Isaac Odoom
African Politics, International Development, Africa-China relations, South-South Cooperation, Chinese foreign policy in the Global South, Critical International Relations.
| Degrees: | BA (Hons) (University of Ghana, Legon) MA (Brock University) PhD (University of Alberta) |
| Email: | isaac.odoom@carleton.ca |
| Office: | D684 Loeb Building |
Assistant Professor
Dr. Isaac Odoom is an Assistant Professor of Political Science specializing in International Relations and the Politics of Development in the Global South with a focus on Africa. Dr. Odoom attained his PhD in Political Science (International Relations and Comparative Development) from the University of Alberta, Canada. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at The Centre for Asian Studies, University of Ghana, Accra; and was a Visiting Researcher at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies, Beijing, China. Prior to joining the Department of Political Science at Carleton, he taught at the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan University, Concordia University of Edmonton, and Lancaster University (Accra Campus).
Dr. Odoom’s research program primary focuses on African Politics, International Development, Africa-China relations, China’s foreign policy, Rising Powers in Global governance, South-South Cooperation, and the Political Economy of Development in the Global South. He is also interested in Critical International Relations and critical pedagogy, particularly questions around academic dependency and decolonization in higher education. His work on these themes have been published in co-edited volumes, several book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as the Third World Quarterly, Journal of Asian and African Studies, African Review of Economics and Finance. Dr. Odoom’s ongoing research examines the influence of ‘New’ Development Actors, with a focus on the role of African agency in shaping Africa-China development relations, and the impact of Chinese energy and technology investments in Canada and across Africa.
Selected Publications
Isaac Odoom (2023) “Chinese Miners, Community Resistance and Collaboration in Ghana” in Folashadé Soulé (ed.) Shaping the Future of Africa-China Engagement. CORA: Collective for the Renewal of Africa, REPORT: pp 147-174 October 2023.
Odoom, Isaac (2021) “Resistance as Agency in Ghana-China Relations” In Lloyd Amoah (eds.) 60 Years of Ghana-China Relations: Friendship, Failures and Futures. (Centre for Asian Studies/University of Ghana Press: Accra).
Odoom, Isaac with Nathan Andrews (2021). “Outside the Orthodoxy? The Crisis of IR and the Challenge of Teaching Monocultures” in Teaching International Relations in a Time of Disruption (eds.) Heather A. Smith and David Hornsby (Palgrave Publishing: NY).
Odoom, Isaac (2019) “Ghanaian Agency in Economic Relations in the 21st Century” in
Richard Aidoo (ed.), The Politics of Economic Reform in Ghana (Routledge: NY).
Odoom, Isaac (2018) “South-South Cooperation, SDGs, and Africa’s Development: A Study of China’s Development Intervention in Ghana” in Kobena T. Hanson, Korbla P. Puplampu, Timothy M. Shaw (eds.) From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals: Rethinking African Development (New York: Routledge).
Odoom, Isaac (2017) “Dam In, Cocoa Out; Pipes In, Oil Out: China’s Engagement in Ghana’s Energy Sector” Journal of Asian and African Studies Vol. 52, Issue 5, pp. 598-620 (Article first published online: October 26, 2015).
Odoom, Isaac (2016) (with Nathan Andrews), “What/Who Is Still Missing in International Relations Scholarship? Situating Africa as an Agent in IR Theorizing” Third World Quarterly Vol 38 (1) 42-60.