Bright Gyamfi, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor of history at the University of California San Diego and a former Presidential Fellow at Northwestern University. My research is at the intersection of West African and African Diaspora intellectual history, nationalism, gender, Pan-Africanism, Black internationalism, and economic development. I write on African intellectuals who worked to transform and radicalize the study of Africa in academic and intellectual centers around the Atlantic. As a Black and first-generation scholar, I am committed to producing groundbreaking scholarship.

 

I have received research fellowships and grants from several organizations and institutions, including the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright-IIE, the Black Studies Project, the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, Northwestern University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, I was inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Society, which recognizes “outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate.” My work has appeared in the Journal of African American History, African Studies Review, Africa is a Country, and The Conversation. 

 

As an educator, I highlight the connections within Africa and between the African Diaspora. This allows students to see the ways they each can contribute to broad liberatory projects. Additionally, my goal in life is to change the face of academia by mentoring students from underrepresented groups and exposing them to resources and opportunities that they would otherwise not experience. In acknowledgment of my contributions to diversity, service, and mentorship at Northwestern, I received an honorable mention for the McBride Award in 2021.