Lectures and Speeches
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Item University as an Engine Transforming Science into Innovation and Commercialisation(University of Ghana, 2020-03) Ramljak, D.Universities are generating research results contributing towards scientific publications, patents and innovations, and the development of novel technologies and applications used by the private sector for the benefit of society. Countries and universities significantly differ in their policies and strategies focused on regulation of university technology transfer and commercialisation of research results. This presentation will address important key elements necessary for the successful technology transfer and entrepreneurial activity at the university. The presentation will share several different models of university technology transfer and recent policy measures used by leading innovative and entrepreneurial universities.Item The development of speech and gesture in Sesotho oral narratives(2019-10-09) Agyepong, D.P.This study focuses on the development of speech and gesture in a narrative task in children between 6-10 years of age and adults in Sesotho, a member of the Bantu language family spoken in southern Africa. Previous studies show that speech and gesture develop with age. However, cross-linguistic studies demonstrate that language and cultural expectations relating to narratives also impact on speech and gesture development. A comparison of isiZulu with French show some differences that point to culture’s influence. Does multimodal narrative development in Sesotho show similar cross-linguistic differences? We analyzed 36 narratives produced by Sesotho speaking children aged 5-6 years (N=12), 9-10 years (N=10) and adults (N=10), who watched a wordless cartoon and narrated the story back to an interlocutor. Our results show similar developmental trends to those found in other studies showing speech and gesture increases and becomes more complex with age and that spoken discourse and gesture development are closely related (Colletta et al. 2015). Like isiZulu speakers, Sesotho speakers produced a higher proportion of representational or iconic gestures. This result contrasts with findings for other languages such as French where adults produce a higher proportion of pragmatic gesturesItem The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism(2018-02-28) Baptist, E.E.Nationalist histories of the US downplay the role of slavery in the development of the world’s capitalist superpower. Obscuring slavery, these mythologies present US hegemony as a fact innocent of origins in the extraction of wealth from enslaved people. Building on historical evidence accumulated by African-American survivors of slavery, plus scholarship on African American and other elements of the African diaspora, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a historical narrative that focuses on slavery’s central role in US history. Placing enslaved people’s experiences and exploitation at the center of the story, the book endeavors to show how the extraction of wealth from enslaved African Americans has shaped the US and modern capitalism itself.Item Consumer-Driven Sustainability? Issues in Turning Consumer Concern about Sustainability into Choices in the Marketplace(2016-01-29) Grunert, K.G.People are concerned about sustainability, but this concern is not necessarily mirrored in their choices when they go shopping. Different explanations have been brought forward for this apparent gap between attitude and behavior. One is that attitude and behavior stem from different roles – people are concerned about sustainability as a citizen, but as a consumer they have other concerns, like getting value for money and pleasing their family. Another explanation is that sustainability is a complex concept, and that people may have difficulties in evaluating whether something has been sustainably produced – in fact, some ways of production that people assume are not sustainable may in fact be good for the environment and for the future of mankind. The talk will address consumer perceptions of primary production (taking pig production as an example), consumer perception of technologies, and the impact that information about sustainability related issues can have on consumer choices in the marketplace.Item Harnessing Our Multilingual Heritage for National Development(2019-05-02) Ansah, G.N.; Agyei-Mensah, S.Education has been linked to both human development and national development. This is so be-cause education (e.g. schooling, lectures on the virtues of punctuality) is believed to raise earnings, improve health, and add to a person’s good habits over much of his/her life time (Becker, 1993). In other words, education is regarded as a form of capital that supports economic growth and national development. Over the years, governments in Ghana have recognised this link between education, economic growth and national development and have committed national resources to several efforts at improving education with the hope of building human capital for national development. For instance, the Education for Accelerated National Development (1961-1966), the Kwapong Reform Committee for High Quality in Education for Growth (1967-1987), Basic Education for All (1987), Education in a Competitive Market driven Global Economy (2007-2016), and Free Senior High School Policy (2017), are major government policies that underscored the connection between education and national development. While these efforts may have yielded some results, e.g., increase in school enrolment, more access to education in general, more girls in school, higher literacy levels, etc., there is also an increase in carnage on our roads, filth on our streets and gutters, and non-working social interventions, among others which set Ghana back from being considered a developed nation. Why does our education appear not to be giving us the desired returns on all the investments governments have made in education over the years? A UNESCO (2012) report has admitted that in linguistically complex communities, when development initiatives are implemented in people’s first languages or a dominant language and in a culturally appropriate way, the people are often able to create appropriate, sustainable solutions - they are empowered to make decisions that enable them become key actors in social intervention programmes that benefit their communities. In this lecture, I focus on the role language plays both in education and in national development. I examine Ghana’s current (language in-education) policy which makes English the only capital in the country’s linguistic market, and argue that the linguistic practices that emanate from such a policy neither support the pillars of human development nor create the enabling environment for the achievement of sustainable development for national growth in the country. In other words, I argue that Ghana’s current language in-education policy makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many of the country’s human resources to achieve any appreciable level of personal development, a situation that renders the people more of a liability than an asset to the nation. I conclude by advocating a language (in-education) policy that builds upon the cultural and linguistic capital for a more effective/meaningful learning and proper human resource development which is a necessary tool for sustainable development and national progress.Item "My Gun is my Safety and Sign of Loyalty": Challenges of Micro Disarmament in Bawku,Ghana(2016-03-03) Sowatey, E.Scholars have long examined the effects of the illicit proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) on peace, security and development (Aning, 2005; Bah, 2004; Onuoha, 2012; Sowatey 2005). Policy interventions, both at national and supranational levels, include: cordon and search, 'voluntary surrender', weapons-for-development and weapons buy-back programmes. However, the implementation and effectiveness of such policies and interventions remain fraught with various challenges. Although Ghana has not experienced large scale/nationwide conflicts, there are concerns about the availability of illegal weapons: Bawku is a typical example. The security agencies, have over the years, largely relied on cordon and search to recover illicit weapons but this approach has not been successful! In 2014, the Minister of the Interior, (re)introduced a voluntary surrender and buy-back programme to retrieve illegal weapons in Bawku. However, this (second) attempt/programme appears not to have been successful (as some expected!). Using data from interviews with key actors in Bawku (between 2008 and 2016). This paper explains the challenges of micro disarmament. Specifically, the paper explores why the State’s voluntary and buy-back programmes have failed (and will likely continue to do so).Item An introduction to Nkrumah's Zonal Analysis and contemporary application to institutions of higher learning.(2019-02-21) Poe, Z.Professor Poe’s presentation will address the urgent need develop a Pan-African intelligentsia as distinct from the current African intelligentsia. He argues that this urgent development is necessary to increase the exposure of the African masses to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanist ideas by transforming current academic institutions into Liberated Institutions that actively generate and support Pan-African Liberated Zones. The end goal this effort is the engendering of millions of future Nkrumahists.