Afua joined the Department as a lecturer in the sociology of childhood in September 2008 after completing her PhD at the Centre of West African Studies, the University of Birmingham. Prior to taking up this post, she was a Visiting Lecturer in Children´s Rights at Roehampton University. Afua's professional experience has also included working for ECPAT International, an international non-governmental organisation based in Bangkok, Thailand working against the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and undertaking consultancies for the Institute of Security Studies based in Pretoria, South Africa and the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child in Accra, Ghana.

Afua's ESRC-funded PhD research study focused on eliciting the perspectives of local communities on children's rights, the construction of childhood and the socialization of children and exploring the implications for the implementation of the United Nations 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in two inner city communities in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The premise of the thesis was that there is a need to move beyond the universality vs. cultural relativity dichotomy and, instead, identify a middle ground between community perspectives and dominant children’s rights discourses. The research approach was interdisciplinary and drew heavily on the fields of human rights law, anthropology social policy and sociology and further highlighted the need for more synergy between these disciplines on issues of children’s rights.

Following on from her PhD, her research continues to draw on a range of different disciplines, namely anthropology, history, human geography, sociology and social policy.

Her current research interests include: children’s rights and their implications for social norms and values; parent-child relations and the implications for children’s welfare and rights; the impact of social change on children’s roles within families and on child rearing practices; the role of social change and historical transformations on shaping contemporary childhoods in the South; and the impact of local and global structures, forces and dynamics on children’s lived realities. Much of this research has concentrated on Ghana and Nigeria in particular, and, over the years, has received external funding from a number of sources.

The theories underpinning Afua's teaching approach can be broadly defined as constructivism. The student is put at the centre of the learning process as students construct their own learning on the subject with support from me as the module convenor. She does this by working to ensure the active participation of students who must seek out the information necessary to solve problems, and become independent learners. Hence the modules Afua convenes are divided into components led by Afua and those that are student-led – be it in small groups or on an individual basis. Where possible, Afua provides opportunities for students to identify topics which interests them for the purpose of exploring these in more detail for presentation to the entire group or in an essay. She firmly believe that this enables students to claim more ownership over the learning process. The majority of Afua's teaching is research-led as her modules tend to draw on my own areas of research such as children’s rights, global childhood, parent-child relationships, amongst others.

Afua currently convenes the following undergraduate modules:

• SCS 1013 - The Globalization of Culture: Persistence and Change
• SCS3012 – Children and Youth in Developing Societies.

She also convenes the following module at the postgraduate level:

• SCS643 - International Childhoods: Rights, Policies and Practices

Afua is also involved in the supervision of students taking extended essays and dissertations at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on the following modules:

• SCS3001 Dissertation in Sociology
• SCS3002 Dissertation in Social Policy
• SCS3003 Extended Essay in Sociology
• SCS3004 Extended Essay in Social Policy
• SCS6330 Dissertation in Social Research

See our Undergraduate degree and Postgraduate taught degree pages.

Postgraduate Supervision

To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology

Publications since 2005

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (forthcoming 2019), ‘Terminating childhood: dissonance and synergy between global children’s rights norms and local discourses about the transition from childhood to adulthood in Ghana’, Human Rights Quarterly.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A, Bourdillon, M and Meichsner, S (eds.) (forthcoming 2018), Global Childhoods Beyond the North-South Divide, Palgrave.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A, Bourdillon, M and Meichsner, S (forthcoming 2018), ‘Introduction: Exploring Children’s Lives Beyond the Binary of the global North and global South’, in Twum-Danso Imoh, A, Bourdillon, M and Meichsner, S (eds.) Global Childhoods Beyond the North-South Divide, Palgrave.

