Profile
SUSANNA ADJEI ARTHUR

Susanna Adjei Arthur

PhD Candidate and Teaching Assistant in Anthropology and Sociology
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Spoken languages
English, Twi, French

PhD Thesis
 

Title: Becoming “Relevant”: an Ethnography of Graduate Unemployment in Ghana

Expected Completion Date: September 2026

PhD Supervisor: Anna-Riikkka Kauppinen

My thesis presents an ethnography of graduate unemployment, drawing on anthropological  and sociological perspectives to examine the experiences of university graduates as they  navigate the labour market and construct a life beyond graduation. Using participant  observation, semi-structured interviews, digital ethnography, and archival research, the study  examines the political, social, cultural, spiritual, and economic dynamics that shape how  graduates experience job seeking and how they play out in their everyday lives. It further explores the meanings graduates ascribe to professional careers and situates these meanings  within broader debates on the future of work. The central argument is that job-seeking cannot  be reduced to an economic activity; rather, it is equally a social, spiritual, cultural, and political  one.
 

Profile


Susanna Adjei Arthur is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the Anthropology  and Sociology department whose current research focuses on the ethnography of job seeking experiences among university graduates in Accra, Ghana. She has a bachelor’s and a Master of Philosophy degree in Sociology and is currently pursuing  a doctorate in Anthropology. She has six years of lecturing and research experience.  Before coming to the Geneva Graduate Institute, she was a lecturer and Research  fellow. She has served as a leader at various levels, most recently as the Co-Head of  the TEDx Communication Team and as the International Labour Organization's  creative partner on the C4SI project at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Throughout her  academic career, she has gravitated toward research in higher education and career  development, youth and development, the informal sector, organisational justice and  labour market dynamics. She is an affiliate of the African Center for Strategic Studies  under the National Defense University in Washington, DC. Beyond academia, she  enjoys singing, cooking and acting. Her expertise, leadership skills and desire to learn new things make her an asset to any organisation.
 

Areas of expertise
 

  • Education and Labour Market Dynamics in Africa  
  • Transnational and international history and development of Higher education
  • Youth employment and development in Africa 
  • Governance of education, aspirations and careers 
  • Industrial and Sociology of Work 
  • Anthropology of labour and Work 
  • Socio-cultural Anthropology and Anthropology of the state 
  • Informal sector and organisational justice
     

RESEARCH INTERESTS
 

  • Youth and Employment
  • Work and Development
  • Organisational Justice
  • Informal Sector and Gender
     

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS
 

  • Adjei Arthur, S. (2021). Humour and Coronavirus: coping with the pandemic in  Ghana. Comedy Studies, 12 (2), 139-146.
  • Afeadie, R. K., Essiaw, M. N., Arthur, S. A., Conduah, A. K., Siaw-Marfo, D., &  Mensah, B. E. (2023). In the Process of Being Left Behind: Rural-Urban Migration,  Precarious Work Conditions and Health of Neglected Populations in Agbogbloshi,  Accra, Ghana.
     

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
 

FERIS foundation (Fondation pour l’étude des relations internationales en Suisse

 

AFILIATIONS
 

  • African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)
  • Ghana Chapter  and British Sociological Association