George M. Bob-Milliar is a Professor of African Politics and History at the Department of History, Political Science and Public Administration, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He has been the Head/Chair of the department three consecutive times. He also directed the Centre for Cultural and African Studies (CeCASt), 2019-2024. He has researched, taught, and mentored students at all levels. He received his PhD from the University of Ghana, where he trained as an interdisciplinary scholar at the Institute of African Studies (IAS). Consequently, his research lies at the intersection of three disciplines – political science, history & development studies. His research focuses on democratization in Africa, electoral politics in Ghana, informal institutions, social/political history, knowledge production and the African Diaspora, among others. He published in the top-ranked journals in his field of specialization and produced several policy notes/briefs to inform policy debates. Numerous grants and fellowships have supported his research, including being the first Ghanaian researcher and the second African to win an ERC Synergy Grant. He is a visiting professor at the Department of Government and Public Policy, Strathclyde University, a Research Associate at the Nordic Africa Institute, an adjunct African Studies professor at the University of Copenhagen, and a Research Associate at the Governance and Local Development Institute (GLD) at the University of Gothenburg. He has held visiting fellowships at the following institutions: the Center on Global Democracy at Cornell University (Jan 2026 - Dec 2026), the Nordic Africa Institute (2024 - 2025), the University of Oxford (2021), University of Bayreuth, DAAD Guest professor (2021), the University of Cambridge (2016 - 2017), Uganda’s Makerere University (2014 - 2016), and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) (2012). He has been a guest lecturer at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany and the University of San Francisco, US. In 2010, he received the inaugural African Author Prize for the best article published in African Affairs by an author based at an African institution, and in 2012, he was awarded a prize for his contribution to research on African policy issues by the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada. He edits African Affairs, African Economic History, and Contemporary Journal of African Studies and sits on the editorial boards of several other reputable journals. He is active in many professional associations and is currently the President of the African Politics Conference Group (APCG), an organized section under the African Studies Association, American Political Science Association and International Studies Association. 

RESEARCH INTERESTS/FIELDS OF STUDY

- African Studies

- African Politics 

- African History 

- Democratic Studies

- Traditional/Informal Institutions

- Knowledge Production in Africa

- Social, Political & Economic History of Ghana/Africa

- Qualitative Research Approaches 

- Diaspora & Migration 

- Urban Studies

Editorial Positions:

- Co-Editor: The Yearbook for the History of Global Development (YHGD) (2022-date)
- Co-Editor: APSA Africa Workshop Newsletter (2015-2017)
- Editor-in-Chief: Journal of African Political Economy & Development (2016-date)
- Co-Editor: African Affairs (since December 2021-date)
- Co-Editor: African Economic History (February 2020-date)
- Co-Editor: Contemporary Journal of African Studies (February 2021-date)

Membership of Editorial Boards: Ghana Journal of Development Studies (UDS), African Journal of Social of Sciences Education (UEW, 2021), Babcock Journal of the Social Sciences (BJSS) (University of Babcock, Ogun State, Nigeria), African Review of Economics & Finance (SA).

If you are interested in collaborating, please get in touch with me directly.

ORCID iD

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Political Parties and Democracy in Africa (PPADEM)

Funder: European Research Council Synergy Grant/Horizon Europe programme 2025

Project Period: (2026 - 2031)

Multiple Waterscapes in Urban Ghana (MUWUG)

Funder: Danish Development Research Council

Project period: (April 2024 - March 2029)

MUWUG investigates how residents in Kumasi (Ghana) experience and adapt to multiple drinking water systems under conditions of climate change. It asks what the differentiated practises of access to drinking water in Kumasi are, and how a comprehensive knowledge of these practices can inform policy. 

Political Change and Local Governance in Emerging Cities
Funder: Swedish Research Council
Project period: (2023 – ongoing)

The Co-Principal Investigator of a three-country study that examines inclusive governance, political participation, and equitable development in emerging cities worldwide. The cases are from Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana), North Africa (Tunisia) and Latin America (Brazil).

