Brendon Nicholls
- Position
- Associate Professor of Postcolonial African Studies
- Areas of expertise
- Postcolonial Literature and African Studies
- [email protected]
- Faculty
- Arts, Humanities and Cultures
- School
- English
- Website
- Faculty profile
Countries
Profile
I am Director of Leeds University Centre for African Studies (2023-2026) and Associate Professor of Postcolonial African Studies in the School of English.
I am Senior Research Associate (Honorary) in the Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University, South Africa.
In the School of English, I teach and supervise research on African and Postcolonial Literatures at all levels.
I have published, taught or supervised on literatures and critical theory from South Africa (Gordimer, Coetzee, Soweto Poets, the /Xam, Mda, Mpe, Putuma, Duiker), Kenya (Ngugi, Wainaina), Algeria (Fanon), Nigeria (Achebe, Saro-Wiwa), Zimbabwe (Marechera, Dangaremgba), Ghana (Armah), Rwanda/Cote d'Ivoire (Tadjo), Botswana (Head), Zambia (Muzanenhamo), Namibia (Andreas).
I held a 2025 Fellowship at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS).
I was 2022 Hugh Le May Fellow at Rhodes University, South Africa.
With Anna Mdee, I co-led the Academic Programme of the University of Leeds 2024 Africa Week.
I am an elected Council Member of the Association of African Studies United Kingdom and Board Member of the European Africa Group for Interdisciplinary Studies.
I represent Leeds on the Worldwide University Network's Global Africa Group.
In 2023, I was invited to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa roundtable on Transforming UK-Africa Research Partnerships, Portcullis House, Westminster, London and launch of the Charter Framework for Transformative Research Collaborations with Africa at the Conference for College Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities (COREVIP) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Research
With PI Ranka Primorac (Southampton), Grace Musila (Wits) and Lynda Gichanda Spencer (Rhodes), I worked on an AHRC Network Grant for "The Textual Worlds of South-Eastern Africa".
From 2006-2012, I led a White Rose Studentship Network on "Southern Africa in the World" (£149,979).