Absa Gassama

Absa Gassama holds a PhD in Sociology from the Centre Maurice Halbwachs UMR 8097 (ENS-CNRS-EHESS) in Paris, and is a specialist in informal professional groups. A teacher-researcher at the Université Numérique Cheikh Hamidou Kane UN-CHK (formerly UVS), she has been working for over twenty years on the institutionalization of these groups in Senegal, combining approaches from economic sociology, gender and social anthropology with structural analysis of social networks.

Her career combines high-level research, institutional commitment and innovative pedagogical production, notably through her role as curriculum and distance learning designer. She is also a prizewinner in the CODESRIA program for higher education, and is involved in supporting local development projects and the valorization of informal knowledge.