Joseph Ransford Oppong (1953-) Biography

Born 1953, in Accra, Ghana; a homemaker) Oppong; Ethnicity: "African-American." Education: University of Ghana, B.A., 1982; University of Alberta, M.S., 1986, Ph.D., 1992. Politics: Republican. Religion: Evangelical Christian.

Addresses

Office—Department of Geography, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5279.

Career

University of Iowa, Iowa City, visiting geology instructor, 1990-91; University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, instructor in geology, 1991-92; University of North Texas, Denton, assistant professor, 1992-98, associate professor of geology, 1998—. University of North Texas Health Sciences Center, Fort Worth, adjunct associate professor, 2002—. Member of board of directors, AIDS Services of North Texas, and Denton Chapter of American Cancer Society. Member, Pan-African Festival of History and Drama planning committee, and City of Fort Worth, healthy communities committee; vice president, Pebaseman Development Agency; elder, Living Stones Christian Fellowship, Denton.

Member

American Public Health Association, Association of American Geographers, South West Association of Canadian Studies, Texas Academy of Science, International Institute for Human Factor Development.

Honors Awards

Grants from National Science Foundation, World Health Organization, and U.S. State Department; junior faculty summer research award, University of North Texas, 1993, 1994, 1997.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

(With daughter Esther D. Oppong) Ghana, Chelsea House Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 2003.

(With Esther D. Oppong) Kenya, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 2004.

OTHER

(With E. Kalipeni), AIDS, Heath-Care Systems, and Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Rethinking and Reappraisal, Michigan State University Press (East Lansing, MI), 1996.

(With E. Kalipeni, S. Craddock, and J. Ghosh) HIV and AIDS in Africa; Beyond Epidemiology, Basil Blackwell Publishing (Oxford, England), 2004.

The African World, Chelsea House Publishers (Philadelphia, PA), 2005.

Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including International Journal of Health Geographics, African and Asian Studies, African Geographical Review, African Rural and Urban Studies, Social Science and Medicine, Applied Geographical Studies, East African Geographical Review Journal, Review of Human Factor Studies, Professional Geographer, Geographical Analysis, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Regional Science, and B.C. Geographical Series. Contributor to books, including Canadian Health Care System: Lessons for the United States, University Press of America (New York, NY), 1999; The Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa, Prentice Hall, 1997; Geographic Perspectives on the Texas Region, American Association of Geographers, 1997; Addressing Misconceptions about Africa's Development, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 1998; World Geography, Salem Press, 2001; IMF and World Bank-sponsored Structural Adjustment Programs in Africa, Ashgate, 2001; Twentieth-Century African History, Routledge, 2003; and Praeger Handbook of Black American Health: Policies and Issues behind Disparities in Heath, 2004. Editorial board member, Columbia Gazetteer of the World, Columbia University Press.