Nana Amoah-Ramey

Nana A. Amoah-Ramey holds a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor at the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department (AAADS) and African Studies program (ASP) at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is also a Study Abroad consultant in Africa, specifically Ghana, West Africa. She is the coordinator of Students Services for the Hutton Honors College’s Ghana ‘Culture and Health’ Study Abroad program and Lead Faculty for the OVPDEMA Overseas Study Abroad Program on Historical and Contemporary Cultures of Ghana. Both programs take students to Ghana yearly during the summer. She also serves as a commissioner on the Bloomington Commission on the Status of Women (BCSW) at the City Hall.

Research Interests

• African American & African Diaspora Literature
• African Popular Music and Cultures
• Gender Roles and Representations
• African Language Pedagogy (Akan/Twi)
• Globalization and Post Colonialism

Frequently Taught Courses

• Language and Culture (Akan/Twi)
• African Music and Cultural Development in Africa
• Study Abroad Africa, Ghana.
• Early Black American Writing
• African American Autobiography
• Contemporary Black American Writing (Intensive Writing)
• Slavery: Worldwide Perspectives 

Publications:

Book

Female Highlife Performers in Ghana: Expression, Resistance, and Advocacy, is published by Lexington Books. It is an expert account of the history, creative challenges, and progress that have led to increased contributions of female performers in Ghana's Highlife musical tradition.

Book Chapter

African American Music, Is It African Enough: “Osibisaaba” Highlife Music of Africa and “Folk Spirituals” of Africans in the Diaspora” in Topics in West African Discourse-Pragmatics. Eds Samuel Gyasi Obeng and Kofi Agyekum. Publisher: Koeppe Velarg. 2022. https://www.koeppe.de/titel_topics-in-west-african-discourse-pragmatics

Peer-Reviewed Articles

"Biographies of two African American Women in Religious Music: Clara Ward and Rosetta Tharpe." 2021

in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IJHSS) published in Vol. 9 No. 10. Fall, 2019  https://ijhssnet.com/journal/index/4454 

Book Review Essay

Kofi Otutu Adu Labi. 2022. Memoirs From the Hilltop (Stories and Lessons From the School of Life. African and Asian Studies Journal.

Agyeman-Duah, Ivor. 2021 Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John 

Agyekum Kufuor. Tema, Ghana: Digibooks Ghana Ltd. Africa Today Journal.

Mayfair Yang. 2021. Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China. Durham, NC/London, UK: University Press. Pp.374. African and Asian Studies Journal. 

Works in Progress

“Bottlenecks in the African American Literature Classroom: Constructing the ‘Meaty Outline’ for the Research Essay.” [Article under review.]

“Teaching an African Language (Akan/Twi) Music and Culture: A Pedagogical Strategy.” Book Project. [ongoing project]

How “Malindy” Sang for the Movement: Looping Billie Holiday and Nina Simone through the STRUGGLE.”  [Upcoming Book project.]

The works in progress embody the innovative pedagogical structures used in Language and Literature classroom that improves classroom engagement and negotiable and achievable assessments. In addition, Holiday and Simone's project argues that black folks had aesthetic freedom instead of social and political freedom and linguistic wealth instead of monetary wealth. Finally, it shows how their musical works expressed, resisted, and advocated the masked and muted voices of female singers at the turn of the century. 

Awards

Grant in Aid for IU Faculty recipient of 1500 dollars. African Studies Program. June 1 – July 31, 2023. Research Topic: “Teaching an African Language (Akan/Twi) Music and Culture: A Pedagogical Strategy.” Project Phase Two. 2023.

Grant in Aid for IU Faculty recipient of 1500 dollars. African Studies Program. May 16 -July 31. Project. “Teaching an African Language (Akan/Twi) Music and Culture: A Pedagogical Strategy.”  Phase One. 2022.

Dr. Amoah-Ramey, popularly known as Dr. Nana, is a proud recipient of the "Living Legend Award" of the Tau Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority Incorporated, a fellow of the Transformative Learning Collegium at the Center for Teaching and Learning Services. A Study Abroad Award recipient of the Hutton Honors College for Faculty training for Study Abroad training funded by the U. S. Department of State's Capacity Building Program, all received in 2019 from Indiana University.