Kate Skinner (Principal Investigator) 
Kate is a Reader in the History of Africa and its Diasporas at the University of Birmingham.
Kate began her research career with a focus on the political history of the Ghana-Togo border. She worked closely with Dr Wilson Yayoh (University of Cape Coast, Ghana) on African-owned and African-language newspapers, highlighting debates about nation-building and citizenship in local print cultures.
More recently, Kate has turned to the gendered history of citizenship in postcolonial Ghana, and she has a special interest in women’s campaigns to reform various aspects of family law.
Akosua Adomako Ampofo (Co-investigator)
Akosua is a Professor of African and Gender Studies, at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, where she was also director between 2010 and 2015.
She is President of the African Studies Association of Africa, a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, recipient of the Sociologists for Women and Society Award for Feminist Activism, and co-editor of the Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa blog.
Akosua has a long track record of participatory and impactful research on gender issues. She was a member of the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment consortium, established in 2006 as an international research and communications programme on understanding and supporting positive change in women’s lives. She was also the foundation director of the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy, University of Ghana.
Akosua is an active member of several civil society coalitions, including the Domestic Violence Coalition and the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana.
Jovia Salifu (Post-doctoral research assistant)
Jovia studied for a PhD in African Studies at the University of Birmingham. His thesis explored the impact of microcredit on gender relations in matrilineal Offinso, Ghana. His broader interest is in gendered livelihoods, and in the ways in which marriage and kinship shape (and are shaped by) women’s access to and use of resources, (see recent publications). Jovia joined the Archive of Activism project as a postdoctoral research assistant, based at the Institute of African Studies (Legon). He is enjoying identifying and interviewing gender activists and ‘political women’ in Ghana, and finding connections between their concerns and some of the issues that he identified in his PhD thesis.
Rose Mensah-Kutin (External partner)
Rose advises on project design, engagement and impact. She has been the Director of the West African Regional Office of ABANTU for Development since 2000.
ABANTU hosts the Women’s Manifesto Coalition, which drafted and mobilised support for the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana.
The Manifesto identifies widely shared concerns about the under-representation of women in politics, policy and decision-making at all levels, and in public life in general. The Manifesto is non-partisan, but takes positions on national issues. It provides a common platform for women seeking gender equality, a more equitable society, and sustainable national development.
In 2018, Rose received a Martin Luther King Jr Award for Peace and Social Justice, in recognition of her work for gender equality. Rose holds a PhD in African Studies from the University of Birmingham, where she specialised on the gendered experience of rural electrification in Ghana.
Aseye Tamakloe (Film director/editor)
Aseye holds a BFA in Film and Television Editing, from the National Film and Television Institute, Ghana and an MPhil in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. Aseye’s career in film spans over a decade. She has worked with award winning documentary filmmakers, Manthia Diawara and the late Jackie Jones. She is a freelance filmmaker, festival programmer and also the founder of Ndiva Women’s Film Festival- a festival that aims to create artistic platforms for the presentation and preservation of work by, for and about women.
Kwame Crentsil (camera, sound and sound design)
Kwame is a versatile Filmmaker, Film Music Composer and Sound Designer with a BFA in Television Production from the National Film and Television Institution (NAFTI), Accra, Ghana. As a film composer, Kwame Crentsil has composed and recorded film music on award winning feature length films such as Chronicles of Odumkrom: the headmaster (2015) by Ernest Abbeyqueye and Keteke (2017) by Peter Sedufia. Currently, Kwame is working on, OSAGYEFO STUDIOS: a sound post-production studio that focuses on film music, sound design and Foley recording for film in Ghana and West Africa.
Akosua-Asamoabea Ilse Ampofo (Director of photography)
Ampofo is director of photography for the Archive of Activism project, working with the film director to create a unique aesthetic to the documentary through a particular choice of framing techniques, lighting positions and camera angles.
Ampofo received her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College where she majored in Film Studies. While at Bryn Mawr College she worked as a photographer and videographer for the Office of Communications, making videos and taking pictures of students and events that highlighted school pride. She also worked for the Athletic Department producing live streams of sporting games and collated training clips for the coaches.
Over two of her summers, Ampofo worked with TV news agencies in various capacities once in Ghana (Joy TV, 2016) and then in Salt Lake City (Station, year). In 2017, she was awarded a prize for her short documentary, Living Legends, at the Trico-Film Festival, a festival for Swarthmore College, Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College. In 2018 she was awarded a LILAC Summer Funding Fellowship for her work with the Golden Baobab and African Bureau Stories, a children’s publication company based in Accra, Ghana.
Ampofo is currently listed in the Community Building Honor Roll at Bryn Mawr College for her work as a liaison between the student body and administration in recognition of the work she did during her time as administrative assistant for the Africana Studies Department. Her research interests address issues of Identity Politics, Masculinities, Modes of Storytelling, and Minority Representations in the Media.
Nathalie Raunet Robert-Nicoud (Administrative Assistant)
Nathalie Raunet Robert-Nicoud is an administrative assistant on the Archive of Activism project. She is a doctoral researcher in the Department of African Studies and Anthropology, University of Birmingham. Her research focuses mobility, belonging and citizenship in the Ghana-Togo borderlands