Lorna Goodison Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Comparative Literature, and Francophone Studies
ekotto@umich.eduOffice Information:
5530 Haven Hall
phone: 734.936.6735
Afroamerican and African Studies
Education/Degree:
Ph.D., Comparative Literature and French Literature, University of MinnesotaAbout
As an intellectual historian and philosopher with areas of expertise in 20th and 21st-century Anglophone and Francophone literature and in the cinema of West Africa and its diaspora, Dr. Frieda Ekotto concentrates on contemporary issues of law, race and LGBTQIA2S+ issues. Her primary research to date has focused on how law serves to repress and mask the pain of disenfranchised subjects; her intention in this work is to trace what cannot be said in order to address and expose suffering from a variety of angles and cultural intersections and reassess the position and agency of the dispossessed.
Dr. Ekotto is the author of multiple books, and numerous book chapters as well as many articles in prestigious literary journals. She is currently working on LGBTQIA2S+ issues, with an emphasis on Sub-Sahara African cultures within Africa as well as in Europe and the Americas. In addition to her academic work, she is also a creative writer.
Dr. Ekotto received the Nicolàs Guillèn Prize for Philosophical Literature in 2014 and in 2015 she was awarded the Benezet Award for excellence in her field. In 2016, she was awarded the John H. D’Arms Faculty for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Degree at Colorado College. She has produced two documentaries, Vibrancy of Silence: A Discussion with My Sisters (2017) and Zurura Zurura: A Smile Blooms (2021) as part of the ongoing research on Vibrancy of Silence: Images and Cultural Production of Sub-Saharan African Women. She is the president of the Modern Languages Association (2023-2024) and served as chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies from 2014-2018, among other leadership roles.
Publications:
Books
- Ekotto, F. and Celis, A. 2020 Co-Editors of Volume IV of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature by John Whiley & Sons, Inc.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of A Young Artiste From Bon Mbella, Translated by Corine Tachtiris. Bucknell University Press.
- Ekotto, F. 2018 Nimrod: Selected Work, Edited by Frieda Ekotto. (The University of Michigan Press in African Perspectives).
- Ekotto, F. and Harrow, K. 2015. Rethinking African Cultural Production (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.)
- Ekotto, F. 2011. Race and Sex across the French Atlantic: The Color of Black in Literary, Philosophical, and Theater Discourse (New York: Lexington Press.)
- Ekotto, F. and Bénédicte Boisseron. 2011. Editors. Voix du monde : Nouvelles francophones (Bordeaux : Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, France.)
- Ekotto, F. 2010. Portrait d’une jeune artiste de Bona Mbella (a novel, Paris: L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. and Adeline Koh. 2009. Editors. Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity. (Germany: LIT Berlin.)
- Ekotto, F. Aurélie Renaud, and Agnès Vannouvong. 2008. Toutes les images du langage : Jean Genet (Presse de l’Université de Paris Sorbone/Biblioteca Della Ricerca, Transatlantique 9.)
- Ekotto, F. 2005. Chuchote pas trop (a novel, Paris : L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. 2001. L'Ecriture carcérale et le discours juridique: Jean Genet (Paris : L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. and M. Delvaux. 1998. Special issue of L'Esprit Créateur on the topic of "Narrative and Confinement."
Articles
- Ekotto, F. 2022 “Francophone Writing.” In Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies. Ed. Gene Jarrett. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
- Ekotto, F. 2020 “Frantz Fanon in the Era of Black Lives Matter” in Reframing PostColonial Studies. Palgrave Mcmillan.
