About

Dr. Debbie Yeboah is a Ghanaian artist, researcher, and educator. Her work sits at the intersection of art, education, and social justice, and is driven by an integral commitment to decolonial practice, critical pedagogy, and cultural transformation.

Dr Yeboah was previously a PhD Researcher in the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge, and a Cambridge Trust Scholar. She passed her thesis defence with a rare result of no corrections (the equivalent of a distinction).

Her ongoing research focuses on utilizing contemporary African artwork as a pedagogical pathway towards decolonization of curricula; allowing Africans and African diasporic people to rethink the dominant Western epistemological framing of both education and aesthetics, and feel empowered about who they are and where they come from. Her work conceptualizes a new decolonial methodology and theory in art education towards this end, exploring themes of epistemic violence, repair, and coloniality. Her PhD work was supervised by Dr. Tyler Denmead.

Dr. Debbie enjoys lecturing; both formally and informally, in various universities, museums, and galleries. She has taught courses such as:

-Critical Debates in Fine Art (undergraduate)

-An Introduction to Decolonization and Decoloniality in Art (undergraduate)

-Decolonization in Africa (undergraduate)

-Postcolonial Theory and Decolonization (Masters Level).

She also served as a supervisor to ten undergraduate students’ dissertations.

In her art practice, Dr Debbie explores novel themes and styles which are informed by her research practice. At the conclusion of her doctorate in 2024, Dr. Yeboah became the first Cambridge student to exhibit in the university, debuting at the Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Her solo exhibition, Renaturation: Fractured Identities, Future Selves, brought together her signature explorations of painting, sculptural installation, and mixed-media in a powerful meditation on corporeal rupture and transformation. After breaking opening attendance records at the Collection, her exhibition was extended due to public demand. Her work has since been lauded by leading art and cultural figures including Lubaina Himid and Karen Livingstone. The show culminated in a piece from the show being acquired as a permanent part of the Women’s Art Collection.

As a consultant, she consults across a range of interdisciplinary projects that span education, research, and the arts. She has previously consulted for Forest of Imagination, The Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery, the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, Cambridge University Press and Assessment, Ashesi University and a wide range of other organisations nd institutions. Of particular interest are curriculum development and reform, art education, African education, diversity and inclusion, and decolonial theory/pedagogy.

Prior to starting her programme at Cambridge, Debbie worked in education in Ghana for five years as an Art and Design teacher at both Primary and IGCSE levels, and served as a school management member.

She formerly served as the President of the Ghanaian Society of Cambridge University as well as the Executive Committee of the African Society of Cambridge University, as Chair of the open dialogue series, Africa Over Coffee.