NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on Brock’s 2023-24 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship recipients. Read other stories in the series on The Brock News.

Adwoa Fosuaa Owusu aspires to “be the change” she wants to see.

The Master of Arts student in Critical Sociology began her academic journey in Ghana, but says she chose to come to study at Brock and “in the global community” to obtain skills and knowledge she can use to make an impact in her home country.

“I believe Africans are the best people to develop Africa,” she says. “We cannot just leave it to the politicians to do their thing. We also have to step in as intellectuals, as academics.”

Owusu arrived in Canada for graduate school last summer alongside her younger sister, a Brock Master of Arts student in Geography. Both are among the 20 recipients of the Brock University Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship this year.

Owusu was thrilled to learn that her sister, who shares her name, had received a Horizon scholarship, even though she didn’t learn that she too would receive the award until she was able to connect to the internet later the same evening.

“I was elated,” says Owusu. “When we checked out Brock’s master’s degrees, I found Critical Sociology and she found Geography and we decided to give it a shot, apply and then see what happens. And luckily for us, we were both offered admission.”

Having completed a bachelor’s degree in Sociology in Ghana as well as extensive research and field work following her graduation, Owusu says that her new program is opening up possibilities.

“Unlike traditional sociology, with critical sociology I am able to question things, so it has helped develop my critical and analytical skills,” she says. “Initially, I was not that questioning and just accepted things as they are, but from last semester’s class to this semester’s class, I’ve come to appreciate what critical sociology is and what it does. Now I always want to ask why, and for the benefit of whom — these are the things I have started to grapple with.”

Under the supervision of Professor Ifeanyi Ezeonu, Owusu will complete a major research paper on depictions and perceptions of motherhood.

“I am looking at natalism, that is, the cultural belief that reifies childbearing and valourizes motherhood. If you’re a woman and you have children, even a higher number of children, you have more respect than someone who doesn’t,” Owusu says. “I’m looking at natalism in African fictional arts and how that conception affects women’s self-perception and subjectivity in Africa, particularly in Ghanian society.”

Owusu expresses gratitude for the welcome she has received from professors in the Department of Sociology, including supervisor Ezeonu, Professor Thomas Dunk and others who have helped her shape her research plans.

She is particularly grateful to Professor Delali Margaret Badasu, a mentor from the Regional Institute for Population Studies/Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana with a personal connection to Brock, who encouraged her to apply.

“She was always asking me the next step, because she said she saw something good in me which can be nurtured,” says Owusu. “I told her I would like to do this and she said two of her sons also completed study at Brock University, and she pushed me: ‘Brock is a good school. Just go for it.’”

Above all, Owusu, who now aspires to pursue a PhD after completing her master’s degree at Brock, credits her supportive family and network with pushing her to succeed.

She says her parents placed a high value on educational opportunities and did whatever they could to champion her efforts and those of her siblings — from checking that her homework was complete when she was younger to memorizing her university schedule so they could call before morning classes began.

“I wouldn’t have made it this far without God, my parents and my siblings,” Owusu says. “Everything I’ve achieved so far is because of their push and their motivation.”