Prof. Joseph Mensah

Prof. Joseph Mensah is a Professor and the Global Geography Program Coordinator in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) at York University in Toronto. His current research interests include transnational and return migration; ethno-racial identity formation; African development; and dialectics. Professor Mensah’s research cuts across a wide range of disciplines, culminating in publications is such diverse and reputable journals as Health Economics, Higher Education, Studies in Political Economy, Housing Studies, and Canadian Geographer. He has written a number of book chapters and books, including the well-received Black Canadians: History, Experience, and Social Conditions, published by Fernwood in 2002 & 2010. Dr. Mensah served as Chair of the Department of Geography at York University (2016-19); the Deputy Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples at York University (2010-13); a Board Member of the Center for Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS), from 2011 to 2013; and the Coordinator of York University’s International Development Studies (IDS) program (2008 to 2010). He is also a founding member of the University of Ghana Pan African Doctoral Academy (PADA). Sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, PADA runs short-term courses on selected topics for Ph.D. students across Africa. With a grant from the Gates Foundation, he led a team of researchers to conduct the first major evaluate of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme in 2009.  Dr Mensah is a strong believer in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s aphorism, to wit: “immitation is suicide.”