My academic research specializes in African literature and linguistics with a focus on contemporary popular culture, poetry, and literature. My work lies in the intersection between the politics of literature written in African languages in relation to world literature and the processes that underscore the production, circulation, and consumption of such literature and popular culture. A question that recurs throughout my research is the relationship between language production and literary form and its shaping effects in people’s lives. My research is interregional, cutting between West African and East Africa, with a focus on Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.

  SOLO PROJECTS

    COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS 

Digital Literature in African Languages – West and East Africa

I am currently exploring the rise in digital literature in African languages with a focus on Swahili (Tanzania) and Ga (Ghana).

I am interested in how writers create networks and practices that rely on digital innovation to make African languages visible in the digital space. In addition, I examine how these digital practices affect physical reading and writing communities.

Fieldwork Experiences and Practices in Africa
In a collaborative project with colleagues, we employ multidisciplinary perspectives to discuss how fieldwork can reconfigure the research experience in African Studies. My work uses the lenses of space and decoloniality to argue for relocating Africa in African Studies by centering the lived experiences of interlocutors while exploring ethical research. It also discusses the role of fieldwork in literary studies. I co-edited a recent journal special issue that features essays from the project.
 
 
 
 Aesthetic Experience, Poetics, and African Popular Culture

My Ph.D. thesis explored aesthetic experience as a way of constructing knowledge using the examples of hip-hop and spoken word poetry in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From it, my first academic book, Aesthetic Vibes, is currently under preparation. I have published a series of articles from the project.

The thesis was written within the framework of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) at the University of Bayreuth. It was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) within the framework of the project ‘Poetry as Aesthetic Practice. Form, Experience and Relation to Lifeworlds in Verbal Arts in Madagascar and Tanzania.