Prof. Dr. Sule Emmanuel Egya
Sule Emmanuel Egya was appointed Research Professor of "Public Social Sciences and Humanities: Key Societal Debates" in April 2026. He is a joint member of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities and the Department of Anglophone Studies.
COLLEGE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
45127 Essen
Functions
-
Professor/in, Anglistik
Current lectures
Past lectures (max. 10)
No past lectures.
Born in Usha, Nigeria
20.10.1976.
Degrees
2009. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Literature. University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
2006. Master of Arts (MA) in Literature. Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria.
2001. Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English. University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria.
Research Interest
20th & 21st Century African Oral and Written Literatures
Anglophone Literatures of the Global South
Environmental Humanities
Decolonial Studies
Indigenous Studies
Migration Studies
Creative Writing (Fiction and Poetry)
Academic Positions and Guest Lectureships
13 April 2026 - present. Research Professorship in Public Social Sciences and Humanities: Key Societal Debates, College for Social Sciences and Humanities & University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. 13 April 2026 -
2023 Summer Semester. Guest Lectureship, Centre for Environmental Science, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.
2018-2019 Academic Session. Sabbatical, Department of English, Federal University, Dutse, Nigeria.
2017 Academic Session. Visiting Professorship, Department of Languages, Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa, Nigeria.
2017 Summer Semester. Guest lectureship, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
2015-2016 Academic Session. Visiting Professorship, Department of English, Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria.
2014. Professorship in African Literature and Environmental Humanities, Department of English, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria.
2012-2014. Associate Professorship in African Literature and Cultural Studies, Department of English, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria.
2009-2012. Lecturer I, Department of English & Literary Studies, University of Abuja, Abuja.
2008-2009. Lecturer II, Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
2005-2008. Assistant Lecturer, Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
2004-2005. Graduate Assistant, Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Monographs
Nature, Environment, and Activism in Nigerian Literature. Routledge, 2020.
Power and Resistance: Literature, Regime, and the National Imaginary. SevHage, 2019.
Nation, Power, and Dissidence in Third Generation Nigerian Poetry in English. UNISA Press, 2019.
Poetics of Rage: A Reading of Remi Raji’s Poetry. Kraft Books, 2011.
Edited Books
with Peace S. Longdet, and Adegboye Adeyanju. Orality, Textuality, Society: New Perspectives on Nigerian Literature and Culture. Sevhage, 2023.
with N. J. Dadi-Mamud and Mohammed Alhaji Usman. Studies in Scientific and Cultural Ecology. Sevhage, 2021.
with Gboyega Kolawole and Sade Ifamose. Gender and Power in Contemporary Africa. Bahiti & Delila Publishers, 2014.
Journal Guest-Editorship
Special issue of JALA: Journal of the African Literature Association on “Engaging Emerging Trends in African Ecocriticism.” March, 2026.
Special issue of Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies on “Diasporic Literature”. It is a publication of Department of English, Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya (Didyasagar University), Pashim Medinipur, India. 2007.
with Subarna De. Special issue of Journal of Postcolonial Writing on “Decolonial Ecology: Literary and Cultural Representations in the Global South” (forthcoming).
Journal Articles
“Introduction: New Directions in African Ecocriticism.” JALA: Journal of the African Literature Association, vol. 20, no. 1, 2026, pp. 1-13.
with John O. Kehinde. “Nature, and a Social Revolution in Wole Soyinka’s Alapata Apata.” Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture, and Society, vol. 16, no. 2, 2025, pp. 121-136.
with John O. Kehinde. “‘Rooted in Earth’: Nature, Traditionalism, and Modernity in Joe Ushie’s A Reign of Locusts.” Human Ecology Review, vol. 28, no. 1, 2024, pp. 55-70.
“Ecology and Decoloniality: Reading the African Natural World in Twentieth-Century African Literature.” Scrutiny2: Issues in Southern African Literature, vol. 28, no. 2, 2024, pp 9-25.
with John O. Kehinde. “African Ecocriticism, Interspecies Relationship, and Kyuka Lilymjok’s Twilight for a Vulture.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol. 31, no. 3, 2024, pp. 483-499.
“The Ecopoetics of Flooding in Contemporary Nigeria.” Etudes Anglaises, vol. 75, no. 2, 2022, pp. 209-225.
with Margaret Agu, and Safiyya Adam. “Poetry, Protest, and Environment: Human and Nonhuman Rights in Nigerian Poetry.” Law and Humanities, vol. 16, no. 1, 2022, pp. 59-79.
“The Ecological Unconscious in Early African Decolonial Writing.” Nka Oma: Journal of the Humanities, vol. 1, no. 1, 2022, pp. 19-40.
“Life-writing as Political Critique: A Study of Kunle Ajibade’s Jailed for Life: A Reporter’s Prison Notes and Chris Anyanwu’s The Days of Terror: A Journalist Eye-witness Account of Nigeria in the Hands of Its Worst Tyrant.” Postcolonial Text, vol. 16, no. 2, 2021, pp. 1-17.
