Janet D. Kwami

Janet D. Kwami’s research focuses on the intersections of gender, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and socio-economic development in the Global South. Her current research explores social inequalities and the appropriation, use, and impacts of digital technologies, particularly in Ghana, West Africa.

Kwami was Co-Principal Investigator with Jenna Burrell (UC Berkeley School of Information) on a multi-year National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant to study how marginalized communities in Africa and China self-organize with digital tools. She has published several research reports, as well as journal articles and book chapters including: “ICT4D, Gender Divides, and Development: The Case of Ghana” (with H. Leslie Steeves, in Development Communication in Directed Social Change, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, 2012); “Gender, Entrepreneurship, and Informal Markets in Africa: Understanding How Ghanaian Women Traders Self-organize with Digital Tools” (in Comparative Case Studies on Entrepreneurship in Developed and Developing Countries, 2015); “Development from the Margins? Mobile Technologies, Transnational Mobilities, and Livelihood Practices Among Ghanaian Women Traders” (Communication, Culture & Critique, 2016); “Interrogating Gender Divides in Technology for Education and Development: The Case of the One Laptop per Child Project in Ghana” (with H. Leslie Steeves, Studies in Comparative International Development, 2017); “Social Context in Development Communication: Reflecting on Gender and Information and Communication Technologies for Development in Ghana” (with H. Leslie Steeves, Asia Pacific Media Educator, 2019); and “Gendered Digital Inequities in African Contexts: Measuring and Bridging the Gaps” (Ada: Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, 2020).

She teaches in the Film Studies interdisciplinary minor and is an affiliate faculty member of the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities and leads a bi-annual study away program to Ghana at Furman University. Kwami is the recipient of Furman’s Meritorious Teaching Award and the 2021 SCICU (South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities) Excellence in Teaching Award.