Bourdillon, M and Meichsner, S, Twum-Danso Imoh, A (forthcoming 2018), ‘Reflections on Binary Thinking’ in Twum-Danso Imoh, A, Bourdillon, M and Meichsner, S (eds.) Global Childhoods Beyond the North-South Divide, Palgrave.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A. O. (2016). Tackling the Physical Punishment of Children in Resource Poor Contexts: The Utility of a Community Starting Point Approach for Action and Intervention in Children’s Rights Programming. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 24(2), 469-487. doi:10.1163/15718182-02402005

Twum-Danso Imoh, A. O. (2016). From the Singular to the Plural: Exploring Diversities in Contemporary Childhoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Childhood, 23(3), 455. doi:10.1177/0907568216648746

Twum-Danso Imoh, A and Ansell, N. (eds.) (2014), Children’s Lives in the Era of Children’s Rights: The Progress of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Africa, Oxford: Routledge.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2014), ‘Realising children’s rights in Africa: an introduction’, in Afua Twum-Danso Imoh and Nicola Ansell (eds.), Children’s Lives in the Era of Children’s Rights: The Progress of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Africa, Oxford: Routledge.

Okyere, S and Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2014), ‘Making the case for a broader definition of child participation: evidence from the Niger Delta of Nigeria’ in Afua Twum-Danso Imoh and Nicola Ansell (eds.), Children’s Lives in the Era of Children’s Rights: The Progress of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Africa, Oxford: Routledge.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2013) ‘Children’s Perceptions of Physical Punishment in Ghana and the Implications for Children’s Rights’, Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research Vol. 20 Issue 4, pp. 472–486. doi: 10.1177/0907568212471404

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2013), ‘Rites vs. Rights: Female Genital Cutting at the Crossroads of Local Values and Global Norms’, International Social Work, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 36 - 49. doi: 10.1177/0020872812459068

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2012), “‘This is how we do it here’: The Persistence of Cultural Practices in the Face of Globalized Ideals: The Case of Physical Punishment of Children in Ghana” in Afua Twum-Danso Imoh and Robert Ame (eds.), Childhoods at the Intersection of the Local and Global, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A and Ame, Robert (eds.) (2012), Childhoods at the Intersection of the Local and Global, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2012), ‘From Central to Marginal? Changing Perceptions of Kinship Fosterage in Ghana’, Journal of Family History, Vol.37, No.4, pp. 351-363. doi: 10.1177/0363199012440081

Twum-Danso Imoh, A (2011), ‘Searching for a Middleground in Children’s Rights in Ghana’, The Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 10. No. 3. pp. 376-392. doi: 10.1080/14754835.2011.596067

Twum-Danso, A (2011), ‘Assessing the Progress of the 1998 Children’s Act of Ghana: Achievements, Opportunities, and Challenges in its First Ten Years’ in Robert Ame, DeBrenna Agbenyiga, and Nana Apt (eds.), Children’s Rights in Ghana: Reality or Rhetoric? Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Twum-Danso, A (2010), ‘The Construction of Childhood and the Socialization of Children: the Implications for the Implementation of Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Ghana’, in Nigel Thomas and Barry Percy-Smith (eds.) The Handbook of Children’s Participation, Abingdon: Routledge.

Twum-Danso, A (2009), ‘Situating Participatory Methodologies in Context: The Impact of Culture on Adult-Child Interactions in Research and Other Projects,’ Children’s Geographies, Vol. 7, No. 4. doi: 10.1080/14733280903234436

Twum-Danso, A (2009), ‘Reciprocity, Respect and Responsibility: The 3rs Underlying Parent-Child Relationships in Ghana and the Implications for Children’s Rights’, The International Journal of Children’s Rights, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.415-432. doi: 10.1163/157181809X430337

Twum-Danso, A (2009), ‘International Children’s Rights’ in Heather Montgomery and Mary Kellet (eds.), Children and Young People’s Worlds: Developing Frameworks for Integrated Practice, Polity Press.

Twum-Danso, A (2003), Africa’s Young Soldiers: the Co-Option of Childhood, Pretoria: Institute of Security Studies.

A full list of publications can be downloaded by clicking the link on the right of this page.