“‘Sea-salt rides its currents to the city’: Lagos and the Poetics of Flooding.” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 24, no. 3, 2021, pp. 384-398.
“‘Farmer-born peasant-bred’: Agriculture, Modernity, and Socio-ecological Vision in Niyi Osundare’s Village Voices and The Eye of the Earth.” Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, vol. 24, no. 4, 2021, pp. 367-380.
“The Diaspora and the Future of African Literature.” Currents in African Literature and Language, vol. xi, no. 1, 2020, pp. 37-51.
“Aesthetics in Remi Raji’s Poetry.” IBBU Academic, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020, pp.1-32.
“Poetics of Landscape: Representation of Lagos as a ‘Modernizing’ City in Nigerian Poetry.” African Literature Today, vol. 38, 2020, pp. 37-49.
“Out of Africa: Ecocriticism beyond the Boundary of Environmental Justice.” Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, vol. 11, no.2, 2020, pp. 66-73.
“Violence, Trauma, and Dislocation: A Reading of Christine Watson’s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away and Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday.” Wilberforce Island Review, vol. 17, 2019, pp. 1-16.
“Sexualized Body, Exploited Environment: A Feminist Ecocritical Reading of Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow and Christine Watson’s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away.” Journal of the African Literature Association, vol. 12, no. 2, 2018, pp. 116-128.
“The Pristine Past, the Plundered Present: Nature as Lost Home in Tanure Ojaide’s Poetry.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 56, no. 2, 2018, pp.186-200.
“Gendered and Commodified Female Body in Contemporary Nigerian Fiction.” African Development, vol. 43, no. 1, 2018, pp. 75-89.
“Literary Militancy and Helon Habila’s Oil on Water.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 48, no. 4, 2017, pp. 94-104.
“Power Relations in Esiaba Irobi’s Cemetery Road.” Wilberforce Island Review, vol. 13, 2015, pp. 1-18.
“Nature and the Environmentalism of the Poor: Eco-poetry from the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, vol. 28, no.1, 2015, pp. 1-12.
“Eco-human Engagement in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 49, no.1, 2013, pp. 60-70.
“Contemporary Nigerian Female Poets: Toyin Adewale and Unoma Azuah.” Commonwealth Essays and Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2012, pp. 7-18.
“Idiom of Text: The Unwritten Novel in Recent Nigerian Fiction.” English in Africa, vol. 39, no. 1, 2012, pp. 109-124.
“Historicity, Power, Dissidence: The Third-Generation Poetry and Military Oppression in Nigeria.” African Affairs, vol. 111, no. 444, 2012, pp. 424-441.
“Niyi Osundare’s Eco-poetry in The Eye of the Earth.” KAJOLLS: Katsina Journal of Linguistic and Literary Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 147-165.
“Poetics and Subjectivity in Contemporary Nigerian Poetry: Afam Akeh and Abubakar Othman.” Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, vol. 21 & 22, 2012, pp. 54-76.
“The Dialogic Mode in Agatu Oral Poetry.” Ibadan Journal of European Studies, vol. 7, 2012, pp.16-32.
“Dissident Dirge: Reading the Poetry of Joe Ushie and Nnimmo Bassey.” AJELS: Abuja Journal of English and Literary Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2012, pp. 164-182.
“Nation and Poetics: Reading Uche Nduka’s ‘Early’ Poetry.” Context: Journal of Social and Cultural Studies, vol. 14, no.1, 2011, pp. 39-53.
“Poetry as Dialogue: A Reading of Recent Anglophone Nigerian Poetry.” E-Cerdernos CES, vol. 12, 2011, pp. 75-92.
“Transcending Kitchen: Political Engagement in Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come.” Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue, vol. 12, no. 1, 2011, pp. 42-53.
“Beyond the Boundary of Age: Proverb Variation in Agatuland.” Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, vol. 28, 2011, pp. 31-43.
“The Aesthetic of Rage in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English: Olu Oguibe and Ifowodo Ogaga.” Matatu: Journal of African Culture and Society, vol. 39, no. 2, 2011, pp. 99-114.
“Imagining Beast: A Critique of the Images of Oppressor in Recent Nigerian Poetry in English.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 46, no. 2, 2011, pp. 345-358.
“Art and Outrage: A Critical Survey of Recent Nigerian Poetry in English.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 42, no. 1, 2011, pp. 49-67.
“Infraction and Change in the Nigerian Feminist Novel: Zaynab Alkali and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.” African Identities: Journal of Economics, Culture and Society, vol. 9, no. 1, 2011, pp. 101-111.
“Chiedu Ezeanah’s Poetry: Nation, Poetics, Outrage.” Gege: Ogun Studies in English, vol. 8, 2011, pp. 80-99.
“Poetry, Historicity, and Nationhood: Recent Nigerian Poetry in English.” Abuja Journal of English and Literary Studies, vol. 2, no.1, 2011, pp. 128-144.
“Indian in Nigeria: Nation and Gender in Kanchana Ugbabe’s Short Fiction.” Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies, vol. 6, 2010, pp. 13-24.
