Abou-Bakar Mamah joined the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures as an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies. He received a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and a Ph.D. Minor in Africa and the African Diaspora from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 2018. During his time at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities he taught courses in the French and Italian Department, as well as the African American & African Studies Department. His research interests are in Francophone literature and film. His novel, Une douloureuse espérance, was published by iUniverse in 2012. Much of his work focuses on socio-political changes in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, Afropolitanism, a new cosmopolitan African identity, Afrofuturism, an idealization of a new Africa, and migration. Abou-Bakar Mamah has published articles in Journals such as The French Review, Research in African Literatures, International Journal of African Studies. He contributed book chapters including one in Littérature et politique en Afrique: approche transdisciplinaire, published by Editions du Cerf in March 2018, Immigration et sexe dans les créations artistiques et littéraires, published by Presses de l’IRES-RDEC in October 2020.
Professor Mamah contributes courses to the Africana Studies major at Rhodes.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Transnational Sex Trade: Prostitution, Identity Crisis, and Memories in On Black Sisters Street, by Chika Unigwe.” International Journal of African Studies. 1:1 (2021).
“Crossings in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, by Laila Lalami.” Research in African Literatures. 51: 3 (2020).
Review: African Freedom: How Africa Responded to Independence, by Phyllis Taoua. Cambridge UP, 2018. Research in African Literatures. 51: 2 (2020).
“La violence institutionnelle et la tragédie humaine dans Arlit, Deuxième Paris d’Idrissou Mora-Kpaï.” Chimères. 34: 1 (2020) 45-58.
“Les ‘Afro-Parisiens’ et l’errance identitaire dans Bleu-Blanc-Rouge d’Alain Mabanckou.” Ethiopiques, no. 103, (2e semestre 2019) pp. 7-22.
“Mboudjak, le chien qui parle: l’allégorie humaniste dans Temps de chien de Patrice Nganang.” Les Cahiers du CEDIMES. 13: 3 (2019) 360-376.
“La fragmentation de l’espace et l’altérité culturelle dans Bintou de Koffi Kwahulé” [The Fragmentation of Space and Cultural Otherness in Bintou, by Koffi Kwahulé]. French Review. 92: 1 (2018) 171-183.
Une Douloureuse espérance [The Pang of Hope], March 2012, iUniverse Inc., Bloomington, Indiana (Novel).
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
2021 Invited Speaker: “Healthcare Challenges and Wellbeing within African Migrants’ Communities.” KUSUDI International Inc. Summer’21 Health and Wellness Lecture Series Talk. (Zoom, August 14, 2021)
2021 Invited Lecturer: “Postdemocracy: A Theoretical Approach of the Ongoing Struggles for Meaningful Freedom in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa.” French Program Graduate Seminar. Virtual Session. (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, March 23, 2021)
2021 “L’écriture préemptive: la littérature comme moyen de consolidation de la paix.” 2e édition du Colloque International dénommé ‘Littérature et Paix.’ Member of the organization committee. Université de Lomé (Lomé, Togo, February 24 – 26, 2021)
2020 “Sili Laam, The Girl Out of Ordinary, in La petite vendeuse de soleil, by Djibril Diop Mambéty.” The 24th Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Film (St. Petersburg, Florida, March 6-7, 2020)
2019 “Littérature et Postdémocratie : le statuquo socio-politique en Afrique francophone sub-saharienne.” 33e Congrès du Conseil International d’Études Francophones (CIEF), (Ottawa, Canada, June 17-23, 2019)
2019 “Mboudjak, le chien qui parle: l’allégorie humaniste dans Temps de chien de Patrice Nganang.” 1er Congrès mondial des chercheurs / experts francophones (Accra, Ghana, June 11-14, 2019)
2018 “The Myth of African Professional Football and The Migratory Phenomenon in The Belly of the Atlantic, by Fatou Diome and Soka Africa, by Suridh Hassan,” 32è Congrès du Conseil International d’Etudes Francophones (CIEF) (La Rochelle, France, June 4 – 10th, 2018)
2017 “Le ‘roman politique’ en Afrique noire francophone postdémocratique: l’exemple de Patrice Nganang.” Littérature et politique en Afrique: Approches transdisciplinaires (Cluj-Napoca, Romania, April 10 - 12th, 2017)
2017 Invited Speaker: “Privilege and Social Injustice in African Society through Film and Literature,” Winter Symposium Day (Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, January 18, 2017)
