Bright Gyamfi

What excites you most about coming to UC San Diego? 

“I am excited about joining a community with a long history of producing groundbreaking scholarships and training students who have significantly impacted their communities and the larger world. I’m also delighted to work with Professor Jeremy Prestholdt to build an African Studies graduate program in the Department of History. Coming from Chicago, I’m also super enthusiastic about the weather in San Diego.” 

Why did you choose your field of study? 

“My interest in history was sparked by an American Ghana-based elementary school teacher and fueled by watching Liberty’s Kids as a child living in North Carolina. After taking an undergraduate African history course, what had started as a mere spark developed into a strong passion. I remember smiling one day as I waited to meet my history professor; it struck me that I had become intrigued by American history while in Ghana, only to become fascinated by African history while in America. 

Born and raised in Ghana, my first exposure to the history curriculum lacked the most important figures–Ghanaians themselves. In a strange way, it was at the University of Notre Dame, where I first encountered African history, that my childhood impressions of Ghana’s past were reshaped.”

What advice do you have for students studying in the arts and humanities? 

“My advice is simple: take as many courses as possible and read as much as possible. Courses in the arts and humanities give us the tools to imagine and build a more just and inclusive world. I am a historian today partly because the autobiography of a prisoner inspired me to pursue a PhD in history. Nothing gives you more perspective than being trapped. That prisoner declared that “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Having to view the outside world through the narrow openings of a barred prison window put no limit on Nelson Mandela’s capacity to envision a greater future for himself, the people of South Africa, and, indeed, the world. If Mandela could imagine this from a jail cell—deprived of light and hope—what can you imagine, as a student of arts and humanities, even if you might feel trapped? Humanity and art courses truly equip you to imagine a promising and brighter future for humanity.”  

How do you view your role relative to the greater regional community? 

“As a learner and a partner. I want to share my research work and make it relevant to the wider community while at the same time learning from them and seeing how we can collaborate on projects that would enrich our local communities. Our scholarly contributions should extend beyond the walls of the academy.”

What is something about yourself that is not typically included in your bio? 

“I MC weddings and parties, and I am also a comedian.”

Bright Gyamfi’s interest in history was sparked by an American Ghana-based elementary school teacher and fueled by watching Liberty’s Kids as a child living in North Carolina. After taking an undergraduate African history course, what had started as a mere spark developed into a strong passion, leading to his decision to become a historian. Today, Professor Gyamfi is a scholar of West African and African Diaspora intellectual history, nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Black internationalism and economic development. He writes on African intellectuals who worked to transform and radicalize the study of Africa in academic and intellectual centers around the Atlantic. 

Professor Gyamfi has received research fellowships and grants from several organizations and institutions, including the Social Science Research Council and the Fulbright-IIE. His work has appeared in the Journal of African American History, African Studies Review, Africa is a Country and The Conversation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history (with honors) and political science from the University of Notre Dame; an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford; and a PhD in history from Northwestern University. Before joining UC San Diego, Professor Gyamfi was also a Presidential Fellow at Northwestern University.

His book manuscript, “Embers of Pan-Africanism: Nkrumahist Intellectuals and Pan-Africanism 1960-1980,” examines why and how radical ideas emerge and how they change over time. Moreover, it explores how insurgent ideas are sustained after the collapse of a radical government. Specifically, he explores how Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah’s overthrow affected the trajectory of Nkrumahism, a strand of Pan-Africanism and an ideology for African decolonization. 

In his free time, Professor Gyamfi loves basketball, soccer and college football, as well as traveling for archival and oral research.