In 2014, the Gerda Henkel Foundation initiated a scholarship programme supporting young humanities scholars from Africa in honour of the foundation's founder, Lisa Maskell. It is the largest international support programme for PhD students in the history of the Foundation. The Lisa Maskell Fellowships aim to strengthen universities in the partner countries, to counter the outflow of qualified young scholars and to ensure the doctoral students enjoy excellent academic training.
In this dossier, L.I.S.A. publishes interviews with Lisa Maskell Fellows, in which they talk about their research projects as well as their experiences during their academic career and the Lisa Maskell fellowship.
Today, we welcome Vera Obeng from Ghana. After graduating from the University of Cape Coast with a B.A. as well as an M.A., she started her PhD in Philosophy and Classics with the thesis The Issue of Child Abandonment and Infanticide in Fifth Century Athens: A Reception Studies at the University of Ghana in 2022.
"The rate at which children are abandoned or sometimes killed ignited my interest in this topic"
L.I.S.A: What is your PhD project about, and what got you interested in the chosen topic to begin with?
Vera Obeng: My PhD project is about child exposure and infanticide in fifth century Athens and contemporary Ghanaian society. The rate at which children are abandoned or sometimes killed ignited my interest in this topic. This practice is sometimes a result of cultural practice where a child born with deformity is sometimes exposed or killed to avoid ridicule and shame in the society.