Farewell of MIASA Director ‘Germany’ Dr. Susann Baller

From left to right: Prof. Charlotte Wrigley-Asante (former MIASA Director ‘Ghana’), Dr. Grace Diabah (MIASA Director ‘Ghana), Prof. Abena Oduro (Chair MIASA Executive Council and former MIASA Director ‘Ghana), Prof. Samuel Ntewusu (MIASA Executive Council Member), Dr. Susann Baller (MIASA Director ‘Germany’)

On Thursday 7 2023 the MIASA team organized a farewell gathering for MIASA Director ‘Germany’ Dr. Susann Baller. The farewell was attended by the previous MIASA directors ‘Ghana’, the MIASA Executive Council members from University of Ghana, several partners from the University of Ghana that have been collaborating with MIASA within the past years as well as MIASA fellows, MIASA alumni and MIASA staff.

Susann Baller joined MIASA as Director ‘Germany’ in January 2021 after having held a position as Head of the Transnational Research Group “The Bureaucratisation of African Societies” from 2017-2020, which was based in Dakar in cooperation of the German Historical Institute Paris (DHIP) with the Centre de recherches sur les politiques sociales (CREPOS). At that time MIASA had just started its main phase with new fellowship formats and an extensive event programme a few months earlier and all academic activities were still affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Together with the MIASA Director ‘Ghana’ and the MIASA administrative team, she implemented goals and set up structures which set the grounds for many aspects of MIASA’s success.

During her three-year term as Director ‘Germany’ MIASA grew into an internationally visible institute for advanced studies with a vibrant network of fellows, alumnis, guests and other affiliated researchers from the University of Ghana and beyond. Within her term as Director ‘Germany’ Susann Baller was particularly dedicated to bringing Anglophone and Francophone scholars together and to promoting research collaboration. As a result of this, encouraged many fellows and guests to jointly engage in roundtables, panels, conferences and workshops at MIASA. The invitation of Artists in Residence, which started in 2023, added to these fruitful exchanges. The promotion of female academic careers was another important aspect of Susann Baller’s work for MIASA – especially the initiation and organization of the successful annual Female Academic Careers in Africa Workshop, which she already started in 2018, then still in her position at Dakar. Since 2021, together with the MIASA Director ‘Ghana’, she has been part of the steering committee of the University-based Institutes for Advanced Studies (UBIAS) network, of which MIASA became a member in 2020.

After her three year term as MIASA Director Susann Baller will now join the Centre Marc Bloch Berlin as researcher – a position is based on a cooperation with the German Historical Institute Paris and funded by the Max Weber Foundation. She will be succeeded by Professor Mamadou Diawara, Research Professor at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Goethe University Frankfurt, from January 2024 onwards.

The MIASA ‘Director Ghana’, the administrative team and Executive Council are immensely grateful to Susann Baller for her contribution and her dedication to the institute within these past three years and are looking forward to many future academic collaborations.