Email:

sobeng@indiana.edu

Website:

https://global.iu.edu

Department:

Global Gateways

Office:

Office of the Vice President for International Affairs

Campus:

IU

Biography

Samuel Gyasi Obeng received his B.A. (Linguistics) with Honors from the University of Ghana, his Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) from the University of York (England) specializing in Language and Linguistics Science with emphasis on phonetics-phonology and pragmatics, and a postdoctoral research training in African Studies, African Linguistics and Phonetics at UCLA. He held a full-time academic appointment at the University of Ghana (1987-1992) as Lecturer, and as Senior Lecturer (1992-1994), and part-time appointments at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and the University of Cape Coast. From 1988 to 1994, he was the radio teacher for Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC’s) Everyday English program and also taught English Language to Junior and Senior High Schoolers on GBC radio.

Professor Obeng joined Indiana University’s Linguistics Department in July 1994. He was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2000 and to Full Professor in 2006. In 2022, he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of Linguistics. Professor Obeng has directed IU’s African Studies Program (2007-2015) and currently directs the West African Languages Institute and the newly established Indiana University-Ghana Gateway as the Inaugural Academic Director. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies (ASP), Undergraduate Studies (Linguistics), and also Coordinated the African Languages Program.

A leading Africanist linguist, Obeng is a pioneer researcher on phonetic variation and discourse structure in African interactional settings (especially informal conversations, politics, law and religion) and language and liberty in African political and juridical communication. He is a leading scholar on language and law (discursive constructions in African jurisprudence); political discourse analysis (political rhetoric, free speech and censorship, political insults, political campaigns, etc.); health communication (especially, discursive strategies for breaking and managing bad news and therapeutic discourse); and informal discourse. Professor Obeng is also a leader in African onomasiology where his work weaves together multiple languages to demonstrate the pragmatic and linguistic richness of anthroponymy and toponymy. He is a major authority on African pragmatics and discourse analysis and has written over thirty (30) research-based books and edited volumes, co-edited 55 service publications (edited journals including special volumes), 140 refereed journal research articles, book-chapters, and creative-writing articles, and 17 book and article reviews. He has 13 monographs and several journal articles, book-chapters and creative works in progress.

Obeng has won several important awards and honors including being a two-time Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, James S. Coleman African Studies Scholar, Distinguished Research Scholar in African Languages, Association of Commonwealth Universities Scholar, McGraw Hill Distinguished Scholar Award, and Language Specialist Consultant for important publishers (e.g., Oxford University Press). He is regularly invited as a plenary/keynote speaker at conferences and as an external examiner and evaluator for leading universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Americas, and the Greater Middle East. He has served as Primary Investigator (Project Director) for U.S. Department of Education Title VI grants, co-investigator for Department of State grants, and hosted several Fulbright Scholars from Africa and Asia. Obeng was the editor-in-chief of three internationally refereed journals—Africa Today, Issues in Political Discourse, and Issues in Intercultural Communication.

Besides being a linguist, Obeng is also a poet with two of his English book of poems being, A Nation in Crises (2020) and Voices from the Graves: Words of Wisdom and Caution from the Departed (2008), and an Akan book of poems, Yɛse Yɛsee ‘Rumor Mongering’, published in 1993. He also writes short stories with his most recent book, Tales from my Ancestral Homeland (by Africa World Press). Between 2000 and 2008 Obeng wrote political satire in a Ghanaian newspaper under different pennames.