PROFILE: Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins

Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins

Professor Ama de-Graft Aikins is a social psychologist with a primary interest in experiences and representations of chronic physical and mental illnesses and Africa's chronic non-communicable disease (NCD) burden.
Her current collaborative research focuses on diabetes and obesity among Ghanaians in Ghana and Europe, food beliefs and practices among Ghanaians in Ghana and the US, and community-based cardiovascular (CVD) and mental health interventions in Ghana.
She is also conducting independent longitudinal research on diabetes experiences in Accra.

She teaches graduate courses in Psychology, the Philosophy of the Social Sciences and Qualitative Research Methods at the University of Ghana. She has supervised graduate theses in Social Psychology, Social Policy, Public Health and Population Studies at the University of Ghana, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, New York University and the University of Sussex.

Experience

• Visiting Senior Fellow

  The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

  September 2015 – Present (1 year)

• Vice Dean

  University of Ghana Legon

  March 2015 – Present (1 year 6 months)

• Professor of Psychology

  University of Ghana Legon

  February 2015 – Present (1 year 7 months)

• Associate Professor of Psychology

  University of Ghana Legon

  October 2011 – February 2015 (3 years 5 months)
  Research on the social psychology of health and chronic illness; diabetes experiences; cardiovascular disease interventions; chronic non-communicable disease research and policy in Africa.

• Senior Lecturer

  University of Ghana Legon

  October 2009 – September 2011 (2 years)

• Research Associate

  University of Cambridge

  2006 – 2010 (4 years)

• LSE Teaching Fellow

  The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

  2008 – 2009 (1 year)
   

  Education

  • University of Cambridge

    ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Social Psychology

    2005 – 2006

  • London School of Economics and Political Science

    PhD, Social Psychology

    1999 – 2004

  • The Manchester Metropolitan University

    MSc, Psychology

    1995 – 1997

  • The University of Manchester

    BSc, Pharmacology

    1991 – 1994

  Volunteer Experience & Causes

  • Arts and Culture
  • Civil Rights and Social Action
  • Health
  • Human Rights
  • Poverty Alleviation
  • Social Services

   
  
  

  

  Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins, Inaugural Lecture

  

  Presentation from the College of Humanities

  Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins, Professor of Social Psychology and the Vice-Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Ghana, recently delivered her inaugural lecture on the topic: “Curing Our Ills: The Psychology of Chronic Disease Risk, Experience and Care in Africa”. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, chaired the Inaugural Lecture, the eighth for the second semester of the 2015/16 academic year.

  Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins shared important insights about Ghanaian and African healthcare systems, as relating to chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like hypertension and diabetes and other major chronic diseases, which she noted, are on the rise

  
  

  

  Presentation from former students and mentees

  

  Prof. Ama de-Graft Aikins being assisted by her husband to cut a ribbon to open the exhibition of her scholarly works. With them is Prof. Samuel Agyei-Mensah, Provost of the College of Humanities

  
  

  

  Presentation from the Regional Institute for Population Studies

  

  Presentation from the School of Graduate Studies