Brief Profile

Benjamin Kobina Kwansa holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana, where he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He obtained his Master of Philosophy in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies, where between 2002 and 2006 he worked in various capacities at the Family, Population and Development Unit, and the NUFU-sponsored Care and Globalisation Project. Kwansa has two Post Graduate Certificates from the University of Bergen, Norway in Severe HIV Epidemics and Multidisciplinary Research Challenges in Prevention (2010) and Gender-based violence: Rights as governance mechanisms & political tools (2018).

Kwansa is also a Catalyst Fellow at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh and a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His publications include the book Safety in the midst of stigma: Experiencing HIV/AIDS in two Ghanaian communities, which highlights the lived experiences of people infected with and affected by HIV from their own perspectives – their negotiations between resigning to fate and the struggle for survival - as they cope with the high levels of stigma.

Research Interest

Kwansa’s research interests are in the areas of construction of masculinities, gender and health, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, religion and health, and family, population, and development.

Selected Publications

• Atobrah, D., B Kwansa, and D Tsikata. 2022. The gender dimensions of resource conflicts in Ghana: Deconstructing the male-centric and binary outlook of communal conflicts. Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS) 9 (1), 93-108.
• Atobrah, D., A Awedoba, and B Kwansa. 2022. An Ethnolinguistic Analysis of Folkzoology in Health and Illness Constructions Among the Kasena of Ghana. Journal of West African Languages (JWAL) 49 (1): 94 – 106.
• Geest, S.V., Dapaah J.M. and Kwansa, B.K. 2019. Avoided family care, diverted intimacy: How people living with HIV/AIDS find new kinship in two Ghanaian hospitals. Africa Today 65 (3): 31-47.
• Atobrah, D., Kwansa, B.K., Adomako Ampofo, A., and Owoahene-Aheampong, S., 2018. Edward Francis Oku Ampofo: Medical Doctor, Artist and Humanitarian. In Akrofi Ansah, M., and Sutherland-Addy E. (Eds.), Building the Nation: Seven Notable Ghanaians. Digibooks Ghana Ltd, Pp. 63 – 124.
• Atobrah, D. and B. Kwansa. 2017. “Pathways to Accessible, Affordable and Gender-Responsive Childcare Provision: The Case of Ghana.” Background paper for the Research and Data Section. UN Women, New York.