ACILA Honours US Fulbright Specialist for Enhancing African Scholarship
A US Fulbright Specialist, Dr. Jennifer Hasty has been conferred with the “ACILA Scholar” title by research and education think tank, Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) for enhancing Ghanaian and African scholarship.
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The ACILA Scholar program recognizes individuals who have demonstrated and contributed to enhancing African scholarship in Ghana or Africa, according to ACILA. Dr. Hasty, who is on her second Fulbright Specialist tenure attached to ACILA, was conferred with the title at a ceremony at the Ghana Institute of Journalism where she had been teaching a class on April 6, 2017. Dr. Hasty is also a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, in the United States of America.
A citation by ACILA Director of Programmes, Ms.Oforiwa Gyasi-Adonten, said that Dr. Hasty whom ACILA was proud to honour, had gone above and beyond her responsibilities in the US Fulbright Specialist program along with her longstanding efforts from 1996 to demonstrate these exceptional qualities and enhance scholarship in Ghana and, indeed, Africa.
“Since 1996, Dr. Jennifer Hasty, who is on her second Fulbright Specialist tenure attached to ACILA, has contributed to African scholarship in many ways. She has been researching, publishing, speaking, and teaching on issues related to media, politics, corruption, and democracy”, Ms. Gyasi-Adonten added.
Dr. Hasty responds to the conferment of the ACILA Scholar title
She said that with a specialization in Political Culture, Media, Post colonialism, Popular Culture in Ghana and West Africa, Dr. Hasty has researched and published widely on these themes and actually did her dissertation on "Big Language and Brown Envelopes: The Press and Political Culture in Ghana" in 1999.
Continuing, Ms. Gyasi-Adonten said that prior to 1999, Dr. Hasty had been in Ghana in 1996 and had interned with both the state-owned media and private newspapers, including Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Chronicle, Independent, and Public Agenda.
“Her insights while working at these media houses inspired her to write the book “The Press and Political Culture in Ghana”, a must read which was nominated by the publisher for the Victor Turner Prize. Currently, she has another book in progress “Corruption and the Politics of Indigeneity in Ghana.”
In addition, she has about eight peer-reviewed articles to her credit, some of which include "Journalism as Fieldwork: Propaganda, Complicity, and the Anti-Politics of Anthropology(2009); “Performing Power, Composing Culture: the State Press in Ghana’(2006); “Sympathetic Magic/Contagious Corruption: Sociality, Democracy, and the Press in Ghana (2005);“The Pleasures of Corruption: Desire and Discipline in Ghanaian Political Culture"(2005); “’Forget the Past or Go Back to the Slave Trade!’: Trans-Africanism and Popular History in Postcolonial Ghana” (2004); “Rites of Passage, Routes of Redemption: Emancipation Tourism and the Wealth of Culture”(2003) ; “From Culture of Silence to Culture of Contest: Hegemony, Legitimacy, and the Press in Ghana” (2001); "Voting With the Stomach," Reconciliation and Political Culture’’, The Future of Education" (1996).
“In addition to researching and publishing, Dr. Hasty has also spoken at several international conferences and universities, including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, University of Florida, University of Washington, Princeton, Rutgers University, University of Ghana, and of course the prestigious Ghana Institute of Journalism”, Ms. Gyasi-Adonten added.
Dr. Hasty expressed appreciation to ACILA for the honour and the Ghana Institute of Journalism for the opportunity to share her perspectives with the students and pledged to continue to work to further enhance scholarship in her areas of specialization.