Staff profile

I joined Durham University as an Associate Professor in African Literature in September 2020. Before that, I held teaching positions at Goldsmiths, University of London, Manchester Metropolitan University, and City University of London. I completed my PhD in African Literary Studies at SOAS, where I am now a Research Associate in the Centre for African Studies.

My current research focuses on the legacies of the Nigeria-Biafra war, engaging with its ongoing cultural, literary, and historical impact. I am collaborating on a multifaceted project that has included an international conference, a touring art exhibition, and a documentary film series. One notable element is my work with the Nigeria Arts Society UK (NASUK) on curating the Legacies of Biafra exhibition. In January 2020, I co-wrote and produced the documentary In the Shadow of Biafra with Dr Nathan Richards, which premiered with screenings in London (National Theatre), Accra (Pa Gya! Festival), and Nairobi (ASAA conference). The film explores topics such as the memory of the war, the inheritance of trauma, and the role of writers during the conflict, and includes interviews with authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nnedi Okorafor, and Chukwuemeka Ike. I am also completing a monograph that examines the role of literary and visual arts in shaping the cultural memory of the Nigeria-Biafra war.

In 2016, I was selected by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as one of their ‘New Generation Thinkers’. This recognition has led to numerous contributions across BBC platforms, including Radio 3, BBC World Service, Radio 4, and BBC Arts Online. Recently, I contributed to the BBC Four documentary Africa Turns the Page, produced by David Olusoga, which focuses on African literature.

I have been an active member of the African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) since 2016 and currently serve as its President, a role I have held since 2024. I am on the editorial boards of The Journal of African Cultural Studies and African Literature Today. Additionally, I have served on the council of the African Literature Association (ALA) and the steering committee for the African Studies Association’s (ASA) Women’s Caucus. I have also had the honour of serving on the judging committee for the Aidoo-Snyder Prize for Women’s Writing, chairing the committee in 2018, and chairing the ASAUK’s Best Thesis Prize in 2024.

I am a co-founder and co-convener of the annual international Igbo Conference, held in association with SOAS, which was inaugurated in 2012.

Chapter in book

• Egbunike, L. U. (2021). Re-Presenting Africa in Young Adult Speculative Fiction: The Ekpe Institution in Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch. In ALT 33 Children's Literature & Story-telling (141-155). Boydell & Brewer. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781782046028.013
• Egbunike, L. U. (2021). The Burden of Exile. In A. Adebajo (Ed.), The Pan-African Pantheon: Prophets, Poets, and Philosophers (488-499). Manchester University Press
• Egbunike, L. U. (2017). Narrating the Past: Orality, History & the Production of Knowledge in the Works of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In E. N. Emenyonu (Ed.), A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (15-29). Boydell & Brewer
• Egbunike, L. U. (2013). Snapshots of the Botswana Nation: Bessie Head's The Collector of Treasures & Other Botswana Village Tales as a National Project. . Boydell & Brewer
• Egbunike, L. U. (2012). Constructing the Destructive City:: Representations of Lagos in Cyprian Ekwensi's. . Boydell & Brewer

Edited book

• Egbunike, L. U., & Nwankwo, C. (Eds.). (2021). ALT 39: Speculative and Science Fiction. Boydell and Brewer Limited. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800102897

Journal Article

• Coetzee, C., & Egbunike, L. U. (2023). Nigerian Campus Forms. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 35(3), 249-253. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2238200
• Egbunike, L. U. (2023). There Was a Campus: Nostalgia, Memory and the Formation of University of Nigeria “Campus Kids” Online Communities. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 35(3), 311-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237929
• EGBUNIKE, L. U. (2014). One-Way Traffic: Renegotiating the ‘Been-To’ Narrative in the Nigerian Novel in the Era of Military Rule. Matatu: Journal for African Culture and Society, 45(1), 217-232. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401211093_014

Other (Print)

• Egbunike, L. U. (2021). With Chigozie Obioma