Current Visiting Scholars
Professor Lwazi Lushaba is a political scientist at the University of Cape Town. He has a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, an MA in philosophy from the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), and an MPhil from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences and Culture, Kolkata (India). Before joining the University of Cape Town faculty, he taught at various universities in Nigeria and South Africa. His publications include a coedited book, From National Liberation to Democratic Renaissance in Southern Africa (2005), and a book, Development as Modernity, Modernity as Development (2009), both published by CODESRIA in Dakar.
Lushaba’s interests include political philosophy (particularly German phenomenology and Enlightenment philosophy), subaltern studies (decolonial thought, the politics of representation, and postcolonial theory), the postcolonial African state, and radical African/Black traditions of intellectual thought.
Lushaba has been a recipient of several international fellowships, including visiting fellowships at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, and the Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled History of South African Social Sciences: A View from the Black Colonised.”
Contact him at lwazi.lushaba@uct.ac.za or lwazi.lushaba@northwestern.edu.
Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah is a distinguished scholar of comparative African literature. He a no stranger to PAS whose activities he used to attend when he served as professor and chair of the African American Studies at Western Illinois University from 1999 to 2007. In 2009, he returned to Nigeria to become the pioneer vice chancellor of Kwara State University, serving in that capacity for two terms, before becoming vice chancellor of the University of Abuja in 2019. Na’Allah received both a BA and MA in English literature from the University of Ilorin in 1988 and 1992, respectively. As a student, he anchored a radio program, contributed articles for local newspapers, and published poetry. He then went to the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada where he earned a PhD in comparative literature in 1999. After that he joined the faculty of the Department of African American Studies at Western Illinois University eventually rising to become its chair.
Na’Allah has authored or coauthored many books, including Africanity, Islamicity, and Performativity: Identity in the House of Ilorin (Bayreuth African Studies, 2009), African Discourse in Islam, Oral Traditions, and Performance (Routledge, 2010), Globalization, Oral Performance, and African Traditional Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, March 2018), and Yoruba Oral Tradition in Islamic Nigeria: A History of Dadakuada (Routledge, 2019). Na’Allah has also edited or coedited other books on African literature, including Ogoni's Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria (Africa World Press, 1998). His work on the evolution of Dadakuada in Ilorin and its connection to Yoruba oral history deconstructs misconceptions surrounding Yoruba oral history but also sheds light on its adaptation to Islamic cultural principles. Reflecting on his career, he has asks “have I done something extraordinary?... For me, humanity is the basis of African values and it is the basis of what I was taught as a child by my parents and my Ilorin, Sokoto, Koko, Yauri and all the cultures abroad that converged into the values that developed me into the person that I am.”
Contact him at abdulrasheed.naallah@northwestern.edu
Staicy Akinyi joins PAS as the new Foreign Language Teaching Assistant. She is a Swahili teacher from Kisumu, Kenya with two years teaching experience at some of the best schools in the country. She holds a BEd from Moi University. Her students have achieved some of Kenya’s top student awards. Staicy is passionate about fostering a love for the Swahili language and culture among my students and creating an engaging and supportive learning environment. Outside the classroom she enjoys music, acting, participating in community outreach programs, volunteering, and exploring beautiful landscapes.
Contact her at staicy.okech@northwestern.edu