Welcome Kushɛ Kabɔ!

I am an incoming Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sociology and Development Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously, I was a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (2023-2025) and a Women and Public Policy Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School (2021 -2022). My research and teaching interests include education, youth, gender, politics, and development in Africa.

Over the years, my work has been internationally funded by the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, American Association of University Women, Philanthropic Educational Organization, and the University of Oslo, and by the University of Pennsylvania William Fontaine Doctoral Fellowship, Program on Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, and GAPSA-Provost Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Innovation.

I am committed to opportunities to bridge research and policy. I have worked as a practitioner and consultant with education and development organizations in the United States, Jordan, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. Additionally, my research and activism led to the creation of The Kwame Nkrumah Distinguished Alumni Award at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

I hold a Ph.D. and an MS.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. from the College of William & Mary.

I was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and raised in Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, and Bangladesh. I spent the last fifteen years living in the United States before immigrating to South Africa.