“Of Idiom and Paradox: Laughter as Therapy in Remi Raji’s A Harvest of Laughters.” ISALA: Ife Studies in African Literature and the Arts, vol. 5, 2010, pp. 11-19.
“Crippled Idiom: The English Language in Nigeria in the Twenty-First Century.” English Language Teaching Today: A Journal for Teachers of English and Communications Skills, vol. 7, 2009, pp. 32-36.
“‘In this land we love with pain’: a reading of Toyin Adewale's poetry.” African Identities: Journal of Economics, Culture and Society, vol. 7., no. 1, 2009, pp. 105-121.
with Olotu Jacob Beckson. “Early Marriage and Its Consequences: A Feminist Reading of Zaynab Alkali’s The Descendants.” Nigerian Journal of Social Research, vol. 1, no. 3, 2009, pp. 65-71.
with & Gboyega Kolawole. “Poetry and Resistance in Nigerian Literature: The Example of the Poetry of Emman Usman Shehu.” The Ker Review: A Journal of Nigerian Literature, vol. 5, no. 1 & 2, 2009, pp. 164-185.
“Where is the Era Leopards Faced Leopards? A Study of Idris Amali’s General Without Wars.” Maiduguri Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 2, 2009, pp. 272-281.
with Beckson Jacob Olotu. “From Exile to Diaspora: New Identity in Recent Nigerian Fiction.” Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies, vol. 4, 2008, pp. 146-156.
with Garba Ismail Bala. “‘Your Breath into My Breath’: An Exploration into Remi Raji’s Love Poems in A Harvest of Laughters.” Currents in African Literature and the English Language: Journal of ICALEL, vol. 5, 2008, pp. 112-123.
“‘I was Second Best’: A Feminist Reading of Selected Poems from Maria Ajima’s Poems of Sanity.” Benue Valley Journal of Humanities, vol. 7, no. 2, 2008, pp. 146-156.
“Wine as a Creative Trope in Maria Ajima’s Poetry.” The Ker Review: A Journal of Nigerian Literature, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007, pp. 78-92.
“The Minstrel as Social Critic: A Reading of Selected Poems from Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s The Chants of a Minstrel.” Matatu: Journal of African Culture and Society, vol. 33, 2007, pp. 179-192.
with Elizabeth Onogwu. “From Ogugua to Bukuru: Silence and its Consequences in Okey Ndibe’s Arrow of Rains.” Zaria Journal of Liberal Arts, vol. 1, no. 2, 2007, pp. 221-230.
“Contemporary Nigerian Poetry: Between Commitment and Aesthetics.” KAROGS, vol. 8, 2006, vol. 64-71.
“‘Let’s Combat Tyranny’: The Social Dialogue of an African Eclipse.” The African Journal of New Poetry, vol. 3, 2006, pp. 41-58.
“The Quest for Unity in Ngugi’s Fiction.” Nasara Journal of Humanities, vol. 1, no. 2, 2005, pp. 75-80.
Book Chapters
“Portable Environmentalism: Mobility, Materiality, and the Postcolonial Subject in Oguine’s A Squatter’s Tale.” Black Environmentalism, edited by Cajetan Iheka and Jonathan Howard, Duke University Press (forthcoming).
“The Human, the Nonhuman, and Socio-ecological Justice: A Historical Survey of African Environmental Literature.” African Literature in Transition: Genres of African Literature, edited by Moradewun Adejunmobi, Cambridge University Press, pp. 59-74.
“Global South Ambivalence of Transformation? Literature, Extractive Capitalism, and Literary Militancy in West Africa.” Ambivalences of Ecological Transformation: Perspective from the Environmental Humanities, edited by Simone M. Müller, Matthias Schmidt & Kirsten Twelbeck, Routledge, 2024, pp. 143-156.
with Gboyega Kolawole. “Oral Literature Research in Africa: A Fieldwork Manual for Collecting Data.” Orality, Textuality, Society: New Perspectives on Nigerian Literature and Culture, edited by Sule E. Egya, Peace S. Longdet, and Adegboye Adeyanju, Sevhage, 2023. pp. 148-168.
“Decolonisation and the Crisis of African Literature in the Twenty-First Century.” Decolonisation: Evolution and Revolution, edited by David Boucher and Ayesha Omar, Wits University Press, 2023, pp. 211-230.
“Cultural Decolonisation and the (Im)possibilities of Literary Language.” Language, Culture and Decolonisation, edited by David Boucher, HSRC Press, 2022, pp. 99-112.
“Poverty, Precarity and the Ethics of Representing Africa.” Representing Poverty and Precarity in Postcolonial World, edited by Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp, Marion Gymnich & Klaus P. Schneider, Koninkljke Brill, 2022, pp.156-173.
“Ecocriticism in Nigeria: Towards a Transformative Pedagogy.” Teaching Postcolonial Environmental Literature and Media, edited by Cajetan Iheka, Modern Language Association, 2021, pp. 311-322.
