An Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast since 2014, Joseph Benjamin Archibald Afful holds a PhD in Applied English Studies from the National University of Singapore (Singapore) as well as Dip.Ed., BA in English, and MPhil (English Language) from the University of Cape Coast, where he has been engaged in teaching, research, and extension service for over twenty years. His research interests include English for Academic and Publishing Purposes, Naming and Address Practices, Genre Studies, Grammar of Interpersonality, and the Interface between Postgraduate Pedagogy and Thesis Writing, and Linguistic Landscape.
The awards Prof Afful has won include the following: DRIC Research Grant (Group-led), DRIC Research Grant (Individual-led), both from University of Cape Coast; Travel Grants from Hunan City University (China) and University of Vrije, Amsterdam; Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa); and Doctoral Research Scholarship Award, from National University of Singapore.
Currently, Prof. Afful is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He served as Coordinator of the Communication Studies Unit, Head of Department of English, and Vice-Dean of School of Graduate Studies. Prof. Afful was the first Head of Department of Communication Studies (formerly Communication Studies Unit). He has served as a member on numerous statutory boards and committees in the University as well as a representative of the University on committees and boards outside the University. He has also served on panels of the National Accreditation Board and UCC’s Affiliation Unit to ensure quality of academic programmes, in public and private universities in Ghana, among other purposes.
Prof J.B.A. Afful has been involved in some curricular and other initiatives in the University of Cape Coast. He has participated in the development and review of academic programmes in other departments at UCC. Currently as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, he is championing the proposal to the University regarding the breaking up of the Faculty of Arts into three schools to ensure administrative efficiency and optimum utilization of resources. A committee he chaired while he was the Vice-Dean at the School of Graduate Studies led to the Academic Board’s approval of Academic Writing as a mandatory course for postgraduate research students. Earlier, he had also been instrumental in obtaining the approval of the Academic Board of the University in the establishment of a writing centre.
Prof Afful’s publications on address and naming practices, English for Academic and Publishing Purposes, and Genre Studies can be found in several national and international refereed journals such as Drumspeak, Legon Journal of Humanities, Nebula, Africology, ESP World, ESP Today, and Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. He once served as Editor-in-Chief of Drumspeak, and continues to serve as a reviewer for several national and international journals such as Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Stuides, Asian ESP Journal, Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistic Studies, Language Matters, and Language and Intercultural Communication.
Prof Afful’s is a member of associations and institutions such as AILA Africa Research Network, European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW), Linguistics Association of Ghana (LAG), Consortium on Gradute Communication (CGC), Postgraduate Resarch Supervisors Network, and The International Network of Address (INAR)