English with a Certificate in African Studies

Ph. D.
Northwestern University
2019

English

M.A.
Northwestern University
2015

English and sociology (hons)

B.A.
Haverford College
2013

ENGL141 - Poetry Across Cultures

“Poetry Across Cultures” introduces students to critical techniques of poetry analysis in order to examine poetry’s place in our world. Poetry is a political act, launching new worlds with individual voices. From ritual chants to epics, from praise poems to sonnets, poets use their words and their voices to reflect on the world as it is, and to imagine new possibilities. This course focuses on the choice of style and genre that offer specific creative and interpretive possibilities to the poet. We will ask: what is poetry, and what does it do? What gives it power? Through the course, students will learn to analyze poetry as an artistic and cultural form, exploring how literary form intersects with social structures to create meaning.  

ENGL 217 - African Literature

Whatever limits can be imagined – in terms of geography, genre, language, audience, era – African literatures exceed them. 

–  Wendy Belcher, Early African Literature from 3000 BCE to 1900 CE

People have been writing in, on, for, and about African for thousands of years. But in the West, we have tended to neglect those narratives in favor of limited stories of war and poverty. This class explores how African writers since the 1920s have used literature to rewrite their history, reconfigure the present, and reimagine the future. We will ask: what role does narrative and storytelling have in expressing grievances and mobilizing communities? And what responsibility does a writer have to his or her community? By reading texts from across the continent, students will be introduced to the diverse issues facing African writers and to new ways of thinking about familiar topics like climate change, social media, and globalization.

ENGL 129 - Art of the Essay

"Art of the Essay" offers students the unique opportunity to design and pursue research projects of their own design, investigating topics of interest across a range of discursive spaces and contexts.

1. Develop research-based, argumentative essays of substantial length and complexity through multiple drafts, reflecting and applying feedback from teachers and peers to improve one’s writing.
2. Manage a project of substantial scope and length through the research process.
3. Demonstrate various modes of thesis development (overt, implied, and delayed) and produce essays with an argumentative thesis that focuses the essay for a specific audience and purpose.
4. Construct complex, argumentative essays that incorporate multiple modes of development appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
5. Read and analyze texts for rhetorical elements of argumentation and modes of development by
   • Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of arguments 
   • Synthesizing analyses within writing.
6. Develop a focused purpose using substantial, credible, and diverse evidence for the intended audience.

ENGL 105 - Literary Theory & Criticism

“From Plinth to Stage: Protest Theatre as Historiographic Activism in The Fall (2016).” PMLA, 2023.

“Digital Voices: Negotiating Global Forms & Local Identity in Performance Poetry from Cape Town.” Digital Africas, special issue of Postcolonial Text, edited by Shola Adenekan, Rhonda Cobham- Sander, Stephanie Bosch Santana, and Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, 15

“Moving Forms: Individuals, Institutions, and the Production of Slam Poetry Networks in Southern Africa.” ASAP/Journal, 5:1 (2020)

“The Poetics of Dictatorship: Song and Sound in H. K. Banda’s ‘Tenth Republic Anniversary Tour.’” Research in African Literatures, 50:4 (2020)

“Decolonizing Literary Time: Poetry, Print, and the Making of Postcolonial Literature, by Nathan Suhr- Sytsma.” Postcolonial Text, 15:1 (2020).

“Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag as Tactical Lyric: The Role of Digital Speech in Imagining a Networked Zimbabwean Nation.” African Studies Review, 62:3 (2019)