BIO

Short Public Bio

Dr. Sally Afia Nuamah is a professor, advocate, writer and filmmaker. She has held positions at several universities including the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Princeton and Duke University. Currently, Dr. Nuamah is a professor at Northwestern university.

Dr. Nuamah is the author of the multi-award-winning books, How Girls Achieve and Closed for Democracy. She is also the creator of the film, HerStory, and the founder of the Twii Foundation, which provides scholarships for girls to be the first in their families to go to college. For her work, Dr. Nuamah has been awarded over thirty honors including Forbes Magazine '30 under 30' award and the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, aka “the Brainy Award.”

Short Academic Bio

Sally A. Nuamah is an award-winning scholar who explores issues at the intersection of race, gender, public policy, and political behavior. She completed her Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University in June 2016. She has held fellowships and faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Princeton University and Duke University. Currently, Dr. Nuamah is an associate professor at Northwestern university. Her first book, “How Girls Achieve,” and second book, “Closed for Democracy” are collectively the recipient of eight national and international awards. She is currently working on her third book manuscript titled, Mules: The Punishment and Political Labor of Black Women.

Dr. Nuamah’s work has been published in number of academic journals including the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics; Politics Groups and Identities; Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the American Education Research Journal.

Medium Bio

Sally A. Nuamah is an award-winning scholar, author, advocate, founder and filmmaker whose work explores issues of race, gender, public policy, and political behavior in the U.S. and Africa. She completed her Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University in June 2016. Currently, she is an associate professor of Urban Politics, Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy, and Political Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. Previously, she worked as an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, a Women and Public Policy fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and a predoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nuamah’s first book, How Girls Achieve, was released by Harvard University Press in April 2019, and has received multiple awards including the 2020 Prose Award in Social Science from the American Publisher’s Association; the 2020 Critics Choice Award and the 2021 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award from the Comparative International Education Society.

Dr. Nuamah’s second book, Closed for Democracy, was recently released with Cambridge University Press in 2023 and was the recipient of three Best book awards from the American Political Science Association. In March 2024, her book was selected for the W.E.B. Dubois Distinguished book award from the National Conference of Black political scientists, and named a finalist for the PROSE award in politics. Dr. Nuamah is currently working on her third book manuscript titled, Mules: The Punishment and Political Labor of Black Women.

Dr. Nuamah’s work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Politics, Groups and Identities and the American Education Research Journal. Dr. Nuamah is also the founder of Herstory: the TWII Foundation Girls Scholarship, and the creator of the film, HerStory, currently distributed by Discovery Channel. She is the recipient of numerous academic and public awards. In 2019, Dr. Nuamah was named Forbes Magazine “30 under 30” in Education, named a recipient of the Clarence Stone Award from the American Political Science Association’s Urban Politics Section, and awarded the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, aka “the Brainy Award.” Most recently, she was named a recipient of the Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar award from the Urban Affairs Association.

More About Sally Nuamah

Long Bio

Sally A. Nuamah is an associate professor of Urban Politics in the School of Education and Social Policy, and Political Science (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. She completed her Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. While at Northwestern, she became the first Excellence Through Diversity Predoctoral Fellow in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduating with her Ph.D., she was named a Values and Public Policy Fellow at Princeton University and a Women and Public Policy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Between 2018 and 2019, she worked as an assistant professor at the Sanford School of Social Policy at Duke University.

Professor Nuamah’s research sits at the intersections of race, gender, education policy, and political behavior in the U.S. and Africa. In particular, she uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the political consequences of public policies across the United States as well as in Ghana and South Africa. Her second book, Closed for Democracy, examines the political effects of mass public school closure on low-income African Americans, and was released 2022. It is the recipient of three American Political Science book awards, and was recently awarded the W. E. B Dubois distinguished book award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Professor Nuamah’s first book, How Girls Achieve (2019), looks across race and gender and illuminates the unequal costs—school closure, sexual harassment, punishment—that poor black girls in the United States, Ghana and South Africa bear while striving to achieve. It then investigates the specific role of schools to combat these abuses and act as conduits of democratic equity. In 2020, How Girls Achieve received the Prose Award for Education Practice and Social Science from the American Publisher’s Association; and the Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association. In 2021, How Girls Achieve was named a recipient of the Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award from the Comparative International Educational Society.

Professor Nuamah’s newest research seeks to build on this work by investigating the impacts of Black women and girls’ disproportionate experiences with punishment on their participation in American democracy. In the future, she plans to expand this investigation to Ghana and South Africa as well. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in academic journals including the American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics; Politics Groups and Identities; Urban Affairs Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the American Education Research Journal. Nuamah’s work has also been featured in popular media including the Washington Post, City Lab, Salon.com and TEDx. For this work, she was recently awarded the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, as well as named a Susan Clarke Young Scholar and Clarence Stone Scholar from the Urban Politic Section of the American Political Science Association.

In addition to her work as a scholar, Professor Nuamah works as a workshop mentor at the Grace House for incarcerated women and girls in the United States. In the past, she worked as a research associate with the U.S. Agency for International Development in South Africa, and as a gender expert for the United Nations Foundation in Ghana. She is also the founder of the TWII Foundation, an award-winning organization that provides girls with scholarships so they can be first in their families to go to college. Professor Nuamah is the creator of the documentary film HerStory about girls and education in Ghana, which was named “Best Documentary Short” by PBS and is currently distributed by the Discovery Channel. For her broader work, she has received numerous awards including a “Change-Maker” award from the White House Council on Women and Girls, an “Advocate of the Year” award from the African Festival of the Arts, and an “Under 40 Award in Education” from the Black Women Organized for Political Action. In 2019, she was named “30 under 30” in education by Forbes Magazine. Most recently, she was named a recipient of the 2021 Marily J. Gittell Activist Scholar award from the Urban Affairs Association.

In 2011, Sally Nuamah graduated from the George Washington University a recipient of the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship, Coca-Cola Scholarship and Princeton University Prize award. Most notably, she was awarded the GW Manatt-Trachtenberg Award, presented to a student who has significantly challenged the social and intellectual conscience of the university, inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and named one of two Distinguished Scholars; the highest mark of distinction at the George Washington University. Sally Nuamah is a former Trustee on the George Washington University Board of Trustees. In addition to her work as an academic, Sally is the founder of the TWII Foundation, which provides college scholarship for low-income girls to go to and through college.  In addition, she has an award-winning documentary on girls and education in Ghana, HerStory, the film is now distributed by Discovery Channel Education. To learn more about her film and other work, visit www.herstorythefilm.com.

View select talks from Sally: 

TEDxChicago = "Clapping with One Hand"

Changing Worlds - "A Dream Deferred"