Today@Sam Article

Geography Professor Selected For African Diaspora Support Fellowship

June 13, 2019
SHSU Media Contact: Wes Hamilton

Samuel picture Samuel Adu-Prah, associate professor of geography at Sam Houston State University, has been awarded a fellowship by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa –CODESRIA to travel to Ghana this summer to work with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Divine Odame Appiah to train graduate students and faculty on current applied geospatial technologies for social science research.

Adu-Prah has a long record of teaching courses in geographic information science and environmental modeling and with SHSU since 2013. He holds a Ph.D. in environmental resources and policy with concentration in geographic information science and environmental modeling from Southern Illinois University. He currently serves as Co Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research and has been the principal investigator on a number of grant-funded projects on spatiotemporal analysis. Adu-Prah will collaborate with the faculty at KNUST on research and grant applications in the Department of Geography and Rural Development, organize and teach a four-week summer course for graduate students and faculty in current geospatial technologies.

The proposed project will build on the existing collaboration between Adu-Prah and Odame Appiah and will strengthen the already existing relationship between Sam Houston State University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

“It is anticipated that this intervention will assist to sustain the budding activities and programs in geospatial technologies in the Department of Geography and Rural Resource Development,” Adu-Prah said.  “Young scientists and students from both KNUST and Sam Houston State will benefit from research and information exchange.”

Not only will KNUST profit immediately from the summer applied geospatial technologies workshop that will be offered, but the faculty at KNUST will also benefit from teaching and research materials and supervision on graduate work. A shared database consisting of current research publications at SHSU will provide services for the students and faculty. Adu-Prah, through collaboration with faculty, will have continued access to local data, and opportunities for future research. His access to preliminary data will also help with completing external grant applications.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) usually invites joint proposals from African academics in the Diaspora and universities in Africa for visiting fellowships to African universities. The call targets African scholars in the Diaspora who are interested in being supported to spend some time in an African university to undertake specific academic activities aimed at strengthening teaching and research in either the social sciences, humanities or higher education studies. The tenure of the visiting professorship usually range from two weeks to three months and cover the expenses for the project visits.  The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology project was selected among a high number of impressive applications.

CODESRIA is implementing the African Academic Diaspora Support to African Universities program with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY). The program seeks to mobilize the African academic diaspora to support African universities and to strengthen the linkages between African academics in the diaspora and their counterparts in African Universities. The focus of the activities associated with the program is the strengthening of teaching and research capacities in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Higher Education Studies in African universities. These activities reflect CODESRIA’s thematic priorities for research and training in the 2017-2021 program cycle.  

The support compliments previous efforts to strengthen the ties among the faculty members and between their home and host institutions on successful collaborative projects conducted in previous years.

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