Five scholars have been named 2026 Senior and Postdoctoral Fellows at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University (GSU). Through their residencies, the awardees will advance research and knowledge production on Africa and its diasporas across political thought, literary studies, religion, visual culture, gender studies, and African intellectual histories.
The 2026 awardees are Carolyn Denard, Toni Morrison Senior Fellow in African Diaspora Literature and Cultural Studies; Yonas Ashine Demisse and Yousuf Al-Bulushi, Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellows in Global African Studies; Reem Kosba, Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies; and Gladys Kalichini, Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities.
Carolyn Denard
Carolyn Denard is the founder and board chair of the Toni Morrison Society and a scholar, educator, and longtime steward of Morrison’s literary legacy. She earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University and completed postdoctoral work at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. She has held academic and administrative appointments at Georgia State University, Brown University, Emory University, and Connecticut College.
Denard is the editor of What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction by Toni Morrison and Toni Morrison: Conversations, two foundational texts in Morrison studies. Returning as the 2026 Toni Morrison Senior Fellow in African Diaspora Literature and Cultural Studies, she will continue work on her book-length manuscript, Bearing Witness: Culture and Meaning in Toni Morrison’s Fiction.
Read Carolyn Denard’s profile.
Yonas Ashine Demisse
Yonas Ashine Demisse is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and Associate Editor of the Ethiopian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. His research encompasses political theory, comparative politics, and the international relations of Africa, with a particular focus on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Demisse earned his Ph.D. in interdisciplinary social studies from the Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Uganda. He is the author of Slaves of State and Intellectuals of Development: A Genealogy of Development in Ethiopia. Returning as a 2026 Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow in Global African Studies, he will continue developing Ambivalent Black: Thought and Encounter in Ethiopia’s Africa Policy. Drawing on Ethiopian intellectual and foreign-policy archives, the book examines how intellectuals, literary thinkers, statesmen, and diplomats have understood Africa, African identity, Blackness, and internationalism across changing global contexts.
Read Yonas Ashine Demisse’s profile.
Yousuf Al-Bulushi
Yousuf Al-Bulushi is Associate Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine. His research spans global studies, racial capitalism, political geography, political economy, and African and Africana studies. He is the author of Ruptures in the Afterlife of the Apartheid City and co-editor of Reading Black Reconstruction Today.
During his residency as an Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow in Global African Studies, Al-Bulushi will develop a book project examining the intellectual history and geography of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Read Yousuf Al-Bulushi’s profile.
Reem Kosba
Reem Kosba is a scholar of religion, feminist studies, and material culture whose interdisciplinary research examines Islam, aesthetics, gender, and materiality in Egypt. She holds a Ph.D. in the Anthropology of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.
As the Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow in Social and Cultural Studies, Kosba will examine the unveiling movement in Egypt following 2011. Her project considers how political change, religious doubt, spirituality, and social media have reshaped understandings of veiling, modesty, and religious practice.
Gladys Kalichini
Gladys Kalichini is a researcher and artist whose interdisciplinary practice explores visual culture, memory, gender, and liberation histories. Her work has been presented in international exhibitions and published across academic and artistic platforms. She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Rhodes University in South Africa.
As the Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture, Performance Studies, and Critical Humanities, Kalichini will examine how contemporary art and curatorial practices construct, regulate, and contest gendered narratives, with particular attention to the visibility of women in southern Africa’s liberation struggles.
Read Gladys Kalichini’s profile.
Continuing Postdoctoral Fellows
The Africa Institute also welcomes back Rosette Sifa Vuninga, Fatema Mernissi Postdoctoral Fellow; Elizabeth Olayiwola, Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow; and Kristina Dziedzic Wright, Okwui Enwezor Postdoctoral Fellow, who will continue their residencies during Fall 2026.