- Ekotto, F. 2020 “Aimé Césaire in the Era of Black Lives Matter” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature. Volume IV. John Whiley & Sons, Inc.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “L’Art de regarder: Frieda Ekotto à Frida Khalo/Une lettre” in V I B R A T E ! Resounding the Frequencies of Africana in Translation. Absinthe: World Literature in Translation.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “La diaspora. Esquisse d’une nouvelle épistémologie pour les Noirs américains” in Afrocentricités: Histoire, philosophie et pratiques sociales. Sous la direction de Pauline Guedj et Nadia Yala Kisukidi. No 52 mai 2019 Editions Kimé: Paris, France. pp.147-154.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “L’Afrique et la Chine: Qu’en est-il de la culture?” in Something We Africans Got. Issue #8, May 2019.pp. 218-220.
- Ekotto, F. 2018 “Truth in Translation: A reading of the Film Sisters in Law” in Mamadou Diawara, Elisio Macamo and Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo (Eds), Translation Revisited: Contesting the Sense of African Social Realities, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) pp.521-530.
- Ekotto, F. and Mélissa Gélinas. 2016.The First Issue of Obieg Quarterly: http://obieg.u-jazdowski.pl/en/dakar
- Ekotto, F. 2016 “Framing Homosexual Identities in Cameroonian Literature” in Tydskrif vir LetterKunde 53 (1) pp. 128-140.
- Ekotto, F. (Forthcoming)“Chaque fois un nouveau souffle” in Etudier l’exil (Accepted for publication in France. Collection of Essays)
- Ekotto, F. 2016 “Papy Ekengue: Une poésie de l’ordinaire-poésie une nouvelle expression de l’Afrique” in Créer en Postcolonie: 2010-2015 Voix et dissidences Belgo-Congolaises. Sous la direction de Sarah Demart et Gia Abrassart. Bozar Books, Africalia. Belgium. Pp.191-198.
- Ekotto, F. March 2016. “Une poétique de la mémoire: Lire Matière grise, le film du réalisateur rwandais Kivu Ruhorahoza (2011) in Présence Africaine, no 85.
- Ekotto, F. 2015. “Body Talk and Thoughts on Power” in Body Talk, Edited by Koyo Kuoh for The Exhibition in WIELS, Brussel, Belgium.
- Ekotto, F. 2014. Introduction to Venus of Khala-Kanti, a novel by Angèle Kingué in The Griot Project Book Series. Lewisburg : Buknell University Press.
- Ekotto, F. 2014. Dictionary Entries : Lydie Dattas, Angela Davis et Réception de Jean Genet aux USA in Dictionnaire de Jean Genet (Sous la direction de Marie-Claude Hubert) Paris : Honoré Champion.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Interview by Betti Ellison in the African Women in Cinema Blog: Frieda Ekotto. For Endogenous Critique of Representation of African Lesbian in Visual Culture and Literature. (https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/11/frieda-ekotto-for-endogenous-critique.html)
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Kivu Ruhorahoza. Grey Matter. Film Review Essay in African Studies Review/Volume 56/Issue 02/pp. 231-234.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Dictionary Entries : Ama Ata Aidoo ; Nathalie Etoke ; Bessie Head ; Flora Nwapa ; Monique Ilboudo in Dictionnaire Universel des Créatrices. Paris : Editions des Femmes.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Two Documentary Films.” Film Review Essay in African Studies Review /Volume 56/Issue 01/pp.221-223.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. "The Meaning of Perception”: Review of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude by Souleymane Bachir Diagne in Cultural Critique #85 pp.197-200.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Against Representation: Countless Hours for a Professor” in PMLA Special Topic Work, (Vol.127 Number 4) pp.968-972.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Articulating Difference : When I Was Ethnic : A Tribute to Lawrence Schehr” in Contemporary French Civilization (Vol. 37.nos 2-3) pp.151-157.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “France-Afrique : une chanson triste” in Jeune Afrique. April. Paris : France.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Breema Clarke, Sharon Bridgforth, Shirlene Holmes, Lynn Nottage, Kia Corthron, Adrienne kennedy, Pearl Cleage, Anna Deavere Smith, Sonia Sanchez, Glenda Dickerson et Lorraine Hansberry” in Dictionnaire universel du théâtre femmes noires. Paris: Editions des Femmes.
