Georgina Yaa Oduro is an Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. She is the immediate past Director (2019 - 2023) of the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) of the same university. She is the current Head/Hall Warden of Oguaa Hall (the premier Hall) of the university of Cape Coast, where she oversees the welfare needs of over 1300 students (both young men and women). Prof. Yaa Oduro's academic background and interest in youth cultures makes her well cut for the role.
She had her first degree in Sociology with Political Science from the University of Ghana- Legon, Masters from the University of Westminster in London and PhD from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Prof. Oduro’s PhD focused on Gender relations, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education from a youth culture perspective. This study has informed her research interest in Gender Issues, Violence, Sexuality, Youth Cultures, Marginalized populations, and Popular Culture. She also has expertise in qualitative research methodologies. She has recently moved into the domain of race and ethnicity as well as tangible and intangible cultural heritage in ocean governance and the blue economy.
Prof. Oduro has won a number of awards and fellowships with the latest being the Takemi Fellowship in International Health (2016-2017) at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard University, Boston, USA) during which she researched child prostitution in Ghana. Gina has a number of publications to her credit with some featuring in the Palgrave Handbook of Blue Heritage (2022), Palgrave Handbook for Sexuality Education (2017) as well as the Routledge International Handbook for Sex Industry Research (2019) and the Routledge Handbook for Queer African Studies (2020). She served as the co-ordinator for Advocacy and Outreach at the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD) of the University of Cape Coast from 2018 to 2019.
Prof. Oduro has served as Lead and/or Principal Investigator (PI) on a number of local and international research projects including CODESRIA’s Meaning Making Research (MRI-2019/2020) Project on Lived Experiences of Mixed Race individuals in Ghana and Canada. She is also a co-investigator with the Ghana team on the ambitious UKRI/GCRF funded multi-country and multi-disciplinary 4-year research project on Ocean Health known as the ‘One Ocean Hub - OOH’ Research project. She leads the Research Package 5 aspect of the research in Ghana which focuses on critical perspectives of the blue economy.
She is country lead for the multi-country research project on Gender and the Creative Industry in Ghana and other African countries (2024 to 2026) funded by the Mastercard Foundation and coordinated by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW). This project examines the role of young women in the creative sectors of the selected African countries and how to empower them for the utilization of their full potential in the industry. Together with her colleague, Dr. Karine Geoffrion of Laval University in Canada and another colleague from the University of Yaounde, they are researching the experiences of women in cross border trade (2024 to 2026). Prof. Yaa Oduro teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Sociology and also supervises and examines graduate thesis at both the Masters and PhD levels. She serves on a number of Boards and Committees within and outside the University of Cape Coast. Prof. Oduro is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Gender Based Violence, housed by the University of Bristol, UK.