Environmental Crime and Illegal Ecologies (ILLECO)
Funder: Independent Research Fund Denmark
Project period: (2021 – 2026)

The Co-Principal Investigator of a study that investigates environmental crime in Ghana. Ecological crime is one of the most destructive and drastically growing types. As a form of crime, it is currently estimated to be the fourth largest criminal sector – and to grow two to three times faster than the global legal economy. But even though it is one of the most profitable and fastest-growing forms of organized crime, we know very little about the social, political, and legal dynamics that underpin it.

'State Incapacitation for Partisan Political Interest: Assessing Government's Responses to the Neo-Galamsey Crisis in Ghana. The Extractive Industries and Society 24 (2025): 101762. 

Old Parks, New Futures: Documenting the Uses of Open Space in an African City
Funder: British Academy
Project period: (March 2021 – 31 August 2023)

Co-Principal Investigator of a study that examines the history and everyday uses of Jackson Park, created in 1935 in Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city. Sir Francis Jackson Park is representative of the older urban park set up in Ghana’s towns and cities, part of the colonial urban landscape. In Jackson Park, Ghanaians go to hear politicians speak, attend religious meetings, sleep or try to make a living. These different uses of Jackson Park are studied through three case studies titled: GETTING VOTES, GETTING NOTICED and GETTING BY. Using Jackson Park as an example, we will bring together archival and ethnographic approaches to challenge urban planning visions that marginalise the importance of old parks.

'Urban History in Kumase, Ghana: A Note on Archives.' History in Africa. Published online 2025:1-14. doi:10.1017/hia.2024.7

‘Manifestations of Colonial Modernity in Asante: Kumase Public Parks and Town Hall as Symbols of ‘Civic Pride’, 1901-1960.’ International Journal of African Historical Studies 56, no. 3 (2023): 297-327.

The Impact of Private Universities on Public Universities in Ghana
Funder: The University of Texas at Austin/Carnegie Corporation of New York
Project period: (2019 – ongoing)

Lead country researcher for a project that investigates how private universities have influenced the public universities in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya & Uganda). The entry of private universities into the higher education landscape was welcomed because it broke the state monopoly. It was said that private universities would introduce quality into tertiary education and inject more capital into the educational infrastructure. The image of private universities improved when some of them were ranked among the best public universities by international ranking agencies. Nevertheless, private universities continue to face several challenges. The overarching objective that underpins this study is to examine the activities of private universities and measure the extent to which they have influenced the culture and behaviour of the public universities in Ghana.

Party Branding in Africa: Political Images, Narratives, and Voting Decisions
Funder: German Research Foundation (DFG).
Project period: (2020 – 2021)

Co-Principal Investigator of a project that examines how political parties interact with their voters and how they build a distinctive image. Electoral politics in Africa raise cross-cutting issues on the nature of power, the repertoire of socio-cultural imagination, and narratives of nationhood, stateness and political history. The question of how African voters make their choices is a complex one. Research has often focused on clientelism, ethnicity, personalism, or valence issues. Some studies have explored the role of party programmes and policy platforms. The problem is that most of these studies look at one aspect only, whereas party identities and appeals are multifaceted. Party branding could resolve this problem and be more suitable to grasp the full variance of party positioning. Party branding can be a valuable tool to explain electoral success, political survival, and patterns of competition.

Institutional Trust in Ghana
Funder: KNUST Research Fund (KReF)
Project period: (1 February 2019 – 31 January 2020)

Principal Investigator of a study that examines institutional trust in Ghana. Trust in institutions is crucial in state building and essential for state legitimacy. Institutional trust is further central to service provision and economic growth. Despite decades of policy focus on good governance and more countries holding democratic elections, many citizens of the Global South lack trust in the state and public institutions. The project examines how institutional trust is created and why some institutional settings generate trust and others distrust.

‘The Generation of Trust in Political Parties in Ghana.’ Africa Today 68, no. 2 (2021): 81-100.