It is with great pleasure that SafeSeas welcome our new postdoctoral researcher, Humphrey Asamoah Agyekum. Humphrey will be joining the project ‘AMARIS: Analysing Maritime Insecurity in Ghana’ funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). The project led by Safeseas, is based at the University of Copenhagen. The project which has three work packages, is a research as well as a capacity building enterprise. With well-established links in Ghanaian security institutions and his deep understanding of security issues in the West African region, Humphrey will be the main focal point for our Ghanaian partners. In this role, he will be coordinating the activities of and liaising with our Ghanaian partners.
Apart from that, Humphrey as a researcher aims to deepen our understanding of maritime security challenges and maritime security governance along the Gulf of Guinea. Humphrey is passionate about security and security (sector) governance in the West African region; with particular interest in Ghana and Guinea-Bissau. In 2016, he received his PhD in anthropology at the University of Copenhagen with a study on the transformation of the Ghana Armed Forces; evolving from coup makers to an institution that abides by the country’s democratic rules. Humphrey was previously a postdoc at the University of Amsterdam. He has authored, apart from several scientific journal articles, the book ‘From Bullies to Officers and Gentlemen: How Notions of Professionalism and Civility Transformed the Ghana Armed Forces’.
Humphrey has extensive fieldwork experience in Guinea-Bissau, Ghana and the United Kingdom. He recently attended the Strategic Dialogue Workshop on West and Central Africa Maritime Security Training Capacity, organized by UNODC, INTERPOL and U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs in Accra, Ghana.