Dr. Robert Agunga, Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Communication, Education and Leadership (ACEL) in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, has been appointed as the new Director for the Center for African Studies. 

Dr. Agunga has taught at OSU since 1988.  Prior to that he was a Research & Teaching Associate (1985-89), in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Iowa, where he earned his Doctoral (1989), Master’s (1983), and Bachelor’s (1981) degrees in those disciplines.  He was also a Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Iowa.  Born in Ghana, Dr. Agunga began his higher education at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, receiving a diploma for Extension Education and Farm Management in 1976.

Dr. Agunga’s areas of expertise encompass participation, empowerment, integration, capacity building, community-driven development, communication and change, African development, poverty reduction, and food security.  He is interested in research on communication and social impact assessment of knowledge, attitude and behavior studies related to food and health and lifestyle choices. He is particularly interested in designing, implementing and evaluating health and agricultural communication campaigns.

In addition to his teaching and research in FAES, Dr. Agunga holds joint appointments in the Department of African American and African Studies, and with the School of Communication. In 2008, he served as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, in Malawi.   He has been involved in numerous international initiatives, including consultancies in Tanzania and Malawi and as a member of university delegations for Ghana and Malawi, as well as a Study Abroad Resident Director in Swaziland.  He serves an external evaluator for graduate programs at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana; the Caribbean Institute of Mass Communication, University of the West Indies, and the University of Agriculture at Faisalabad, Pakistan. Dr. Agunga takes over leadership of CAS from Dr. Kelechi Kalu, who is now the Associate Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs at OSU.