Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies
About
Professor Kwasi Ampene is a scholar and practitioner of ethnomusicology. He specializes in the rich musical traditions of the Akan people of West Africa. His research interests include the performing arts as individually and collectively created and experienced, the performance of historical and social memory, politics, ideologies, values, and religious philosophy in Akan court music. He has disseminated his research in conferences, workshops, and speaking engagements at major universities in the United States and around the world. He has also provided expert advice for public engagement projects on West African culture and music to institutions such as the British Library, Tufts University, and Princeton University. Professor Ampene is the author of journal articles and books including, Engaging Modernity: Asante in the Twenty-First Century (Michigan, 2016); Discourses in African Musicology: J.H. Kwabena Nketia Festschrift (Michigan, 2015); and Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana: The Creative Process in Nnwonkorɔ (Ashgate, 2005).
Professor Ampene’s latest book, Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana: The Porcupine and the Gold Stool, was published on June 30th, 2020 by Routledge. The work comes out of his extensive field research at the Asante King’s court in Kumase-Ghana, where since 2009, he has been given rare and unrestricted access to centuries-old heritage of musical and verbal arts, and stool regalia. He is the producer of the film documentary, Gone To The Village: Royal Funerary Rites for Asantehemaa Nana Afiaa Kobi Serwaa Ampem II.
