The figure of the (African) mother can be found in numerous literary productions both by African post-independence as well as African diasporic writers. In such contexts, motherly figures serve a plethora of functions. The mother can act as a national allegory (Elleke Boehmer 2005), as a supreme symbol of motherly love, affection and care (Marie Umeh 1982), or as a point of opposition in the emancipatory processes of identify formation of their daughter(s) (Marianne Hirsch 1989), as numerous studies have explored to date. Such representations, despite their diversity in both form and function, have one thing in common: they render the woman as mother silent. In such literary productions, motherly figures are written through the eyes and voices of others and thus often reduced to precisely their role and function as mother. This PhD project explores how recent works of fiction complicate such reductive, monolithic and oft stereotypical representations of motherly figures by foregrounding the voices as well as (strategic) silences of African(a) mothers, including those on the verge of becoming, struggling or refusing to be(come) mothers, who are often excluded or marginalized in discourses on motherhood. In doing so, it aims to bring to the fore the ambivalences and contradictions inherent in the motherly experience.

Seit 05/2022 - laufend

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin?Professur für Neue Englische Literaturen und Kulturwissenschaft,

Universit?t Augsburg

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10/2017 – 02/2022

MA Nordamerika-Studien und MA English and American Studies?

Universit?t Augsburg

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04/2019 – 07/2020?

Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (Tutorin)?

Juniorprofessur für Neue Englische Literaturen und Kulturwissenschaft

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08/2018 – 12/2018?

Auslandssemester im Rahmen eines Fulbright Studienstipendiums Fachlicher Schwerpunkt: African American Studies?

University of Wisconsin–Madison

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10/2013 – 09/2017?

BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik, Nebenfach: Deutsch als Zweit- und Fremdsprache und Interkulturelle Kommunikation?

Universit?t Augsburg

• (West and Southern) African anglophone literature
• (African) diaspora
• migration & transnationalism
• African American literature and culture
• Popular culture and media
• Gender & motherhood studies
• Postcolonial studies

“The God Within: Interrogating Queer Practices of Faith in Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread and Akwaeke Emezi’s ‘Who Is Like God’.” Gender Forum. (forthcoming)

“Challenging Narratives of Confinement: Diasporic (Im)Mobilities in L?lá ?kínmádé ?kerstr?m’s In Every Mirror She’s Black (2021).” European Journal of English Studies, Special issue on “The Poetics and Politics of Gender, Mobility and Migration in the New Anglophone Literatures.” (forthcoming)

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Vortr?ge:

“Speaking (through) Silence: Ambivalent Motherhood in Ay??bámi Adébáy??’s Stay With Me and Yewande Omotoso’s An Unusual Grief.” From Stabat Mater to Mater Movens: Analysing Discourses on Motherhood, International Conference organized by the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Birkbeck, University of London/online, UK, June 2024.

“Tracing the Trope of the ‘African Mother’ in 21st Century African (Diasporic) Fiction.” IAMAS + Boston University Conference 2024: Mothering and Motherhood – Past, Present, Future, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, June 2024.

“Retrieving the Voice of the (M)other: Maternal Absence in Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake and Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Honey Butter Pig Bread.” Research Day of the Professorship for New English Literatures and Cultural Studies, University of Augsburg, Jan. 2024.

“The God Within: Interrogating Queer Practices of Faith in Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread and Akwaeke Emezi’s ‘Who Is Like God’.” Postcolonial Narrations Forum 2023: Queering Postcolonial Worlds, University of Bremen, Germany, Oct. 2023.

“Speaking the Unspeakable: The Maternal Voice in Ay??bámi Adébáy??’s Stay With Me (2017).” Poster Presentation, Postcolonial Infrastructures: Annual Conference of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS), University of Konstanz, Germany, May 2023.

“‘A Mother Must Be Vigilant’: A Matrifocal Reading of Ay??bámi Adébáy??’s Stay with Me.” Research Day of the Professorship for New English Literatures and Cultural Studies, University of Augsburg, Feb. 2023.

“Be(com)ing Mothers: Complicating Motherly Figures in Africana Fiction and Film.” Project Presentation, Postcolonial Faultlines: Branching into the Unknown, University of Glasgow (online), Oct. 2022.

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Tagungsorganisation:

?“The Ruins of Empire: Postcolonial Hauntings,” Postgraduate Forum Postcolonial Narrations, Universit?t Augsburg, Sept. 2024. Gemeinsam mit Danica Stojanovic und Corvin Bittner.

Forschungsaufenthalt an der University of Johannisburg, Südafrika, im Rahmen eines Stipendiums für Early-Career Researchers der Bayerischen Forschungsallianz/BayFOR (WKS Bavaria – Africa) 09 – 10/2024

Oskar-Karl-Forster Stipendium 03/2020

Fulbright Studienstipendium 08/2018 – 12/2018

Deutschlandstipendium 04/2016 – 03/2017

Mitglied der Gesellschaft für Anglophone Postkoloniale Studien (GAPS)

Mitglied der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien (DGfA)