Visitor testimonial from a GAP fellow

VISITOR TESTIMONIAL - Sampson Korsah

I am a Ghanaian researcher with the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. I work on the syntax and morphology of Kwa (Niger-Congo) languages, especially Akan and Gã - both spoken in southern Ghana. My recent work focuses on referential elements in language, such as pronouns. 

It was a great pleasure to have visited Ghent University (UGent) between mid-March and mid-June this year as a Fellow of the Ghent Africa Platform (GAP) with extra funding support from a Scientific Research Committee (CWO) grant by the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. I would describe my experience during the three-month stay as phenomenal. Outside and within the walls of the university, people were generally very welcoming and receptive. For instance, even though I spoke no Dutch, I was relatively comfortable interacting with people in finding my way around and accessing various social services.

My visit was hosted by the Linguistics Department under the promotion of Prof. Dr. Anne Breibarth. I was I thus associated with the various research groups connected with the department. I found this relationship very useful. For instance, I actively participated in the Diachronic and Diatopic Linguistics (ΔiaLing) and the Ghent Generative Grammar Group (G4) seminar series, and had the opportunity to present aspects of my ongoing research there. I also had fruitful interactions with researchers who work on African languages at the Department of Languages and Cultures.  I particularly admired the intra-group diversity and open-mindedness in all these groups. Everyone showed genuine interest in the work of each other. In fact, through such interactions, I received recommendation that I present my work at the Centre for Research in Syntax, Semantics, and Phonology (CRISSP) at KU Leuven, which I did. For me, such academic camaraderie engendered an atmosphere conducive to networking and collaborating for the advancement of science and research. By the end of my stay, I had made giant strides in four papers that I had been working on, one sole-authored, the others co-authored. There are also plans to initiate joint research projects with my UGent colleagues in the near future, which I am upbeat about.

I am extremely grateful to all whose efforts made my Ghent visit possible. I will surely miss the light-hearted post-talk and over lunch conversations with colleagues. With the network that I have built and the prospects of research collaborations between my home university and UGent, as facilitated by the GAP Fellowship protocols, I confidently look forward to visiting Ghent again.