GAAS

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18 Sep: Ephraim Amu Memorial Lecture 2023 –The Ethics of Nation-Building: Perspectives from The Legon Tradition of Philosophy

Nation-building is an effort by a State – a political and legal entity in international law – to attune its citizens to its pursuit of the ideals of nationhood. Nation-building, thus, signifies both a political and moral need. Political because of the aspiration to forge a political unit whose citizens think, act and live in unified pursuit of demarcated ideals – in the case of Ghana – of the ideals of freedom and justice. And moral because the ideals such as freedom and justice are moral, in as much as they seek to ensure the harmonious coexistence of Ghanaians; as well as their survival, interests and welfare. For these reasons, politics furthers the ends of ethics, and so the former ought to be guided by the latter. Thus, the nation-state of Ghana, as a political entity in pursuit of the ideal of nationhood, ought to assume a moral duty to work unceasingly toward achieving the common good of Ghanaians. This lecture enunciates and defends the thesis that philosophers who have been affiliated with the University of Ghana have produced a body of thought and a systematic approach to philosophy that merits the status of a tradition of philosophy; and that this tradition is exemplified by distinctive moral philosophical perspectives that are germane to the task of nation building in Ghana.

24 May: Inaugural Lecture – Contribution of African Popular Music Studies to Universities -Prof. John Collins FGA

This presentation concerns the importance of African popular music studies for Ghanaian University departments. It begins with the difficulties in getting this topic accepted into Academia despite the fact that Kwame Nkrumah fully endorsed the popular performance sector, as well as traditional music and African art-music as part of Ghana’s national culture development plan. Because of his overthrow in 1966 his well-rounded tripartite approach to national culture (i.e., traditional, art and popular music) was not fully transmitted into the university curriculum which for many years did not include any classes on African popular music, including even on Ghana’s homegrown highlife. Indeed, the first African popular music courses were only introduced to the University Music Department students in the late 1990s, beginning first at Legon by myself and Professor Willie Anku. So this presentation begins with the benefits these new courses brought to the Music Department and School of Performing Arts: namely training students to play highlife, providing pedagogic teaching materials from the scores of local popular music, supplying knowledge and skills to help students find jobs in the booming popular entertainments and creative industries sector, being a course attractive to foreign students, and establishing Music Department bands that showcase highlife and other forms of African popular music. The presentation then turns to six non-performance university departments that benefit from African popular music studies

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15 Dec: GAAS Publicly Launches $116,000 CCNY-Funded Higher Education Project

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), the nation’s premier learned society, today publicly launched a twenty-four-month Higher Education project on the theme, “Motivating Higher Education Reforms in Ghana – Towards Equity and Sustainability”. The US$116,000 project is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Chair of the Project Steering Committee said in his welcoming remarks that over time, increasing low levels of public investment in, and support to, knowledge-producing institutions such as the Academy, has hampered their abilities effectiveness in commissioning and disseminating research findings to influence policy and shape public education. He said that notwithstanding, the Academy had not rested on its oars and continues to leverage its convening power to assemble learned teams and panels on critical issues in the arts and sciences at regularly organized public lectures, symposia, and forums.

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14 Dec: Extreme Light: Its Benefits of Science And Society – Prof. Gérard Mourou

On Thursday, 08 December 2022, the Academy hosted Professor Gérard Mourou, Nobel Prize winner in Physics for 2018, at a special lecture on “Extreme Light: Its Benefits to Science and Society. Prof. Mourou reflected on the work he and his PhD student, Donna Strickland, co-winner of the Nobel Prize did to receive the award. He said Chirped-pulse amplification, or CPA, which is really, the best in the world right now, is a technique for creating ultrashort, yet extremely high-energy laser pulses necessary in a variety of applications, including more precise and less expensive medical and surgical operations; clean and safe energy to replace fossil fuel and uranium usage options; as well as the removal of millions of orbital debris cluttering space.

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture 2

22 Nov: Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, FGA calls for a review of the Free Senior High School Programme

Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, a Fellow of the Academy on Friday 18th of November 2022 called for a review of the Free Senior High School programme, saying the current financing regime is not sustainable. He was delivering the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture on the topic “Educational Reforms in Ghana and their Impact on the Youth.

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22 Nov: GAAS Celebrates the Achievement of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, J.B Danquah and Others

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on Friday, 18th of November 2022 commemorated some Fellows who have distinguished themselves and contributed to the development of the Academy. The Chairman of the Commemoration Committee, Prof. Henry Nii-Adziri Wellington, in his speech, said there are 2 categories of Fellows to be commemorated. They are the living and deceased Fellows.