Dr. David Owusu-Ansah
Dr. David Owusu-Ansah is professor of history and executive director for educational outreach at James Madison University (JMU) in the United States. Born in Ghana, where he received his basic education, Owusu-Ansah taught elementary and middle schools for three years upon graduation from teachers’ college. Later, he attended Cape Coast University in Ghana from where he graduated with honors in comparative religions. Owusu-Ansah completed his National Service requirement as instructor of Religion at Adisadel College, Cape Coast.
He pursued his masters’ degree in Islamic studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada prior to his doctoral training in the United States at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Owusu-Ansah spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, as the Lester Martin Fellow of the Truman Institute for International Peace prior to returning to the United States to fill a one-year sabbatical replacement instructor position at Carleton College in Northfield MN., in 1985. In the fall of 1986, Dr. Owusu-Ansah received an appointment at James Madison University where he has remained since and held a number of administrative responsibilities as professor of history, former director of the history graduate program, former associate provost for diversity and currently as executive director for access and educational outreach.
Dr. David Owusu-Ansah is the author of the second, third and fourth editions of the Historical Dictionaries of Ghana and is the coauthor of the forthcoming fifth edition with Rowman Littlefield publishers. In addition, he has authored two books on the history of Islam and Islamic education in Ghana—Islamic Talismanic Traditions in Nineteenth Century Asante, and Islamic Learning, The State and the Challenges of Education in Ghana (with Abdulai Iddrisu and Mark Sey as coauthors).
Dr. Owusu-Ansah’s scholarship and publications include many book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and journal articles on religion and politics. He served the international Association of Ghana Studies as its past president; he has been invited as guest speaker, reviewer of grants, and participated in academic conference panels globally. Dr. Owusu-Ansah currently serves as board member of several academic journals and conducts academic peer reviews and doctoral dissertation advisor externally.