Dr. Rachel Ghansah

Biography

Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah is an essayist and cultural critic known for her longform profiles on notable subjects such as Kendrick Lamar, Missy Elliott, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Toni Morrison. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing in 2018. Ghansah’s essays include 'The Weight of James Arthur Baldwin,' which was selected for the American Essays 2017 anthology. Her work has been recognized as influential, having been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2013 and 2018 for her profiles of prominent cultural figures. In 2019, she won the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, awarded by the Heising-Simons Foundation. Ghansah's writing has appeared in esteemed publications such as The Paris Review, Believer, and New York Magazine. She is currently working on a forthcoming project titled 'Explainers Explorers,' a two-volume analysis of the black experience in America from its beginnings to the present day. Her books have been published by distinguished publishers including Random House in the United States and Faber & Faber in the UK. Residing in New York City, Ghansah identifies as Ghanaian Black American.

Research Interests