Esi Sutherland-Addy (Prof)
Academic Experience
Teaching: Esi Sutherland-Addy is retired associate professor of African Studies at the University of Ghana and Adjunct Professor at the New York University Study Centre in Accra. She has been visiting lecturer at Manchester University, University of Indiana (Bloomington) as well as Birmingham University. She has also taught at L’Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Sutherland was Academic Associate Director of the African Humanities Program of the American Council for Learned Societies.
Research: Her main research interests are: written and oral Literature, women’s literature as well as educational and cultural policy. Her current research projects are a) Oral Traditions and Expressive Diversity involving the collection and digitization of Ghanaian Oral Traditions and b) Archiving the works and papers of Efua Sutherland. She is also oversees the Willis Bell Photographic Archive.
Other Professional Experience: Sutherland-Addy was Deputy Minister for Tourism and Culture (1986) and Higher Education (1986-1993) in the Republic of Ghana. She has undertaken consultancies with the World Bank, UNESCO , She has also served on several national and international boards including Ghana Commercial Bank, Open Society for West Africa, West African Civil Society Institute, the Commonwealth of Learning, and the Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. the W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan African Culture; the Ghana Education Service Council, the National Development Planning Commission and the Media Commission. Between 2020 and 2024 ,she served on the Cultural Policy Review Committee and the Steering Committees of the Year of Return and Beyond the Return Initiatives. She currently chairs Afram Publications Ghana and is a subscriber of Star Ghana.
Selected Technical Papers and Publications
2025. Foreword in Asiimwe Deborah Kawe and Robert H. Vorlicky Speaking Our Selves New Plays by African Women.2021. Policy Brief - Governance of Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development and Peaceful Coexistence in Africa. Paris UNESCO
The Legacy of Efua Sutherland, Pan African Cultural Activism edited with Anne V. Adams and Africa in Contemporary Perspective edited with Takyiwaa Manuh
2013. “Musings on Creativity as the Spark for Modern Nationhood” H. Lauer et al (eds). The One in the Many: Nationbuilding Through Cultural Diversity. Accra. SubSaharan Publishers.
2012. E. Sutherland-Addy, Ama Ata Aidoo and Kati Dagadu. Ghana: Where the Bead Speaks. Accra UNESCO/ Foundation for Contemporary Art
2012. E. Sutherland-Addy “The Metaphysics and the Politics of Gender Representation in the Arts of Africa” in K. Anyidoho and H. Lauer (Eds) Reclaiming the Human Sciences and Humanities through African Perspectives. Accra. SubSaharan Publishers (pp.1311-1327)
2005. Women Writing Africa-West Africa and the Sahel edited with Aminata Diaw and published by the Feminist Press of City University of New York.
Work in Civil Society: Her work in civil society cuts across the arts, children, girl’s education, the development of urban child-friendly spaces, civil society management and capacity building.She is the immediate past chair of the Ghana Chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists .She was pioneering Co-Convener of the Ghana Culture Forum and is currently on the boards of Mmofra Foundation and the Forum of African Women Educationalists (Ghana) . She is a Subscriber of Star Ghana and chairs the Board of International Trustees of the PANAFEST Foundation. Her awards include Honorary Fellow of the College of Preceptors, UK, Honorary Dr of Letters, University of Education, Winneba, Excellence in Distance Learning from the Commonwealth of Learning, Ghana Civil Service Recognition Award for Meritorious services Rendered to Ghana Civil Service and the People of Ghana, and Tourism Icon from the Ghana Tourism Authority.