I was born and raised in post-colonial Ghana, where I did my undergraduate degree in geography (with a philosophy minor) at the University of Ghana. I came to Canada in 1987 under a graduate academic scholarship at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, where I received my Master’s degree in human geography. My PhD, also in human geography, is from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. After many years of teaching in several universities/colleges in British Columbia—including the Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, Douglas College, and the Kwantlen University College, with the latter being my main employer.
I joined York University in 2002, as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2005, and to Full Professor in 2010. I was the Coordinator of York’s International Development Studies program at the Department of Social Sciences from June 2008 to June 2011. I am currently appointed to the Department of Geography (100%), where I teach both undergraduate and graduate courses.
My research interests are critical development theory; socio-spatial dialectics; globalization; religious transnationalism; cultural identity; race, space & employment; and research methods. I have written several journal articles and contributed chapters to a number of books. I am the author of the well-received book, Black Canadians: History, Experiences, Social Conditions, published by Fernwood in 2002 and 2010; and co-editor of Globalization and Development: The Human Factor: Critical Insights, published by Ashgate in 2004; the editor of Understanding Reforms in Africa: The Tale of Seven Nations (Palgrave, 2006); and Neoliberalism and Globalization in Africa: Contestations from the Embattled Continent (Palgrave, 2008).
