David Owusu-Ansah is Professor of African Studies. He serves as the Special Assistant to the President on Faculty Diversity (see the Diversity Web). He has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award in the College of Arts and Letters for 2011-2012.

Dr. Owusu-Ansah holds a doctoral degree from Northwestern University; a masters degree in Islamic Studies from McGill University, and an honors bachelor degree in Comparative Religions from the University of Cape Coast (Ghana). He is a former fellow of the Harry S. Truman Institute for International Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

David Owusu-Ansah teaches courses in African history, world history and historical methods at James Madison University. His research interests are on topics of Islam in Africa with special emphasis on religious conversion and the politics of religion.

In addition to several scholarly articles and chapters on Islam, including his "Prayer, Amulets, and Healing" in Nehemia Levtzion and Randall Pouwells (eds.) The History of Islam in Africa (2000), Dr. Owusu-Ansah authored the Islamic Talismanic Tradition in Nineteenth Century Asante (1991), and with Daniel M. McFarland he co-authored the Historical Dictionary of Ghana (1995).

His 3rd edition of the Historical Dictionary of Ghana  appeared in 2005. With Muhammad Sey (University of Cape Coast, Ghana), and Iddrisu Abdulai (formerly of the University of Developmental Studies, Ghana), David Owusu-Ansah is engaged in a comprehensive study of Islamic education in his native Ghana.

David Owusu-Ansah
(Full-time faculty)
History Department
JACK 221
MSC 2001
office phone: +1 540 568 6743
e-mail: owusuadx@jmu.edu