Team > Nikitta Dede Adjirakor
Nikitta Dede Adjirakor
Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages
Nikitta Dede Adjirakor is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Literatures in African Languages where her research explores digital literature in African languages. Her research interests include popular culture, African poetry, hip-hop, literatures in African languages and digital literature.
Her PhD titled “I Go for the Vibe: Hip-hop and Spoken Word as Aesthetic Practices in Dar es Salaam” introduced the framework of ‘vibe’ to investigate the hip-hop and spoken word as aesthetic practices through which people construct their everyday lifeworlds in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Her Ph.D. was within the research project “Poetry as Aesthetic Practice: Form, Experience and Lifeworlds in Verbal Arts in Madagascar and Tanzania” and was completed at the Bayreuth Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Before this, she earned a Master’s degree in African Language Studies (Swahili Studies) at the University of Bayreuth and a Bachelor's degree in English and Swahili at the University of Ghana, Legon.
In addition to her academic work, she runs a literary organisation called Write Ghana Literary Initiatives that promotes literature in indigenous Ghanaian languages through writing prizes, workshops and festivals.
Consultation by prior arrangement
Academic Degrees
|
2017 – 2020 |
Junior Fellow, Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) |
|
2016 – 2020 |
Research Assistant, Chair of Literatures in African Languages, University of Bayreuth |
|
2013 – 2016 |
Masters Degree in African Language Studies (Swahili Studies) – University of Bayreuth |
|
2008 – 2012 |
Bachelors Degree in English and Swahili – University of Ghana, Legon |
Paper Presentations
| 2021 |
"African Language Literature and the Paradigm of World Literature" – Multilingual Locals and Significant Geographies Seminar, SOAS, UK. |
| 2020 |
"Constructing the African City through Popular Cultural Practices" – Eclectics 2020, International Webinar Series in Literature, St. Xavier's College for Women, India. |
| 2019 |
"Self-funding and Crowdfunding: Owning Poetry Performances in Dar es Salaam." – European Conference on African Studies (ECAS), Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
| 2018 |
"I go for the Vibe: Experiencing Performance Poetry in Dar es Salaam" – African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) 2018, Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| 2018 | "Dismantling the Notion of a Tanzanian - Swahili Identity through English in Hip-hop" – 20th International Congress of Linguistics (ICL), Cape Town, South Africa |
| 2018 | "Crowdfunding Poetry in Dar es Salaam" - Power to the People? Patronage, Intervention and Transformation in African Performative Arts – BIGSAS Symposium, Moi University, Kenya. |
|
2017 |
“Hip-hop and Spoken Word in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania” – Workshop on Reading Poetic Texts, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz |
|
2016 |
"Writing the City as 'Home' and 'Unhomely' in Hip-hop from Accra and Nairobi." – 29th Swahili Colloquium, University of Bayreuth, Germany. |
|
2014 |
"The Poetics of Hiplife – An Analysis of the Song 'Someway bi' by the artiste M.anifest." Afrikanistik Forschungskolloquium, University of Bayreuth, Germany. |
Summer Schools
|
2 – 15 July 2017 |
Bayreuth International Summer School, University of Bayreuth. |
Publications
Adjirakor, Nikitta (2021) "Fieldwork as Decolonising African Literary Studies: Researching Tanzanian Hip-hop and Spoken Word Poetry as a Ghanaian." University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers, BIGSASworks!. 27(10), 40-54. https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/5680/
Adjirakor, Nikitta (2020) "Represent 255: Language, Style and the Construction of Identity in Tanzanian English Hip-hop." Linguistics Vanguard, 6 (4), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2019-0042
Adjirakor, Nikitta (2017) "Constructing the African City through Hip-hop in 'Nai ni ya who?' by Muthoni the Drummer Queen." Research in African Literatures 48 (1). 116-134. https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.48.1.08
Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages
Priorities
Region
- Tanzania
- Kenya
- Ghana
Research Interests
- Popular culture, African poetry, hip-hop, poetics, Swahili literature, world literature and digital literature.
Faculty of Languages & Literatures
Literatures in African Languages
Nikitta Dede Adjirakor
Research Associate
University of Bayreuth
Literatures in African languages
95440 Bayreuth
Room: 1.10 (GW I)
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-3580
E-mail: nikitta.adjirakor@uni-bayreuth.de