Africa Today publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles and book reviews in a broad range of academic disciplines on topics related to contemporary Africa. We seek to be a venue for interdisciplinary approaches, diverse perspectives, and original research in the humanities and social sciences. This includes work on social, cultural, political, historical, and economic subjects.
Recent special issues have been on topics such as the future of African artistic practices, the socio-cultural life of bus stations in Africa, and family-based health care in Ghana. Africa Today has been on the forefront of African Studies research since 1954.
Nana Amoah-Ramey
Dr. Nana Amoah-Ramey is an Africanist, Diasporan cum Ethno-musicologist scholar of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Amoah-Ramey's works focus on Black women globally with a particular interest in Black females' existing realism, liberation, music compositions, verbal orders, and language. Publications include Female Highlife Performers in Ghana: Expression, Resistance, and Advocacy (2018), as well as numerous articles and book chapters.
Sergio Fernandez
Sergio Fernandez is an associate professor at Indiana University and an expert in the fields of public management and organization theory, with a focus on employee empowerment, representative bureaucracy in the U.S. and South Africa, organizational change and innovation, public sector leadership, and government outsourcing.
Maria Grosz-Ngaté
Maria Grosz-Ngaté is a research scientist in African Studies at Indiana University. Her areas of interest include political economy with a focus on social transformation and migration; Muslim communities in Senegal and Mali; and knowledge production in and on Africa. Her publications include Gendered Encounters and Africa, Fourth Edition.
Asher Lubotzky
Asher Lubotzky is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Indiana University. His Ph.D. dissertation explores the early relationship between the State of Israel and Southern Africa (1948-1976) as well as different South African interpretations of Zionism. Asher is the recipient of the Gerda Henkel Ph.D. Scholarship for 2021-2023.
Lauren M. MacLean
Lauren M. MacLean is the Arthur F. Bentley Chair and professor of Political Science at Indiana University. Her research focuses on the political economy of state formation, public service provision, and democratic citizenship in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Kenya. Her current project as a Carnegie Fellow focuses on the energy sector and climate change.
Bárbero Martínez-Riuz
Dr. Bárbaro Martinez-Ruiz is Associate Professor Art History and the Tanner-Opperman Chair of African Art in Honor of Roy Sieber. His research interests include African and African diaspora art; aesthetics and culture; graphic writing systems; rock painting; Afro-Latin American and Caribbean visual culture, art and aesthetics; theories of the avant-garde; and contemporary theory. He is the author of four books, numerous articles, and editor of the art journal dedicated to African arts, Orbus.
Beth Lewis Samuelson
Dr. Beth L. Samuelson is Associate Professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, with decades of work focused in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. She is the author of numerous articles, studies, and book chapters, including most recently “Empathetic Communication: Bridging Differences in a Global Context,” coauthored with E. Alant and L. Ogle, in Cross-cultural Global Perspective on Individuals with Special Needs: Traversing abilities and challenges.
Kevin Taber
Kevin Taber recently earned his PhD in political science from Indiana University and will be joining the faculty of Purdue University as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the academic year. His research focuses on contemporary African migration and diaspora communities and their impact on development, governance, and human security in their places of origin, as well as the implications these dynamics have for Global North-South relations.
Esi Thompson
Esi Thompson is an Assistant Professor with the Media School at Indiana University. Her research focuses on health risk and crisis communication primarily in West Africa (Ghana and Liberia) and more recently in the US. Her current project addresses risk perceptions and misinformation surrounding Covid-19.
Managing Editor for Africa Today
Alex is a PhD student specializing in constitutional law and constitutional design at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, and a Graduate Fellow of the Center for Constitutional Democracy. He has taught constitutional law, political theory, and peace and conflict studies at various institutions in both Ethiopia and the United States, including Jimma University, Mekelle University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Suffolk University. His teaching and research interests encompass constitutional law, political theory, and conflicts in the Horn of Africa. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Mekelle University Law Journal and from 2018-2023 was a Political Analyst/Commentator for Ethiopia Insight, www.ethiopia-insight.com.
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