Poet, playwright and
fiction writer, Chinyere G. Okafor, is a Professor of English and Women's
Studies; Chair, Department of Women's Studies; Director, Center for Women's
Studies, Wichita State University (WSU), Wichita, Kansas, USA; and Vice President,
Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS). (See resume).
Former Chair of Women In
Need Industries (WINI), former Board Member of Global Learning Center, and
the African Center, she is an alumnus of the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, University College (Cardiff, UK), and University of Sussex (Brighton,
UK). She did postdoctoral work on gender politics of African Masking at Cornell
University (Ithaca). She has taught at the University of Port Harcourt and
University of Benin (Nigeria); University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni (eSwatini);
Montgomery College, Rockville, MD, and the University of Southern Maine,
Portland, ME.
Okafor speaks and writes
about the challenges of ordinary people. Issues of war, suppression, politics,
greed, poverty and disease feature alongside love, bonding, creativity and
strength that support the engagement of hostility. She has won a number of
local, national and international awards for research, creative writing, and
teaching including the 2009 Phenomenal Woman Award; 2004 Global Learning Most
Outstanding Department Award; two Rockefeller Humanist-in-Residence Fellowships
in 1991 (Hunter College and Cornell University); Writer-in-residence Award, the
Rockefeller Center in Bellagio (Italy), 1998; Bertram’s Literature of Africa
(South Africa), 1996; and four Association of Nigerian Authors’ awards and
honors in 1994 for drama, poetry, and short story.
Her research is interdisciplinary, centering on gender as the organizing principle intersecting with literature, African and cultural studies, feminist theory and anthropology. She has designed and taught courses on multicultural gender, world literature, feminist theory, issues of diversity, African mask performance and communication, intersectionality and multiple inequalities. She has worked as a consultant for several academic and community-based groups working on projects in which tales, dramatic skits, poetry and histories are used to engage social issues. Examples include workshops on gender, race, and media literacy. In 2019, she consulted for SWA-Beasley in writing the poem that is the center piece a park in the city of Wichita. Lived experiences in Africa, America, and Europe add to her use of technology to promote global learning classrooms. Her department won the Global Learning Most Outstanding Department Award in 2004.
Okafor has published in the area of African literature, African
mask performance, and creative writing. Her published creative works
include The New Toyi Toyi (a play), New Toyi Toyi
(Nigerian Ed.), It Grows In Winter
and Other Poems, He Wants to Marry
Me Again and other Stories, The Lion and The Iroko (a play), From Earth’s Bed
Chamber (poems), Campus Palavar and Other Plays, as
well as others in collections, journals and magazines. Her recent scholarly
book, Ikeji Festival Theater of the
Aro and Diaspora: Gender, Mask and Communication has been seen as a
monumental work that compares with the Cambridge Hellenists in its straddling
of “history, myth, anthropology, drama, theater, religion and literature” (Charles
Nnolim) as it “unravels the inner works of patriarchal power in the
construction of masculinity and femininity ... unveiling of gender politics” (Obioma
Nnaemeka). Some of her works have been translated to French and Italian.
Her recent unpublished
plays include Scramble for Africa 2 that engages the looting of African
treasure by some Africans and foreigner, Mayor’s Beauty Contest written
for youths at the Griots Enrichment Camp to facilitate their learning about moral
character, and Much Ado about Women’s
Hair which engages corruption through the issue of gender discrimination in
the church. The nonfiction story of Much Ado was narrated and discussed with
students at the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2012. The first draft of Scramble
was performed by members of the African Students Association at WSU’s Miller
Concert Hall, Wichita, Kansas on October 30, 2009. Her poem, Sunflower
Exclusive, was installed at Naftzger Park in downtown Wichita, Kansas, in
2020.
Her novel, Zeb
Silhouette, is being published by Sub-Saharan Publishers.
For more information go
to:
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1222
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=chinyere&p=/index
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May07/world.English.lbm.html
http://africanwomenstudies.org/aaws.html.html
http://www.magdalenwichita.com/May%20Messenger.pdf
http://www.kwawriters.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=2
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/10057/1923/1/Okafor_preface.pdf
For more information go
to:
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1222
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=chinyere&p=/index
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May07/world.English.lbm.html
http://africanwomenstudies.org/aaws.html.html
http://www.magdalenwichita.com/May%20Messenger.pdf
http://www.kwawriters.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=2
http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/10057/1923/1/Okafor_preface.pdf
Page title: Biography Last update: October 31, 2020 Web page by C. G. Okafor |
Copyrights
Copywright ©
Chinyere G. Okafor
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