“Introduction: The Case for Transdisciplinarity in Ecological Studies.” Studies in Scientific and Cultural Ecology, edited by Sule E. Egya, N. J. Dadi-Mamud, & Mohammed Alhaji Usman, Sevhage, 2021, pp. 6-19.
“Literature, Eco-activism and the Saro-Wiwa Imaginary.” The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta, edited by Tanure Ojaide and Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega, Routledge, 2021, pp. 243-253.
“Resource War and Literary Militancy in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.” Nigeria’s Resource Wars, edited by Egodi Uchendu, Vernon Press, 2020, pp. 623-643.
“Not Yet Season of Blossom: Writing Northern Nigeria into the Global Space.” Routledge Handbook of Minority Discourses in African Literature, edited by Tanure Ojaide & Joyce Ashuntantang, Routledge, 2020, pp. 341-351.
“Alter-Nature Niger Delta in Christian Otobotekere’s Poetry.” Between the Crown and the Muse: Poetry, Politics, and Environmentalism of Christian Otobotekere, edited by Ogaga Okuyade, Malthouse, 2017, pp. 27-40.
“Nature, Animism and Humanity in Anglophone Nigerian Poetry.” Natures of Africa: Ecocriticism and Animal Studies in Contemporary Cultural Forms, edited by F. Fiona Moolla, Wits University Press, 2016, pp. 257-275.
“Dialogism, African Poetics and Contemporary Nigerian Poetry in English.” The Critical Imagination in African Literature: Essays in Honour of Michael J. C. Echeruo, edited by Maik Nwosu and Obi Nwanyawu, Syracuse University Press, pp. 187-207.
“Myth, Poetry, and Social Vision: A Reading of Maik Nwosu’s Suns of Kush.” Kuvaka Ukama – Building Bridges: A Tribute to Flora Veit-Wild, edited by Julius Heinicke, Hilmar Heister, Tobias R. Klein & Viola Pruschenk, Bettina Weiss Verlag, 2012, pp. 215-230.
“Literature as Political Critique in Nigeria: Mobilisation, Dialogue, and Indictment.” The Social Contract in Africa, edited by Sanya Osha, Africa Institute of South Africa, 2014, pp. 131-145.
with Elizabeth Odachi Onogwu. “Dirge and Pessimism in Emerging Political Poetry in Nigerian Literature.” Texts and Theories in Transition: Black African Literature and Imagined Tradition, edited by Charles Bodunde, Bayreuth African Studies Series, 2010, pp. 143-152.
“An Exploration into the Proverbs of Selected Ethnic Groups in Nasarawa State.” Studies in the History and Culture of the Peoples of Nasarawa State, edited by Olayemi Akinwunmi, J. M. Ayuba, Adoyi Onoja, M. A. Filaba and C. O. Iyimoga, Ahmadu Bello University Press, 2010, pp. 65-73.
“From Chinua Achebe to Sefi Atta: The Novelist as Teacher.” Themes Fall Apart but the Centre Holds: 50 Seasons of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart – 1958-2008, edited by Joseph Ushie & Denja Abdullahi, Kraftbooks, 2009, pp. 196-212.
“Postcolonial Immigration and Psychic Devaluation in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Once in a Lifetime.’” Women’s Writing in English: India and Australia, edited by Jaydeep Sarangi, GNOSIS, 2008, pp. 91-98.
“‘Every Poem Becomes Dangerous’: The Aesthetics of Resistance in Contemporary Nigerian Poetry.” Presentations of Postcolonialism in English: New Orientations, edited by Jaydeep Sarangi, Authorpress, 2007, pp. 95-106.
Book Reviews – Peer-reviewed
Review of African Migration Narratives: Politics, Race, and Space. Research in African Literatures, vol. 50, no. 4, 2020, pp. 211-212.
Review of Naturalizing Africa: Ecological Violence, Agency, and Postcolonial Resistance in African Literature. Journal of the African Literature Association, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 209-210.
Review of Expressions of the Body: Representations in African Text and Image. Research in African Literatures, vol. 42, no. 4, 2011, pp.140-141.
Review of Paora Caboara Luzzatto’s Susanne Wenger: Artist and Priestess. Context: Journal of Social and Cultural Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2010, pp. 118-119.
Review of Marion Pape’s Gender Palava: Nigerian Women Writing War. Journal of Languages, Literatures and Communication Studies, vol. 1, no.1, 2013, pp. 217-218.
Review of Kanchana Ugbabe’s Soulmates and Christie Watson’s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away. Wasafiri: International Contemporary Writing, vol. 28, no.1, 2013, pp. 99-100.
Review of Musa Okpanachi’s The Eaters of the Living. African Literature Today, vol. 28, 2010, pp. 157-158.
Review of Raja Rao: The Master and His Moves. Reflection: A Literary Journal, vol. 1 & 2, 2006, pp. 167-170.
“The Obscene, The Iconoclastic: A Review of Uche Nduka’s Heart’s Field.” SemiCerchio, 2006, pp. 110-111.
Public-Facing Books, Essays, and Interviews
Niyi Osundare: A Literary Biography. SevHage, 2017.