About
As an intellectual historian and philosopher with areas of expertise in 20th and 21st-century Anglophone and Francophone literature and in the cinema of West Africa and its diaspora, Dr. Frieda Ekotto concentrates on contemporary issues of law, race and LGBTQIA2S+ issues. Her primary research to date has focused on how law serves to repress and mask the pain of disenfranchised subjects; her intention in this work is to trace what cannot be said in order to address and expose suffering from a variety of angles and cultural intersections and reassess the position and agency of the dispossessed.
Dr. Ekotto is the author of multiple books, and numerous book chapters as well as many articles in prestigious literary journals. She is currently working on LGBTQIA2S+ issues, with an emphasis on Sub-Sahara African cultures within Africa as well as in Europe and the Americas. In addition to her academic work, she is also a creative writer.
Dr. Ekotto received the Nicolàs Guillèn Prize for Philosophical Literature in 2014 and in 2015 she was awarded the Benezet Award for excellence in her field. In 2016, she was awarded the John H. D’Arms Faculty for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Degree at Colorado College. She has produced two documentaries, Vibrancy of Silence: A Discussion with My Sisters (2017) and Zurura Zurura: A Smile Blooms (2021) as part of the ongoing research on Vibrancy of Silence: Images and Cultural Production of Sub-Saharan African Women. She is the president of the Modern Languages Association (2023-2024) and served as chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies from 2014-2018, among other leadership roles.
Publications:
Books
- Ekotto, F. and Celis, A. 2020 Co-Editors of Volume IV of The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature by John Whiley & Sons, Inc.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of A Young Artiste From Bon Mbella, Translated by Corine Tachtiris. Bucknell University Press.
- Ekotto, F. 2018 Nimrod: Selected Work, Edited by Frieda Ekotto. (The University of Michigan Press in African Perspectives).
- Ekotto, F. and Harrow, K. 2015. Rethinking African Cultural Production (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.)
- Ekotto, F. 2011. Race and Sex across the French Atlantic: The Color of Black in Literary, Philosophical, and Theater Discourse (New York: Lexington Press.)
- Ekotto, F. and Bénédicte Boisseron. 2011. Editors. Voix du monde : Nouvelles francophones (Bordeaux : Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, France.)
- Ekotto, F. 2010. Portrait d’une jeune artiste de Bona Mbella (a novel, Paris: L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. and Adeline Koh. 2009. Editors. Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity. (Germany: LIT Berlin.)
- Ekotto, F. Aurélie Renaud, and Agnès Vannouvong. 2008. Toutes les images du langage : Jean Genet (Presse de l’Université de Paris Sorbone/Biblioteca Della Ricerca, Transatlantique 9.)
- Ekotto, F. 2005. Chuchote pas trop (a novel, Paris : L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. 2001. L'Ecriture carcérale et le discours juridique: Jean Genet (Paris : L’Harmattan.)
- Ekotto, F. and M. Delvaux. 1998. Special issue of L'Esprit Créateur on the topic of "Narrative and Confinement."
Articles
- Ekotto, F. 2022 “Francophone Writing.” In Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies. Ed. Gene Jarrett. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
- Ekotto, F. 2020 “Frantz Fanon in the Era of Black Lives Matter” in Reframing PostColonial Studies. Palgrave Mcmillan.
- Ekotto, F. 2020 “Aimé Césaire in the Era of Black Lives Matter” in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature. Volume IV. John Whiley & Sons, Inc.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “L’Art de regarder: Frieda Ekotto à Frida Khalo/Une lettre” in V I B R A T E ! Resounding the Frequencies of Africana in Translation. Absinthe: World Literature in Translation.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “La diaspora. Esquisse d’une nouvelle épistémologie pour les Noirs américains” in Afrocentricités: Histoire, philosophie et pratiques sociales. Sous la direction de Pauline Guedj et Nadia Yala Kisukidi. No 52 mai 2019 Editions Kimé: Paris, France. pp.147-154.
