Ama Ata Aidoo
Visiting Professor of Africana Studies and Creative Writing
Ama Ata Aidoo, is long term Visiting Professor and writer-in-residence of Africana Studies and Creative Writing. A noted Ghanain novelist, playwright, and lecturer who focuses on issues of gender in African society and tensions between Western and African worldviews, she has been a leading social and political critic of Ghana's mid-twentieth century independence movement.
A graduate from the University of Ghana, Legon, Ama Ata Aidoo has served as a Fellow of the Advanced Creative Writing Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA; and during the early 1980s, as Minister of Education (Ghana). At various times during her career, Ama Ata Aidoo has lectured in the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast; and has served on the Board of Directors of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Artis Council of Ghana and the Ghana Medical and Dental Council.
She is the author of several plays, short stories and novels, including: The Dilemma of a Ghost; Anowa; No Sweetness Here; Our Sister Killjoy-or Reflections for a Black-Eyed Squint; The Eagle and the Chickens and Other Stories; Birds and Other Poems; An Angry Letter in January; The Girl Who Can; and Changes: A Love Story (1991), for which she received the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
Selected Honors and Awards:
- Millenium Award for Literary Excellence, Ghana's Excellence Awards Foundation 2005
- Woman of Substance Award, African Women's Development Fund 2005
- Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
- The UNESCO/International Award
- The Commonwealth Prize of African Writer
- The Nelson Mandela Prize for Poetry
Selected Publications:
- Changes: A Love Story
- The Dilemma of a Ghost
- Anowa
- No Sweetness Here
- The Girl Who Can and other stories
Courses Taught
- Advanced Creative Writing Workshops