The Africa Institute at Global Studies University invites you to the concluding 2025 Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-in-Residence Fellows Project Showcase on Monday, 15 December 2025, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM at The Africa Institute AuditoriumThe Africa Institute, GSU, Auditorium (location map).

Fellows Davina Philomena Kawuma (Uganda) and Sofia El Khyari (Morocco) will present their completed projects. The session will be moderated by Leila Aboulela, Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers Fellow.

This event marks the conclusion of the 2025 fellowship residency, highlighting the creative and scholarly work produced by the fellows.

Presentations & Speakers

Davina Philomena Kawuma – Lamb White Days: The algorithm made me do it

Kawuma’s project explores self-interest, morality, and adaptive behavior through a protagonist navigating a dysfunctional social and political system. Using evolutionary theory and Jung’s Persona and Shadow, the story examines ethical tension and personal agency across four narrative phases.

Davina Philomena Kawuma is a Ugandan writer and editor, with experience in botanical and zoological sciences and postgraduate work in academic affairs. She has held fellowships at Cornell University’s Institute for Comparative Modernities (2020) and the Suyi Davies Literary Laddership (2022). Her published works include Rispekt A Fool to Avoid Noyze (2023). Read more.

Sofia El Khyari – Shehrazade’s Birds

El Khyari’s debut feature reconstructs forgotten cinematic heritage in 1950s Casablanca under the French Protectorate. The project combines archival research, live-action, and animation to explore personal and collective memory, cultural resistance, and Morocco’s cinematic history.

Sofia El Khyari is an award-winning Moroccan filmmaker, animator, and founder of Oneiris Animation. She holds Master’s degrees in Cultural Management (Bordeaux Business School) and Animation (Royal College of Art, London). Her films have screened at nearly 200 international festivals, and she is developing her debut feature during her 2025 fellowship residency. Read more.

Moderator

Leila Aboulela

Leila Aboulela is an award-winning author and 2025 PEN Pinter Prize recipient. Her novels and short stories have received international acclaim, and she serves as an Honorary Professor at the WORD Centre, University of Aberdeen. Read more.

This event is part of our Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-in-Residence Fellowship that aims to supports literary voices engaging with Africa and its diaspora. Established in honor of Nigerian scholar Tejumola Olaniyan, the fellowship promotes creativity, intellectual rigor, and the development of new narratives in African and African diaspora literature.