Taubman College Kuukuwa Manful will join Taubman College as an assistant professor of architecture in September 2023. Manful is currently a visiting post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a post-doctoral scholar on the African State Architecture Project at SOAS University of London. She holds a Ph.D. from SOAS, University of London, a Master of Architecture and BSc Architecture degrees from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and an MSc in African Studies from The University of Oxford.
Manful combines her scholarship with projects that expand beyond academic genres. Her contribution to anti-racist and anti-colonial scholarship and pedagogy, from studying the decolonization of architecture in Ghana to a more fundamental challenge of Eurocentric architectural epistemologies by taking West Africa as a vantage point, will be an asset to the Taubman College architecture curriculum.
“As a multidisciplinary researcher of the histories, theories, and politics of architecture in Africa and a trained architect with a design approach oriented around historico-culturally informed and context-specific design interventions, I look forward to bringing an approach to teaching to Taubman College that is based on my research, design, construction, teaching, and mentoring expertise,” said Manful. “I am excited for the opportunity to connect with the community of scholars at the university engaged in diverse, creative, and impactful architecture and urbanism research.”
Manful curates Adansisɛm – an architecture collective that documents Ghanaian architecture theory, research, and practice, and runs Accra Archive – a digital archive of Ghanaian architecture. She also co-founded and runs Sociarchi – a social architectural enterprise that advocates for and provides architectural services to people who ordinarily cannot afford architects.