In Their Voices and Visions: Conversations with New Nigerian Writers (Vol.1). Apex Books, 2007.
“In Praise of a Cultural Alternative: Environmental Violence and Literary Militancy in Nigeria.” KWI Blog, 2024. https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00081719/Egya_In_Praise_Cultural_Alternative.pdf.
“The Poor Woods of Northern Nigeria.” The Springs: The Rachel Carson Center Review, issue 1, 2022. https://springs-rcc.org/the-poor-woods-of-northern-nigeria/
“In Defence of Poetry: Sabouke and Dangerous Ideologists.” Konya Shamsrumi. https://shamsrumi.com.ng/2022/01/24/in-defence-of-poetry-sabouke-versus-dangerous-ideologists-e-e-sule.
“Anglophone Environmental Writing in Nigeria.” Uses of Environmental Humanities. https://seeingthewoods.org/2019/06/18/uses-of-environmental-humanities-sule-emmanuel-egya.
“What is Really Wrong with the Publishers in Nigeria.” Africanwriter.com. https://www.africanwriter.com/what-is-really-wrong-with-the-publishers-in-nigeria.
“Revolution within the Poetic Revolution.” Maple Tree Literary Supplement. http://www.mtls.ca/issue21/sule-emmanuel-egya.
“After the Storm: NLNG Poetry Prize’s Report and Matters Arising.” Africanwriter. com. http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/455/1/After-the-Storm-NLNG-Poetry-Prizes-Report-and-Matters-Arising/Page1.html.
“Review of Sola Osofisan’s Blood Will Call.” Maple Tree Literary Supplement http://www.mtls.ca/issue14/writings/reviews/e-e-sule.
“A Journey through Ikere-Ekiti with Niyi Osundare.” http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/351/2/A-Journey-through-Ikere-Ekiti-with-Niyi-Osundare/Page2.html
“Review of Sanya Osha’s An Underground Colony of Bees.” Sahara Reporters. http://saharareporters.com/art-life/review-sanya-osha%E2%80%99s-underground-colony-summer-bees.
“Review of Kanchana Ugbabe’s Soulmates.” Sentinel Nigeria. file:///C:/Users/EE%20Sule/Desktop/A%20Review%20of%20Kanchana%20Ugbabe%E2%80%99s%20Soulmates%20_%20Sentinel%20Nigeria.htm.
“Literary Voices Alike: Ahmed Maiwada, Isaac Ogezi, and Odo Diego Okenyodo.” Africanwrter.com http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/554/1/Literary-Voices-Alike-Maiwada-Ogezi-and-Okenyodo---By-E-E-Sule/Page1.html.
“‘I Write for the Thinking Mind’: A Conversation with Maik Nwosu.” http://www.farafinamagazine.com/editions/issue8/maik.htm.
“The Novelist as Teacher: A 21st Century Criticism.” African Writing Online, vol. 4, 2008.
“‘I Certainly Have a Vision for Writing’: A Conversation with Remi Raji.” The Ker Review: A Journal of Nigerian Literature, vol. 1, no. 1, 2005, pp. 67-86.
“Literary Language and Recent Nigerian Fiction.” Africanwriter. com. http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/88/1/Literary-Language-and-Recent-Nigerian-Fiction/Page1.html.
“Beyond Social Commitment, Meaning and Audience: Towards the Soyinkanisation of Nigerian Literature.” Africanwriter.com. http://www.africanwriter.com/articles/116/1/Beyond-Social-Commitment-Meaning-and-Audience-Towards-the-Soyinkanisation-of-Nigerian-Literature/Page1.html.
Creative Work under the Pen-name E. E. Sule
Fiction
Makwala (a novel). Paressia Publishers, 2018. Winner of the 2019 ANA Prose Prize.
Sterile Sky (a novel). Pearson, 2012. Winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize Africa Region. Long-listed for the 2012 Nigerian NLNG Prize for Literature.
Dream and Shame (short stories). Roots Books and Journals, 2006.
Poetry
What the Sea Told Me. Hybun Publications, 2009. Winner of the ANA Poetry Prize, and the AWF Poetry Prize.
Naked Sun. Aboki Publishers, 2006.
Knifing Tongues. Aboki Publishers, 2005.
Creative Works in Books, Journals, and Literary Magazines (print and online)
“We Are” and “Between Our Eyes” (poems). Eds. Maria Ajima and Sam Ogabaidu. Cerebral(ity): Poems Celebrating David I. Ker on His 60th Birthday. Lagos: Apex, 2012. 55-56.
“The Poster” (short story). The New Black Magazine http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=2537.
“Chaos and clairvoyance”, “Cohabitation”, and “If you” (poems). The New Black Magazine http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=2473.
“A Fight in a Brothel.” Stand, vol. 9, no. 4, 2009, pp. 82-88.
“What the Sea Told Me.” Pyramids: An Anthology of Poems from Northern Nigeria, edited by Ismail Bala Garba & Abdullahi Ismiala, Kraftbooks, 2008, p. 34.
