Study of the Military and Police in Ghana’, PhD thesis, University of Ghana, 2021.
Publications

Journals

  • Siakwah, P. and Torto, O. (2022). Analysis of the complexities in the water-energy-food nexus: Ghana’s Bui dam experience. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:734675. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.734675.
  • ​Agyekum, B., Siakwah, P. & Boateng, J.K. (2021): Immigration, education, sense of community and mental well-being: the case of visible minority immigrants in Canada, Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2020.1801488.
  • Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. & Leonard, L. (2020). The nexus between tourism and urban risk: towards inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable outdoor tourism in African cities. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 29 (2020) 100254, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2019.100254.
  • Siakwah, P., Musavengane, R. & Leonard, L. (2020) Tourism Governance and Attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Tourism Planning & Development, 17:4, 355-383, DOI: 10.1080/21568316.2019.1600160.
  • Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. & Leonard, L. (2019). Does the poor matter” in pro-poor driven sub-Saharan African cities? towards progressive and inclusive pro-poor tourism. International Journal of Tourism Cities, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-05-2019-0057.
  • Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. (2019). Challenging formal accountability processes in community natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa. GeoJournal, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-10040-2.
  • Siakwah, P. (2018). Tourism geographies and spatial distribution of tourist sites in Ghana. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 7, 1: 1–19, 2018.
  • Siakwah, P. (2018). Actors, networks, and globalised assemblages: rethinking oil, the environment and conflict in Ghana. Energy Research & Social Science 38: 68–76, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.01.021.
  • Siakwah, P. (2017). Are natural resource windfalls a blessing or a curse in democratic settings? Globalised assemblages and the problematic impacts of oil on Ghana's development. Resources Policy 52: 122–133, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.02.008.
  • Siakwah, P. (2017). Actor network theory, globalised assemblages and the impact of oil on agriculture and industry in Ghana. The Extractive Industries and Society, 4: 462–472, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.04.007.
  • Siakwah, P. (2017). Political Economy of the Resource Curse in Africa Revisited: The Curse as a Product and a Function of Globalised Hydrocarbon Assemblage. Development and Society, 46(1), 83–112, http://www.jstor.org/stable/90011213.
  • Siakwah, P. (2014). Sustainable development: reflections on poverty-environment dilemma in Africa. Sacha Journal of Environmental Studies 4, 1: 8–24, http://www.sachajournals.com/user/image/sjes2012013siakwah002.pdf.

Books/monographs

  • Andrews, N. & Siakwah, P. (2021). Oil and development in Ghana: Beyond the resource curse. Routledge, London.
  • Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P. (2021) (eds). Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience. Routledge, London.
  • Siakwah, P. (2010). The dilemma of microcredit, empowerment and poverty reduction, VDM, Verlag, Monograph, Saarbrucken, Germany.

Book Chapter(s)

  • Agyekum, B., Siakwah, P. and Biney, I.K. (2022). Oil production, dispossession, and community development in Africa: A development education perspective. In, Reimaging development education in Africa, Kwapong, O.A.T.F., Addae, D. and John Kwame Boateng, J.K. (eds), Springer, p. 171 – 190.
  • Siakwah, P. (2021). The political economy of unplanned urban sprawling, waste, and Ghana's tourism development. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 47–58.
  • Leonard, L., Musavengane, R. and Siakwah, P. (2021).Urban risk and tourism in Africa. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 1–14.
  • Musavengane, R.., Leonard, L. and Siakwah, P. (2021). Conclusion: Navigating urban tourism amidst environmental, political and social risks. In, Challenges of Sustainable Urban Tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa: Urban Risk and Resilience, Leonard, L., Musavengane., R. & Siakwah, P (eds.), Routledge, London, p. 247–256.
  • Siakwah, P. and Musavengane, R. (2021). Re-Imagining community-based tourism in rural Africa through networks and management innovation. In, New Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Africa, Michael Z. Ngoasong, Ogechi Adeola, Albert N. Kimbu, Robert E. Hinson (eds.), Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management Series, Springer, London, p. 227–244.
  • Siakwah, P. (2018). Political economy to globalized assemblages: actor network theory, hydrocarbon assemblages, and problematizing the resource curse thesis. In, Network Theory and Analysis, Jorgensen, A., (ed.), Nova, New York, 2018.

 

Conferences and Workshops

Conferences

  • Life after the MA in Geography: How four alumni are using their degree. MA in Geography Speakers Series, Brock University, Canada. Webinar, November 20, 2020, [Pius Siakwah].
  • The ‘Lost Child’: A possible environmental curse? International Studies Association (ISA) Conference, Hawaii, US. March 2020, [Pius Siakwah & Nathan Andrew].
  • Does the poor matter’ in pro-poor driven African cities? toward progressive, inclusive and sustainable pro-poor tourism. Sustainability and Development Conference, The University of Michigan, Michigan, US, November 9-11, 2018, [Siakwah., P. Musavengane., R. & Leonard, L.].
  • ‘Are natural resources a blessing or curse in a democratic setting, Ghana’, Conference of Iris Geographers, May 2016.
  • ‘Neoliberalism, property relations and production of marginalization and exclusion in public spaces’, Brock University Speakers Series, October 11, 2011.
  • ‘Oil and reconfiguration of the urban space in Sekondi-Takoradi’, Geography Department Postgraduate Seminar, Trinity College, Dublin, April 28, 2015.

Workshops and seminars

  • The Impacts of Oil and Gas on Sekondi-Takoradi and Atuabo Enclave: Economy and Livelihood Dimension, Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana, Seminar Series, November 18, 2021 (via zoom).
  • Theorizing African Political & Social Thought for Knowledge Production, Mellon Foundation Sponsored Programme. Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana, 21st & 22nd November 2019.
  • Decolonisation Reading Group, Mellon Funded Project. IAS, University of Ghana, Nov. & Dec, 2019.
  • Sustainable HRM in Tourism in Africa, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, 25th–30th September 2017.
  • STEPS Summer School, 2015, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK May 11–22, 2015.
Extension services
  • IAS, Institutional Vetting Committee (IVC), Member. We are responsible for scrutinising all institutional and individual proposals for collaborations with IAS and making recommendations to management, October 2019 to date.
  • IAS, Academic Resources Committee, Member
  • All Africa Peoples’ Conference (AAPC), Publicity Committee Member, Dec, 5–8 2018.
  • Occasional Guest on Institute of African Studies (IAS) Radio Universe Community Outreach Program – Interrogating Africa 2018 - date.