- Ekotto, F. 2019 “L’Afrique et la Chine: Qu’en est-il de la culture?” in Something We Africans Got. Issue #8, May 2019.pp. 218-220.
- Ekotto, F. 2018 “Truth in Translation: A reading of the Film Sisters in Law” in Mamadou Diawara, Elisio Macamo and Jean-Bernard Ouedraogo (Eds), Translation Revisited: Contesting the Sense of African Social Realities, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) pp.521-530.
- Ekotto, F. and Mélissa Gélinas. 2016.The First Issue of Obieg Quarterly: http://obieg.u-jazdowski.pl/en/dakar
- Ekotto, F. 2016 “Framing Homosexual Identities in Cameroonian Literature” in Tydskrif vir LetterKunde 53 (1) pp. 128-140.
- Ekotto, F. (Forthcoming)“Chaque fois un nouveau souffle” in Etudier l’exil (Accepted for publication in France. Collection of Essays)
- Ekotto, F. 2016 “Papy Ekengue: Une poésie de l’ordinaire-poésie une nouvelle expression de l’Afrique” in Créer en Postcolonie: 2010-2015 Voix et dissidences Belgo-Congolaises. Sous la direction de Sarah Demart et Gia Abrassart. Bozar Books, Africalia. Belgium. Pp.191-198.
- Ekotto, F. March 2016. “Une poétique de la mémoire: Lire Matière grise, le film du réalisateur rwandais Kivu Ruhorahoza (2011) in Présence Africaine, no 85.
- Ekotto, F. 2015. “Body Talk and Thoughts on Power” in Body Talk, Edited by Koyo Kuoh for The Exhibition in WIELS, Brussel, Belgium.
- Ekotto, F. 2014. Introduction to Venus of Khala-Kanti, a novel by Angèle Kingué in The Griot Project Book Series. Lewisburg : Buknell University Press.
- Ekotto, F. 2014. Dictionary Entries : Lydie Dattas, Angela Davis et Réception de Jean Genet aux USA in Dictionnaire de Jean Genet (Sous la direction de Marie-Claude Hubert) Paris : Honoré Champion.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Interview by Betti Ellison in the African Women in Cinema Blog: Frieda Ekotto. For Endogenous Critique of Representation of African Lesbian in Visual Culture and Literature. (https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/11/frieda-ekotto-for-endogenous-critique.html)
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Kivu Ruhorahoza. Grey Matter. Film Review Essay in African Studies Review/Volume 56/Issue 02/pp. 231-234.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Dictionary Entries : Ama Ata Aidoo ; Nathalie Etoke ; Bessie Head ; Flora Nwapa ; Monique Ilboudo in Dictionnaire Universel des Créatrices. Paris : Editions des Femmes.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. Two Documentary Films.” Film Review Essay in African Studies Review /Volume 56/Issue 01/pp.221-223.
- Ekotto, F. 2013. "The Meaning of Perception”: Review of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude by Souleymane Bachir Diagne in Cultural Critique #85 pp.197-200.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Against Representation: Countless Hours for a Professor” in PMLA Special Topic Work, (Vol.127 Number 4) pp.968-972.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Articulating Difference : When I Was Ethnic : A Tribute to Lawrence Schehr” in Contemporary French Civilization (Vol. 37.nos 2-3) pp.151-157.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “France-Afrique : une chanson triste” in Jeune Afrique. April. Paris : France.
- Ekotto, F. 2012. “Breema Clarke, Sharon Bridgforth, Shirlene Holmes, Lynn Nottage, Kia Corthron, Adrienne kennedy, Pearl Cleage, Anna Deavere Smith, Sonia Sanchez, Glenda Dickerson et Lorraine Hansberry” in Dictionnaire universel du théâtre femmes noires. Paris: Editions des Femmes.
