Women in Academia: Gender and Academic Freedom in Africa

is the immediate past Executive Secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, Africa's leading social research council that was ranked top think tank of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 2016 Goto-Global Think Tanks Report of the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to becoming the Executive Secretary (April 2009 to June 2017), he was a Senior Programme Officer and Head of Research at CODESRIA for five years (2004-2009). He has also held senior positions in other institutions, including as Managing Director of the Center for the Promotion of Village Savings and Credit Associations (VISACA) in BrikamaBa, The Gambia, which was then under the Gambian Ministry of Agriculture (1992-1994); and Senior Research Fellow and Programme Coordinator at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden (2001-2004). He taught as an adjunct professor at the political science department of Gaston Berger University, in Saint-Louis, Senegal, from 1996 to 2000.

In 1992, he was promoted to the rank of ‘Maitre de Conferences’ (Associate Professor) in ‘sociology-demography’, by the National Commission of Universities of France.

He holds a ‘Maitrise’ (MA) degree in Economic and Social Administration from the University of Grenoble in France, a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in the Socio-economics of development, and a doctorate in sociology from University of Paris I-Pantheon-Sorbonne.

He was a post-doctoral fellow of Yale University's Program in Agrarian Studies in 1997-98, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow of the Center for African Studies, Harvard University.

Ebrima is the (co-)author/editor of several publications on higher education, academic freedom, the social sciences, social movements, citizenship, governance, and post-conflict transitions in Africa. He is a citizen of The Gambia.