Dr Afua Twum-Danso Imoh
Lecturer in the Sociology of Childhood (BA, MSc, PhD)
Ethics Coordinator / Impact Officer
Room: Elmfield, B06e | Telephone: 0114 222 6444 (external), 26444 (internal)
Academic Profile
I joined the department as a lecturer in the sociology of childhood in September 2008 after completing my PhD at the Centre of West African Studies, the University of Birmingham. Prior to taking up this post, I was a Visiting Lecturer in Children´s Rights at Roehampton University. My 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.
Research
My ESRC-funded PhD research focused on eliciting the perceptions 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 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 focus more on how communities can be engaged in the interpretation and implementation of the Convention and children´s rights more generally. The research was interdisciplinary and drew heavily on the fields of human rights law, sociology and anthropology and further highlighted the need for synergy between these disciplines.
Following on from this research, I have now embarked on a new research project which aims to elicit children’s perceptions of physical punishment in Ghana, which is funded by the Nuffield Foundation Small Grants Scheme. In addition, on behalf of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth, I am leading a project which aims to assess the progress of the concept of children’s participation within the Yorkshire region of the UK. This is funded by the University of Sheffield’s Knowledge Transfer Rapid Response Grant.
My current research interests include: the global export of a particular notion of childhood through international law and policies and its impact on local communities; the implementation of international children’s rights standards within a developing country context; the impact of cultural values such as reciprocity, respect and responsibility on children’s rights principles; the socialization of children and changing parent-child relations and the implications for children’s welfare and rights; the concept of children’s participation in non-Western societies.
| Funded Research Projects | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Sponsor | Details |
| 2012 | The University of Sheffield Collaborative R&D and Partnership Scheme | Awarded funding from the University's Collaborative R&D and Partnership scheme for a project entitled ‘Facilitating Children's Participation in the Niger Delta’. The project is conducted in partnership with Stepping Stones Nigeria (P.I: Afua Twum-Danso Imoh, Grant Amount: £45,975) |
| 2010 | The University of Sheffield Knowledge Transfer Rapid Response Grant | Children’s Participation: Beyond Rhetoric, Confronting Reality: 20 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Yorkshire |
| 2009-2010 | Nuffield Foundation | Children's Perception of Physical Punishment |
Teaching
The theories underpinning my 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. I do 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 I convene are divided into components led by me and those that are student-led – be it in small groups or on an individual basis. Where possible I provide 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. I firmly believe that this enables students to claim more ownership over the learning process. The majority of my teaching is research-led as my modules tend to draw on my own areas of research such as children’s rights, global childhood, parent-child relationships, amongst others.
I currently convene the following undergraduate modules:
- SCS 1013 - The Globalization of Culture: Persistence and Change
- SCS230 - Sociology of the Family
- SCS3012 – Children and Youth in Developing Societies.
I also convene the following module at the postgraduate level:
- SCS643 - International Childhoods: Rights, Policies and Practices
I am 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 2013) ‘Children’s Perceptions of Physical Punishment in Ghana and the Implications for Children’s Rights’, Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research.
Twum-Danso Imoh, A and Ansell, N. (eds.) (forthcoming 2013) Children’s Lives in the Era of Children’s Rights: The Progress of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Africa, Routledge.
Twum-Danso Imoh, A (forthcoming 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
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 (2012), ‘The Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Product and Facilitator of a Global Childhood’ 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.
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.
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 (February 2010), ‘Turning Children’s Rights into Reality in Ghana’, Children in Scotland Magazine, Issue 104.
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.
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.
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. (2008) ‘A Cultural Bridge, Not an Imposition: Legitimizing Children’s Rights in the Eyes of Local Communities’, the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 391-413.
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.