Victor Kofi Agawu

Who is Victor Kofi Agawu?

Victor Kofi Agawu, who publishes as V. Kofi Agawu or more often simply as Kofi Agawu, is a music scholar from the Volta Region of Ghana.

Agawu attended Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School at Legon where he obtained his GCE Ordinary Level Certificate and went on to do this Advanced Level at Achimota School. He earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom in 1977, a master's degree in musical analysis from King's College London in 1978, and a Ph.D. in historical musicology from Stanford University in 1982. He is also certified by the Royal Academy of Music in the teaching of singing and by the Royal College of Music in musicianship and theory.

Agawu has taught at Princeton University since 1998, having taught earlier at Yale University, Cornell University, King's College London, Duke University, and Haverford College. In 2006, he was appointed professor of music and African and African-American studies in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but returned to Princeton several years later. His awards include the Dent Medal in 1992, awarded by the Royal Musical Association and International Musicological Society for "outstanding contribution to musicology."