Visiting Research Fellow

Dr. Stephen Baffour Adjei
Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and
Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), Kumasi, Ghana
(formerly University of Education, Kumasi campus)

Office: GAFO 02/376
Tel.: +49 234 19863
Mail: Stephen.Adjei@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Personal Data:
Dr. Stephen Baffour Adjei is a Social/Cultural and Human Development Psychologist and a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Faculty of Education and Communication Science, Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), Kumasi, Ghana (formerly University of Education, Kumasi campus). Dr. Adjei is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Suicide and Violence Research (CSVR), Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology (Hons.) with English from University of Ghana, Accra; and his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Psychology from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway and Aarhus University, Denmark, respectively. He has taught, carried out research and directed programmes at universities in Africa and overseas, including Aarhus University, Denmark; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; University of Education, Winneba/AAMUSTED and Valley View University, Ghana. He has attended and presented papers at international conferences including the 9th Meeting of the Nordic Network for Research on Psychology and Law (NNPL) in Denmark.

Dr. Adjei is a member/an emerging leader of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Learning Leadership Institute (LLI) and a member of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD). He is a Review Editor at Frontiers in Psychology and serves as a consulting reviewer for a number of international journals with high repute and impact including Men and Masculinities, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Victims and Offenders, Violence Against Women, Journal of Urban Affair, Journal of Social Issues, Urban, Planning and Transport Research, Journal of Applied Communication and Frontiers in Psychology. Dr. Adjei applies his research to understand the interactional complexities between culture, context and psychological processes, with a particular emphasis on interpersonal violence, human development and learning, agency and identity and Critical/Indigenous African Psychology. He has published several scholarly articles some of which have appeared in such international peer-reviewed journals as "Journal of Family Violence", "Journal of Interpersonal Violence", "Theory & Psychology", "Psychological Studies", "Psychology and Developing Societies", "Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma", "Victims and Offenders", and "The Qualitative Report".

Project at the IDG
Dr. Adjei is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Diaspora Research and Genocide Studies (IDG), Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany, under the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the German Research Foundation’s (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG) Cooperation Visits Programme for Scientists from Sub-Saharan Africa. During the 3-month research fellowship at RUB’s Institute of Diaspora Research and Genocide Studies, Dr. Adjei will be working on a project that explores the dialogical relationship between communal sense of personhood and masculinity-induced intimate partner violence (IPV) in Africa, with a particular focus on Ghana. He will also be working on collaborative research projects with scientist from the Institute of Diaspora Research and Genocide Studies, RUB, Germany. The fellowship at RUB is funded by DFG.

Selected Publications:
Book Chapter:
Gwenzi, G. D., Anaduaka, U. S., Adjei, S. B., Oladosu, A. & Sam, S. T. (2020). Methodological and ethical considerations in the study on children’s everyday lives under COVID-19 in three African Countries: Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. In H. Kara & S. Khoo (Eds.), Researching in the age of COVID-19 Volume II: Care and resilience (pp. 48-57). Bristol University Press/Policy Press.

Journal Articles:
Adjei, S. B. (2020). “I have since repented”: Discursive analysis of the role of religion in husband-to-wife abuse in Ghana. Journal of Interpersonal violence (onlinefirst), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520948528 

Adjei, S. B. (2019). Conceptualising personhood, agency, and morality for African psychology. Theory & Psychology, 29(4), 484–505. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354319857473 

Adjei, S. B. (2019). Conceptualizing discursive analysis as a culturally contextualized activity. The Qualitative Report, 24(9). 2233-2243  

Adjei, S. B. (2019). How ‘bride price’ reinforces negative stereotypes: a Ghanaian case study. The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/how-bride-price-reinforces-negative-stereotypes-a-ghanaian-case-study-120337 

Adjei, S. B., & Mpiani, A. (2018). Bride price, cultural and gender identity, and husband-to-wife abuse in Ghana. Victims & Offenders. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2018.1506372  

Adjei, S. B. (2018). The social intentionality of battered women’s agency in Ghana. Psychology and Developing Society, 30(1), 1-18. Doi: 10.1177/0971333617747320 

Adjei, S. B. (2018). “Correcting an erring wife is normal”: Moral discourses of spousal violence in Ghana. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 33(12), 1871-1892. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515619751 

Adjei, S. B. (2017). Entrapment of victims of spousal abuse in Ghana: A discursive analysis of family identity and agency of battered women. Journal of Interpersonal violence, 32(5), 730-754. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515586375  

Adjei, S. B. (2017). Sociocultural groundings of battered women’s entrapment in abusive marital relationship in Ghana. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma. 26(8), 879-901. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2017.1284171 

Adjei, S. B. (2016). Masculinity and spousal violence: Discursive accounts of husbands who abuse their wives in Ghana. Journal of Family Violence, 31(4), 411-422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9781-z 

Adjei, S. B. (2015). Assessing women empowerment in Africa: A critical review of the challenges of the Gender Empowerment Measure of the UNDP. Psychology and Developing Societies, 27(1), 58-80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971333614564740 

Adjei, S. B. (2015). Partner dependency and intimate partner abuse: A sociocultural grounding of spousal abuse in Ghana. Psychological Studies, 60(4), 422-427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-015-0336-4 

Adjei, S. B. (2013). Discourse analysis: Examining language use in context. The Qualitative Report, 18(50), 1-10.