Dr James Ogude

Professor Ogude obtained his B.Ed (Hons) and MA from Nairobi University and his PhD in African Literature from the University of the Witwatersrand.  Professor Ogude holds a NRF “B3” rating for the quality and impact of his research outputs. Currently, he is the Director  at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, having been with the Centre since May 2013, and being appointed to this position in January 2017. Until his appointment to the Centre, he was a Professor of African Literature and Cultures in the School of Literature and Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he worked since 1994, serving as the Head of African Literature and also Assistant Dean – Research, in the Faculty of Humanities. His research interests include the African novel and the Postcolonial experience in Africa, especially in relation to issues of memory and reconstruction of African history and identities. More recently, his research focus has shifted to popular cultures and literature in Africa, in an attempt to understand how these cultures produced from below help us to understand issues of power and its uses on the continent. He is also working in the area of Black intellectual traditions. Professor Ogude’s passion is mentoring young scholars. He has supervised a total of 12 doctoral students and more than a dozen MAs. He is the author of Ngugi’s Novels and African History: Narrating the Nation, London: Pluto Press, 1999. He has also co-edited, Urban Legends, Colonial Myths: Popular Culture and Literature in East Africa, Trenton: Africa World Press, 2007 and more recently Rethinking Eastern African Literary and Intellectual Landscapes, published in 2012 by Africa World Press, New Jersey. Professor Ogude has published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals in the area of African Literature and Popular Culture in East Africa.