Dr. Abena (Doris) Boateng
PhD
Associate Professor of Social work
Doris has a PhD in Social Work from a split-site collaborative program between the University of Ghana and the University of Manitoba. She underwent pedagogical training at the Postdoctoral level at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Fl, USA, and was also a beneficiary of the Partnership for Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL), organized by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR). Prior to working at BoothUC, Dr. Boateng was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work of the University of Ghana where she taught and supervised student projects at the undergraduate to PhD level. Furthermore, she was an Adjunct professor at the University of South Florida’s School of Social Work and at New York University (NYU) Global learning center in Accra where she taught students from the United States and NYU campuses of Abu Dhabi and Shanghai and challenged her students to interrogate the systemic and structural aspects of inequality and examine the effectiveness of existing inequality-reducing movements while proposing alternative strategies. She has over the years taught and supervised several students from Africa, Europe and North America. As a visiting scholar at the University of Calgary under the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship, she researched on climate change adaptation models and economic empowerment of rural women farmers in Ghana. She also worked with the African Canadian Civic Engagement Center (ACCEC) and facilitated the creation of a Black Ecosystem Coalition for Black owned businesses in Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. She developed guidelines for incorporating African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) into the legal framework in ACCEC’s work. She has been involved in several projects/consultancies with World Bank, USAID and IDRC. She has also served on many university and community boards. Dr. Boateng is well published. Her research areas and interests cover gender and entrepreneurship, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, social protection and indigenization, among others. She strives for and works to promote a world in which social justice and equity are the daily realities of human life. She is a board member of the Center for Democracy and Socio-economic Development (CDS-Africa) where she is involved in research, advocacy and other initiatives to advance democracy and policies for socio-economic development.
Education
Publications
Boateng, D. A. (2023). Women Traders at the Elmina Fishing Harbor: Harbingers of Ghana’s Social Development. In Krawczyk, K. A. & King, B. A. (eds.), Women’s Contributions to Development in West Africa, Globalization, Urbanization and Development in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8190-6_3.
Teye, J. K., Darkwah, A. K., Thorsen, D., Abutima, T. K., & Boateng, D. A. (2023). Negotiating gender roles and power relations through the management of international migrant remittances in a patriarchal community in Ghana. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096231160695
Dako-Gyeke, M., Abekah-Carter, K., Hervie, V. M., & Boateng, D. A. (2023). Delivering Financial Capability and Asset Building Curriculum: Strengthening the Competencies of Social Work Faculty. Global Social Welfare 10, 61–69 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-022-00247-6
Wilińska, M., & Boateng, D. (2022). Present-time witches: media and the intersecting discourses of age, gender and mental health in Ghana. In Ageing and the Media. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. doi.org/10.51952/9781447362067.ch004
Dako-Gyeke, M., Mills A. A., & Boateng, D. A. (2022). Child protection systems in Ghana. In J. D. Berrick, N. Gilbert, & M. Skivenes (Eds.). International Handbook of Child Protection Systems. Oxford Universities Press.
Dako-Gyeke, M., Boateng, D. A., Mills, A. A., Kodom, R. B., & Appiah-Kubi, J. (2021). Known by the Children’s Condition: Associative Stigma Among Family Carers of Children with Cerebral Palsy. Global Social Welfare, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-021-00203-w
Boateng, D. A. (2021). Accidental opportunities? Women in family businesses taking the lead in a new market economy. Advances in Social Work, 21(4), 1083-1099, DOI: 10.18060/24196
Boateng, D. A. (2020). Pathways for the economic empowerment of female entrepreneurs in emerging economies: Implications for Social Work. International Social Work, 64(2), doi.org/10.1177/0020872819896846.
Fogel, S. J. & Boateng, D. A. (2020). Sexual harassment. In T. Mizrahi & L. E. Davis (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Work (on-line). NASW Press/Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.358
Darkwah, A. K., Thorsen, D., Boateng, D. A., & Teye, J. K. (2019). Good for parents but bad for wives: Migration as a contested model of success in contemporary Ghana. IDS Working Paper #61. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/14877
Dako-Gyeke, M., Boateng D. A & Mills A. A (2018). The Role of Social Work in the Provision of Healthcare in Africa. In N. Nortjé, J-C. de Jongh, & W. A. Hoffmann (Eds). African Perspectives on Ethics for Healthcare Professionals (pp. 107 – 118). Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-93230-9
Osei-Hwedie, K. & Boateng, D. A. (2018) ‘Do not worry your head’: The impossibility of indigenizing social work education and practice in Africa. Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development, 30 (3), 1 – 12.
Boateng, D. A. (2018). Experiences of female academics in Ghana: Negotiation and strengths as strategies for successful careers. African Journal of Social Work 8 (1), 21 – 30.
Boateng, D. A., & Osei-Hwedie, K. (2017). Empowering others: Motives and strategies successful Ghanaian women employ. Review of Social Studies. 4 (1), 43 – 58.