Academic focus: Media and decolonization
Lab website: www.wunpini.com
Research summary: My research focuses on interrogating power in media and communications while working together with disenfranchised communities to use media to bring about transformative change in communities. At the core of my research agenda is examining the importance of Indigenous epistemologies in dismantling oppressive systems.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I like to cook, binge-watch shows and take long walks in nature.
What are your current outreach/extension projects?
I am collaborating with civil society organizations and universities in Ghana to work with journalists and storytellers to support dignified storytelling about marginalized communities.
What are three adjectives people might use to describe you?
Fierce, empathetic, funny
What (specifically) brought you to Cornell CALS?
I was attracted to Cornell’s commitment to community engaged scholarship and the collegiality of the Department of Communication.
Why did you feel inspired to pursue a career in this field?
I consider myself to be an academic griot who is documenting the histories and futures of my community which has been systematically erased from narratives about Ghanaian identities and cultures.
What’s the most surprising/interesting thing you’ve discovered about Cornell and/or Ithaca so far?
Ithaca is breathtakingly beautiful, and I do not want to get used to how wonderfully charming it is.
If you had unlimited grant funding, what major problem in your field would you want to solve?
If I had unlimited funding, I would support the important work that Indigenous communities are doing globally (and especially in Africa) in the media and communications field to support their self-determination and to ensure that their cultures, languages and identities are not annihilated.
If you could relate your work to one of the four transdisciplinary moonshots, which one would you most closely align with and why? They are: Redesigning 21st Century Agri-Food Systems; Accelerating Holistic Climate Solutions; Leading in Synthetic Biology; and Pioneering Life Science Breakthroughs.
I relate to the Pioneering Life Science Breakthroughs moonshot because it examines the role of development and communication in facilitating social change. With my scholarship, I am interested in co-creating knowledge with Indigenous communities to reimagine a better world.