“I Choose to Rise,” “Between Our Eyes” and “Towards Your Nirvana.” Prosopisia: An International Journal of Poetry and Creative Writing, vo. 1, 2008, pp. 31-32.
“How Long Must this Poem be Barren?” “Stranger,” “Neurotic Phases” and “Live for Him, Let Him Live for You.” Crossroads: an Anthology of Poems in Honour of Christopher Okigbo, edited by Patrick Tagbo Oguejiefor & Uduma Kalu, Apex Books, 2008, pp. 170-173.
“Road is Swim.” (Poem). The Ker Review: A Journal of Nigerian Literature, vol. 2, no. 1 & 2, 2006, p.101.
“I Claim,” “My father’s god.” (Poems). Drumvoices Revue, vol. 14, no. 1 & 2, 2006.
“Didn’t you B.” (Poem) Sentinel Poetry Online, vol. 39, 2006. http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/0206/ee_sule.htm.
“May 29: Cruel Cards” and “June 29: Little Puppy.” (Poems) Five Hundred Nigerian Poets Volume 1, edited by Jerry Agada, Aboki Publishers, 2005, p. 406.
“My Heroine.” (Poem) Asheville Poetry Review, vol. 12, no. 1, 2005, p.165.
“feb23: my soldier”, “june9: strikestretched”, “july8: wole Soyinka”, and “july29: another love knifed.” (Poems) Tiger’s Eye: A Journal of Poetry, vol. 8, 2004, pp. 13-16.
Inaugural Lecture
Egya, Sule E. In Praise of Dissidence: Power Relations, Artistic Creativity and Nigeria’s Democratic Process, delivered on 26 January 2017 as the 7th Inaugural Lecture Series at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
Fellowships
College for Social Sciences and Humanities, University Alliance Ruhr, Essen, Germany. Senior Research Fellowship; March to August 2024.
Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Munich, Munich, Germany, November-December 2022.
Alexander von Humboldt 3-month further research stay at University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, March to May 2022.
Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. November 2018 - April 2019.
Alexander von Humboldt further research fellowship for 3 months at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. 2015.
Centre of African Studies 6-month visiting fellowship, Cambridge University, Cambridge in 2014 (unable to take the offer for personal reasons).
African Humanities Program postdoctoral fellowship. 2011-2012.
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom, in October 2010.
Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. 2009-2011.
PER SESH 9-month writing fellowship at Popeguine (under the mentorship of Ayi Kwei Armah), Senegal. 2006-2007.
Grants
2023-Ongoing. Partner Researcher. Modern Endangered Archive Program grant by the University of California Los Angeles Library. “Digitizing and Curating of Eloyi Audio Cassette Recordings.” (Lead Researcher: David Egya).
2021-2023. Partner Researcher. Tertiary Education Trust Fund National Research Grant. “Towards a National Collection of Nigerian Oral Literature.” (Lead Researcher: Kolawole Gboyega).
November 17-18, 2020. African Humanities Program grant to conduct research proposal writing workshop, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2019-2022. Lead Researcher. Tertiary Education Trust Fund National Research Grant to undertake research on “Language, Literature, and Environment: Representation of Ecological Crises in Contemporary Nigerian Writing.”
27-29 June 2018. Alexander von Humboldt grant to convene a national conference (Humboldt Kolleg). “Ecology and the Convergence of Sciences and Humanities” at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2017. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grant to purchase research equipment.
26 June to 11 July 2016. Humboldt Talent Travel grant. Humboldt University, Berlin.
2007-2008. CODESRIA grant for PhD thesis writing.
Awards
2020. Akweya TV award for outstanding contribution in the field of literature.
2019. Association of Nigerian Authors prose prize for Makwala, my second novel.
2014. National Association of Students of English & Literary Studies (Lapai branch) award of excellence.
2013. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University management merit award as the most outstanding academic staff of the year.
2013. Commonwealth book prize Africa region for Sterile Sky, my first novel.
2009. Abuja Writers’ Forum Ime Ikiddeh prize for literary criticism in fiction.
2009. Abuja Writers’ Forum Anthony Agbo prize for poetry for What the Sea Told Me, my third collection of poems.
2009. Association of Nigerian Authors NDDC Gabriel Okara poetry prize for What the Sea Told Me, my third collection of poems.
University Service
2022-2006. Quality Assurance Focal Person, Department of English, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2020-2025. Director, Centre for Arts and Indigenous Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2020-2026. Member, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University strategic planning committee.
2019-2026. Member, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University central research committee.
2014-2016. Dean, Faculty of Languages and Communications Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2014 Academic Session. Head, Department of English, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2013-2014. Postgraduate programme co-ordinator, Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Communication Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2014. Member/secretary, senate committee on TURNITIN (a plagiarism software), Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2013-2026. University orator, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2013-2014. Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (Lapai branch) Ethics Committee, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2012 -2014. Chairman, committee of judges, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Lapai Essay Competition, IBBULEC.
