Dr Afua Twum-Danso Imoh
BA, MSc, PhD
Expertise
Afua teaches on global childhoods. Her research focuses on constructions of childhood and children's rights in Ghana and problematising the Global North vs Global South binary. She is Head of the Children&Families Research Centre.
Current positions
Associate Professor in Global Childhoods and Welfare
School for Policy StudiesEqualities Officer
Human Resources
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
Afua's interest in childhood stems from her MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics where her dissertation explored the involvement of children in civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. This research led her to develop an interest in the very notion of childhood and how it is understood by different societies and the implications this has for dominant children’s rights and child protection discourses. As a result, she embarked on a Ph.D. programme at the Centre for West African Studies at the University of Birmingham where her research sought to elicit the perceptions of local communities on children’s rights, the constructions of childhood, and the socialization of children and explored the implications for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in two communities in Accra, Ghana: Nima and Bukom. Shortly after completing her Ph.D. in May 2008, Afua assumed the position of Lecturer in the Sociology of Childhood at the University of Sheffield. During her time at Sheffield, her work started to challenge deficit understandings of childhoods in Africa and she became engaged in debates problematising the Global North-Global South binary as it relates to childhood studies. In January 2020 Afua moved to the University of Bristol to assume the position of Senior Lecturer in Global Childhoods and Welfare in the School for Policy Studies where she has continued to develop her research interests relating to children's rights in Ghana, challenging deficit understandings of childhoods in Africa and problematising the Global North-Global South binary in childhoods and children's rights research. In August 2023 she was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.
Afua holds a BA (Hons) in History and Sociology (University of Manchester), a MSc in Development Studies (the London School of Economics and Political Science), and a Ph.D. in African Studies (the University of Birmingham).
Research interests
Drawing upon an interdisciplinary background, Afua's research focuses on children’s rights and social and cultural norms; parent-child relations and the implications for children’s wellbeing and rights; the impact of historical developments and more recent social changes on constructions of childhood and child rearing practices; and children’s participatory rights with a focus on trying to move beyond voice. Much of this research has concentrated on Ghana and Nigeria and has received external funding from a number of sources. Specifically, out of the 10 research and networking projects she has managed as Principal Investigator, eight have been funded by external bodies.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
A comparative study of gender construction and its impact on healthy relationships within English and Ghanaian schools
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
We aim to explore the construction of gender within schools and its implications for forming healthy relationships and gender-based violence (GBV) among young people (YP) aged 13-19 in England and…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
09/03/2022 to 01/10/2022
Who Minds the Children? Clarifying the Role of Public Policies and Socio-Ecological Factors in Non-Adult Child Supervision in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?
Role
Collaborator
Description
Was part of a team that successfully obtained funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to undertake a project which seeks to further our understanding…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/05/2020 to 30/04/2025
8121 SPOL. British Academy The Humanities and Social Sciences tackling the UK's International Challenges Programme. Afua Twum-Danso Imoh
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
06/01/2020 to 31/07/2021
Foregrounding the Perspectives of West African Scholars in Childhood Studies Discourses
Principal Investigator
Description
Successfully obtained funding for a project which seeks to develop the writing capacity of early career childhoods studies scholars based at West African institutions through writing workshops and a mentoring…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/04/2019 to 15/12/2019
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
04/06/2025Conclusion
Critical Children's Rights Studies
Critical Children's Rights Studies
Critical Children's Rights Studies
Destabilizing images of the competent adult vs. the incompetent child in dominant children's rights discourses through the lens of Akan notions of personhood and social relations
Critical Children's Rights Studies
Children supervising children across low- and middle-income countries
Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
Children supervising children across low- and middle-income countries
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Teaching
Afua has been involved in the higher education sector in the UK for the past 22 years as a Graduate Teacher, Visiting Lecturer, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Associate Professor, which is her current position.
Much of her teaching has focused on global childhoods, international children's rights policies, child-focused research methods, family life, and anthropological perspectives on global processes.
Afua became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2009 and completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (CiLT) at the University of Sheffield in 2011.
In the 2024-2025 academic year Afua will be convening the following unit:
1) Childhoods in a Global Context (SPOL30089-Year 3).
Additionally, she delivers guest lectures on other units on an annual basis, including Contemporary Debates in Global Childhood (SPOL10024) and the MSc in Public Policy Dissertation unit (SPOLM1010).
Beyond her teaching, Afua supervises undergraduate dissertation projects relating to the BSc Childhood Studies programme and the MSc in Public Policy.
