Biography
Awam Amkpa is Dean of Arts and Humanities, NYUAD and Global Network Professor of Drama, Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU New York. Previously, he was Senior Lecturer of Drama and Television at King Alfred’s University College in Winchester, England and Assistant Professor of Theater Arts at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, United States.
At New York University, Amkpa has served as the Director of Africana Studies, Faculty Senator as well as Vice Chair of NYU’s Faculty Senators Council and Tenured/Track Faculty Council. He has also served on university task forces on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Affordability and committees on Academic Priorities and Global Learning Outcomes.
His curatorial projects include ReSignifications, Villa La Pietra, Florence (2018), Interwoven Dialogues: Contemporary Art from Africa and South Asia, Aicon Gallery, New York (2018) and AFRICA: See You, See Me, Museu Da Cidade (Pavilhão Preto), Lisbon (2010); among others.
He has also directed film documentaries such as Winds Against Our Souls, It's All About Downtown, National Images and Transnational Desires, and feature film Wazobia!.
As an interdisciplinary artist and scholar, Amkpa continues to exhibit globally and has written several articles in books and journals on modernisms in theatre, postcolonial theatre, Black Atlantic studies and film studies. He is the author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003).
Amkpa received a BA in Dramatic Arts from Obafemi Awolowo University, MA in Drama from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, and PhD in Drama from the University of Bristol in the UK.
SAF participation:
March Meeting 2022