2012-2026. Member, senate committee on conferences and seminars, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2012. Member, senate committee on research and publication, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai.
2011-2012. Exams officer, Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Abuja, Abuja.
2008-2009. Exams officer, Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi.
Community Service
2022. External Assessor for the Nigerian National Merit Award.
2022. Chairman, Panel of Judges for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature (Poetry Genre).
2021-2022. Chairman, Panel of Judges for the Green We Left Behind, a prose fiction award.
2021. Member, National University Commission’s Accreditation Panel to Osun State University, Osogbo.
2020-present. Member, Board of Trustees, Literary Scholars Association, Nigeria.
2019. Member, National University Commission’s Accreditation Panel to the National Teachers Institute, Kaduna.
2019-present. Member, Board of Trustees, Afo Heritage Think Tank, Nigeria.
2014-2018. Weekly Columnist, Nigerian Newsday, a Nasarawa State-owned newspaper.
2014. Chief Judge, Association of Nigerian Author’s panel of judges.
2011-2012. Member, editorial board of Blueprint newspaper, Abuja FCT.
2011-2014. Weekly Columnist, Blueprint newspaper, Abuja FCT.
2008-2010. Member, editorial board, Leadership newspaper, Abuja FCT.
2008. Supervisor for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.
2007. Fiction instructor, Association of Nigerian Authors Abuja summer creative writing workshop.
2006- 2012. Chief Judge for teen authorship prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors.
Editorial Board
2024-present. Member, Editorial Board of Research in African Literatures, University of Ohio Press.
2022-present. Member, Editorial Board of Journal of the African Literature Association, a journal of the African Literature Association.
2022-2025. Member, Editorial Board of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, a journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment.
Keynotes
“Decolonial AI: The Humanities, Digital Technology, and the Future of Africa.” Keynote at the 40 Annual Conference of the English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. September 15-18, 2025.
“Exploring Plateau’s Creative Economy: The Role of Imaginative Arts.” Keynote at Plateau Literary Festival, Jos, Nigeria. May 23-24, 2025.
“BM Dzukogi as an Archive: Literature, Activism, and Mentorship.” Keynote at the National Colloquium on the Life and Work of BM Dzukogi, Minna, Nigeria. January 14, 2025.
“Critical Thinking and the Invention of New Humanities.” Keynote at the third international conference of the Faculty of Arts, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. September 10-13, 2024.
“Creativity, Activism, and Individual Talent: Shaping the Future of Nigerian Literature.” Keynote at a national workshop on creative writing organized by the Nigerian Academy of Letters at University of Abuja, Abuja. March 1-7, 2024.
“Mobility, Environment, and the Postcolonial Subject in African Literature.” Keynote at EMMIR international conference at Lake Victoria Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda. November 28-30, 2023.
“Orature, Species Entanglement, and Decoloniality: Ancient Narratives and the Nonhuman.” Keynote at the 7th national conference of the Nigerian Oral Literature Association at University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria. November 22-24, 2023.
“Literature, Activism, and the Contemporary Quest for Leadership Revolution.” Keynote at the Benue Book and Arts Festival in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.June 25, 2022.
“Covid-19 & Insurgency: Leveraging the Power of ICT and Creativity toward National Integration.” Keynote at North-East Festival of Literature, Culture and Creativity in Gombe, Gombe State, Nigeria. November 16-18, 2021.
“Poetics of Integration: Literature, (Post-)Nation, and a Critique of Postmodern Reason.” Keynote at the 38th international conference of the Association of Nigerian Authors in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. November 31 to December 3, 2019.
“Literature and Leadership in Africa: A Critical Assessment of the Present.” Keynote at the national conference of the Department of English and Drama, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria. November 6-9, 2019.
“Language, Literature, and National Integration: A Critical Assessment of the Present.” Keynote at the international conference of the Department of English, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. September 3-6, 2019.
“Diaspora Positioning, Identity Politics, and the Crisis of Contemporary Nigerian Literature.” Keynote at the ANA-FUNAI international conference and creative writing workshop at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Aliko Ikwo, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. June 18-19, 2018.
“Colonial Legacies, ‘Democracy’, and Poverty: Rethinking the Role of the African Writer.” Keynote at the 28th Annual Conference of Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies at University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany. May 25-27, 2017.
Conferences and Workshop – I Convened
Workshop on “Decolonial Ecology: Literary and Cultural Representation in the Global South” at College for Social Sciences and Humanities, University Alliance, Essen. July 25-26, 2024.
Creative writing workshop at University of Duisburg-Essen. June 20, 2024.
Creative writing workshop at University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany. Nov. 11, 2022.
African Humanities Program proposal-preparation workshop, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. Hybridformat. November 17-18, 2020.
Creative writing workshop: “Creative Writing and Resistance,” Department of English & American Studies, Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany. Jan. 12, 2019.
Humboldt Kolleg: “Ecology and the Convergence of the Sciences and the Humanities,” Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. Sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. June 27-29, 2018.
