Nana Osei-Opare
Nana Osei-Opare is a Ph.D. Candidate in UCLA’s Department of History, focusing on twentieth-century African history. His dissertation is tentatively titled, "The African Revolutionaries: Labor, Bureaucracy, State-Capitalism & Revolution in Ghana, 1957-1966." His research interests include the first socialist African revolution, the coherency of Kwame Nkrumah’s political and economic ideas, and Ghana’s economic and state-building methods in relation to the Soviet Union’s New Economic Policy. While his work is primarily Ghana-centric, it explores how the intellectual processes and formulations in the United States, Britain, the Caribbean, the Soviet Union, and other African nations shaped and intersected in Ghana.
He has lived in Ghana, South Africa (pre-and-post apartheid), New Jersey, Canada, & California. He has also traveled widely.
Fields of Study
Intellectual African History, Black Radical Tradition, Ghanaian State, State Capitalism, Modernization, Soviet Union, Intellectual Networks, South Africa
Research
Publications
- Book Review, Steven Friedman, Race, Class, and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid, African Studies Quarterly, Volume 16, Issue 3-4, pp. 193-195 (January 2017).
- “Terrorism and Racism, Twin Sisters?” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2016.
- “Communism and the Tutelage of African Agency: Revisiting Mandela’s Communist Ties,” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, Volume 38, Issue 1, December 2014
- Book Review, Barry Gilder, Songs & Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance, Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, Volume 38, Issue 1, December 2014
- Book Review, Carmela Garritano, African Video Movies and Global Desires: A Ghanaian History, African Studies Quarterly, Volume 14, Issue 3. pp. 128-129 (2014)
- “The Glorious Divorce,” Stanford Journal of African Studies (SAUTI), Volume 5, 2008.
Grants and Awards
2017-2018 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award (Russia)
2017-2018 Silas Palmer Fellowship, Stanford University Hoover Institution Library & Archives
2016 Department of History Travel Stipend, UCLA
2016 International Institute Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship, UCLA
2015 Laura Kinsey Prize for Teaching Excellence, UCLA
2015 Charles E. & Sue K. Young Award for Distinguished Academics, Teaching, & Service, UCLA
2014 & 2015 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, UCLA
2014 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Russian)
2013-2017 Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, University of California Office of the President, UCLA
2013 African Studies Leadership Award, Stanford University
2011 James Birdsall Weter Prize, Stanford University
2011 Certificate of Excellence & Outstanding Performance and Lasting Contribution to the Stanford
African Students Association, Stanford University
2010 Snell & Wilmer LLP Diversity Scholarship Recipient
2010 Undergraduate & Research Major Grant Recipient, Stanford University
2010 Best Black Voluntary Student Organization Award, Stanford University
2008-2011 Dean's Award, Stanford University
2007 John Richard McDonough Memorial Award for Humanities, Saint Benedict’s Prep
Conference Presentations
- Chair/Panelist, “A Diplomatic Rendezvous: Ghanaian and Soviet Relations, 1957-1966,” American Historical Association, Washington, DC, U.S.A., January 4-7, 2018.
- Chair/Panelist, “A Diplomatic Rendezvous: Ghanaian and Soviet Relations, 1957-1966,” the African Studies Association 60th Annual Meeting, Chicago, U.S.A., November 15-19, 2017.
- Panelist, “Socialist Help: Ghana and Soviet Technical & Scientific Exchanges (1957–1966),” Spaces of Interaction between the Socialist Camp and the Global South Knowledge Production, Trade, and Scientific-Technical Cooperation in the Cold War Era, University of Leipzig, Germany, October 27, 2017.
- Panelist, “Ghana-Soviet Paradigms, 1957-1966,” Africa and the Soviet Union: Technology, Ideology, and Culture Workshop, New York University, October 13, 2017.
- Panelist, Forum to Reclaim Diversity - Affirming Activist Scholarship: A Multi-Journal Collaboration, UCLA, Los Angeles, U.S.A., April 23, 2015.
- Presenter, “The Emergence of NEP Ideology in Ghana: A Case Study of the Ghana Cocoa Processing Company,” Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, November 6, 2014.
- Presenter, “Reviewing Nkrumah’s Ideological Attainment of Socialism: The Emergence of NEP Ideology in Ghana,” Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for African Studies 13th International Conference, Moscow, Russia, May 29, 2014.
- Presenter, “Re-defining & Re-Understanding the Theoretical Underpinnings of the Black Communist Network,” UCLA International Graduate Conference, Los Angeles, U.S.A., May 15, 2014.
Advisors
Professors Andrew Apter (Chair), Robin D.G. Kelley, Stephan Miescher, and William H. Worger.
Degrees
M.A., History, Stanford University, 2011; A.B. with Honors, History, Stanford University, 2011; C. Phil., UCLA, 2016