Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA)
Welcome to the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA)! MIASA was created in 2018 at the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana, Legon campus. It is based on a collaboration between the University of Ghana and a consortium of German partners – the University of Freiburg, Goethe University Frankfurt, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), and the German Historical Institute Paris (DHIP).
MIASA is dedicated to the topic of ‘Sustainable Governance’. We define ‘governance’ as the interplay of informal and formal rules for steering public affairs, embedded in historically contextualized social, material and cultural practices of everyday life. MIASA’s three research foci are: sustainable environmental transformation, sustainable conflict management, and sustainable democracy. The Institute also covers intersectional topics like landownership and acquisition, migration and mobility, restitution of colonially acquired cultural objects, African cities, and human rights.
MIASA offers fellowships for senior and junior postdoctoral researchers from the Humanities and Social Sciences. MIASA’s programmes are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), with cofunding from the University of Ghana.
Overarching aims of MIASA are working towards a reduction of global asymmetries in knowledge production and bridging the cultural divide between anglophone and francophone Africa. MIASA will serve as a hub for exchange, networking and collaboration amongst leading researchers from Ghana, Germany, the African and European continents and beyond.
Besides its fellowship programme MIASA organizes a broad range of events, including thematic conferences (in Ghana and other African countries), policy conferences, the Annual Anton Wilhelm Amo Lecture, as well as workshops for early career researchers from Africa such as Writing Workshops, Publishing Workshops and Female Academic Careers in Africa Workshops.
Key findings of MIASA’s research are published in the institute’s working paper series (available on UGSpace), on MIASA’s academic blog and as external papers in peer reviewed journals and books.
MIASA Events
Events
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Conference: Militarization, Coups and the Crisis of Constitutionalism in Africa – Democratic Regression and Constitutional Resilience
J.H. Nketiah Conference Hall, Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana -
Public Lecture: Militarization, Coups and the Crisis of Constitutionalism in Africa – Democratic Regression and Constitutional Resilience
J.H. Nketiah Conference Hall, Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana -
Anton Wilhelm Amo Lecture 2026: The Genesis of Doubt: From Anton Wilhelm Amo to Ghana’s Democracy; Invited speaker: Prof. Ato Quayson, Chair, Department of African and African American Studies, Stanford University
Great Hall, University of Ghana, LegonAbstract This lecture will adopt the life and work of Anton Wilhelm Amo as the take-off point for reflecting on the genesis of doubt and its uses in society and ... Read more
News
Announcements
MIASA Blog
- Are migration researchers and practitioners working in their separate ”silos”? This question was raised by a representative of the German […]
- Introduction For generations, donkeys have been an indispensable part of everyday life in Northern Ghana. They transport water, firewood, manure, […]
- _____________ When you have a money emergency, WHO or WHAT do you turn to, or trust? Do you turn to […]
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