Ellis Adjei Adams

Biography & Research

Ellis Adjei Adams is an associate professor of geography and environmental policy in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame and a core-affiliated faculty member of the Pulte Institute for Global Development. He is affiliated with Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative and the Eck Institute for Global Health. He is currently consulting for the World Bank to develop a WASH and Health Index for Africa.  

Adams's work examines the social, political, institutional and governance dimensions of environmental and natural resources, particularly water. Trained as a human environmental geographer with expertise bridging the natural and social sciences, he is broadly interested in nature-society relations. 

Adams's research to date has primarily focused on understanding human-water interactions in different urban contexts in the Global South. His current research converges on three main domains: 1) urban water insecurity, 2) water policy and governance, and 3) gender, water, and sustainable development. The first explores the causes and socioeconomic consequences of household water insecurity in urban areas; the second examines how policy (public, private, community-based, etc.) and power relations influence access to water; and the third explores the multiple relationships between gender, water, and sustainable development. Theoretically, his work draws from and contributes to political ecology, feminist political ecology, environmental justice, and common pool resources theory.

Adams has conducted fieldwork principally in Africa (Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda), with emerging interests in Brazil and the United States. He is a co-principal investigator on a $398,482 National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project “Analyzing the Magnitude, Variability, and Governance of Infrastructure-Mediated Flows in Atlanta” with collaborators at Georgia State University.  He received the 2020 Distinguished Emerging Scholar Award in African Geography from the Association of American Geographers and was co-recipient of the Nabuo Maeda International Research Award from the American Public Health Association.

Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, Adams was an assistant professor of global studies and geosciences at Georgia State University. He earned a PhD in geography, environment, and spatial sciences from Michigan State University, an MS in environmental policy from Michigan Tech University, and a BS in natural resources management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

Recent Work

• Policy brief: Chinese fishing in West Africa: Responding to the environmental and social impacts
• “ ‘Why Should a Married Man Fetch Water?’ ” Masculinities, gender relations, and the embodied political ecology of urban water insecurity in Malawi (Social & Cultural Geography)
• Policy brief: "Foster Sustainable Urban Development in Africa’s Secondary Cities by Addressing Energy Access"
• "Farmer–herder conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa: drivers, impacts, and resolution and peacebuilding strategies" (Environmental Research Letters) - Editor's Choice Award - Emerging Regions
• "‘Spaces of exclusion’ in community water governance: a feminist political ecology of gender and participation in Malawi’s urban water user associations" (Geoforum)
• "Water sharing and the right to water: refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance" (Political Geography)
• "Land dispossessions and water appropriations: political ecology of land and water grabs in Ghana" (Land Use Policy)
• "The difference a day can make: the temporal dynamics of drinking water access and quality in urban slums" (Science of the Total Environment)
• "Are urban informal communities capable of co-production? The influence of community–public partnerships on water access in Lilongwe, Malawi" (Environment and Urbanization)
• "Chieftaincy and sustainable urban land use planning in Yendi, Ghana: towards congruence" (Cities)
• "The role of community-based livestock management institutions in the adoption and scaling up of pigeon peas in Malawi" (Food Policy)
• "Do the urban poor want household taps? Community preferences and willingness to pay for household taps in Accra, Ghana" (Journal of Environmental Management)
• "Urban water supply in sub-Saharan Africa: historical and emerging policies and institutional arrangements" (International Journal of Water Resources Development)

Courses

• Environmental Policy (elective for master of global affairs)
• Global Water Policy and Governance (elective for master of global affairs)
• Climate Change & Environmental Policy (elective for master of global affairs)
• Global Environmental Issues & Policy (elective for undergraduate major in global affairs)

News & Media

• Fighting poverty while preserving forests: new research aims to balance economic gains and environmental conservation
• New approaches to evaluating water interventions around the globe (Smart Water)
• People in African cities are taking charge of their water supplies—and it’s working (The Conversation)
• Teaching global affairs in the gallery