13th international conference of the Literary Society of Nigeria: “Ethnic Nationalities, Cultural Memory and the Challenges of Nationhood in the Twenty-first Century Literature,” at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. August 30 to September 2, 2016.
National conference on the Life and Writings of Abubakar Gimba: “Writing, Resistance and the State,” Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Nigeria. August 19-22, 2015.
Selected Conferences & Workshops – I Attended
“The Atlantic: Colonialism, Ecology, and the Niger Delta Experience.” Water and Sound Festival, Augsburg, Germany. August 1-4, 2024.
“Pandemic Poetics: Imaginative Writing, Covid-19, and the Vulnerability of Humanity.” Conference and General Assembly of the Council for Social Sciences in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal. December 4-8, 2023.
“Literature, Nature, and Decolonization: The Future of Ecocriticism in Africa.” African Humanities Association conference at University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. November 26-29, 2023.
“In Praise of Cultural Alternative: Environmental Violence and Literary Militancy in Nigeria.” Mid-term conference of the Merien Institute of Advanced Studies in Africa at University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. September 19-21, 2023.
“The Nigeria-Cameroon Context: Literature, Environment, and the Future of Ecocriticism in West Africa.” ECA conference: “African Futures” at University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. May 31 to June 3, 2023.
“Environment, Mobility, and the Postcolonial Subject in African Migration Writing.” Conference: “Black Environmentalisms” of Department of English, Yale University, New Haven, United States. October 13-14, 2022.
“From the Individual to the Social: Niyi Osundare and the Poetics of Self-representation.” Online Workshop: “Writing Individual Existence” of Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada. May 12-14, 2022.
“The Human, the Sea and Planetary Precarity: A Reading of Chuma Nwokolo’s ‘Sea Legs’.” Online Conference: “Planetary Precarity and Future Habitability” of the Challenging Precarity research group. February 18-19, 2022.
“Woman and Biophysical Environment: An Ecofeminist Reading of Maryam Bobi’s Bongel and Safiya Yero’s Naja.” Conference of Department of English & Centre for Gender Studies, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria. June 7-10, 2021.
“Writing Methodology.” Proposal-writing Workshop of African Humanities Program at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. November 18-19, 2020.
4th Regional Assembly of the African Humanities Program in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria. February11-15, 2020.
“Resource War and Literary Militancy in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.” Humboldt Kolleg: “Nigeria’s Resource Wars” at University of Nigeria, Nsukka. May 6-10, 2019.
Book chat on my second novel Makwala. Kaduna Book and Arts Festival (KABAFEST), Kaduna, Nigeria. September 5-8, 2018.
“Decolonisation and the Crisis of African Literature”. Conference: “After the Prelude” at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, Johannesburg, South Africa. July 9-11, 2018.
“The Hausa Postproverbial: Fieldwork and Translational Possibilities.” Humboldt Kolleg: “Of Texts, Spaces, Signs and Symbols: Questing Corpora for Translational Research in Humanities” at University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. February19-22, 2018.
“The Impact of AHP Funding.” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies conference at University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. August 24-26, 2017.
“The Gendered and Commodified Female Body in Contemporary Nigerian Fiction.” CODESRIA Conference: “(Re)making Bodies in Africa” at University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. November 3-4, 2016.
“Environmental Violence in Contemporary Nigerian Fiction.” 42th Annual African Literature Association conference at Kennesaw University, Atlanta, US. April 5-10, 2016.
Book chat on my first novel Sterile Sky. Ake Arts and Book Festival at Cultural Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. November 18-22, 2014.
Book chat on my first novel Sterile Sky. Yardstick Literary Festival: “Celebrating the Best in Contemporary Black Writing” in Bristol and Bath, the United Kingdom. June 27-30, 2013.
Launch of, and book chat on, my first novel Sterile Sky. Literary Festival: “Africa Writes 2012” at the Royal African Society, School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS, University of London, London, UK. July 28 – August 1, 2012.
“Power, Artistic Agency, and Poetic Discourse: Poetry as Cultural Critique in Twenty-first Century Africa.” 13th CODESRIA General Assembly: “Africa and the Challenges of the Twenty First Century” at Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingenieurs, Rabat, Morocco. December 6-9, 2011.
“Poetics of Water: An Ecocritical Reading of Nigerian Poetry on Water.” International Colloquium: “Cultural Models of Work in Africa: A Comparative Approach” at the Faculty of Sciences and Technologies of Education and Formation (FASTEF) of the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar (UCAD), Senegal. December 5-6, 2011.
“Fruitful Dialogue: Yoruba Elements in the Poetry in English of Niyi Osundare and Remi Raji.” 24th conference of Croatian Applied Linguistics Society: “Discourse and Dialogue Studies between Theory, Research Methods, and Application” at University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia. May19-22, 2010.
“Not Oil, But Blood: The Wounded Earth in the Poetry of Ogaga Ifowodo and Nnimmo Bassey”. 36th Annual African Literature Association Conference: “Eco-Imagination: African and Diasporan Literatures and Sustainability” at The University of Arizona, Tucson, USA. March 10-14, 2010.