Gwendolyn Mikell, Ph.D., is a professor emerita of anthropology and foreign service at Georgetown University, where she has taught from 1976 to 2021. She previously served as director of the African Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service from 1996 to 2007, a program which she helped develop from 1982. She was chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology from 1992 to 1995.

As a political and economic anthropologist, Mikell’s research interests are in African political and economic transitions, democratization and peace, African feminism, and the political and religious dynamics of African women’s organizations. She has worked on issues relating to Ghana and Nigeria for many years, including through the U.S. Department of State’s ‘Dialogue on Islam in Nigeria,’ and through all U.S. election observation missions since the 1990s. Mikell has published numerous articles and two books on her research interests, as well as a forthcoming book project about Kofi Annan’s initiatives in Africa.

Mikell was senior fellow for African studies at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2000 to 2003. She served as president of the African Studies Association and Jennings-Randolph fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Mikell has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, the Institute for African Studies at the University of Ghana-Legon, the Institute for Social Research at the University of Natal in Durban-South Africa, and the Institute for Developing Economies in Tokyo.