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Professor Dzodzi Tsikata

Position: 
Professo
Email: 
dtsikata@ug.edu.gh
Profile

Dzodzi Tsikata, Professor of Development Sociology, was Director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at the University of Ghana from August 2016 to July 2022. 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.