Dr. Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire

Assistant Professor

Dr. Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire, PhD (he/him/his) is a transdisciplinary scholar, cultural and literary critic, trained attorney, creative writer, cultural organizer, and first-generation college graduate. Bwesigye is an Assistant Professor of Global Africana Literatures and Cultures at the 荔枝视频, Dominguez Hills and the co-founder and Director of the Center for African Cultural Excellence. Bwesigye鈥檚 scholarship pays attention to the imagination of freedom as a practice of abolition on the African continent and in the diaspora. Broadly, Bwesigye works through and with 20th & 21st Century Literatures, African (Indigenous) Studies, African (Diaspora) Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Critical Race Theory, Law and Literature, Digital Humanities, Political Economy, Literary Cultures, Literary Activism, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, Creative Writing, Afro-Feminism, Black Studies, and Afrikology, among others.听

Bwesigye cultivated these interests while earning his LL.B. from Makerere University, Kampala, MSc in Security Studies from King's College, London and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language and Literatures from Cornell University as well as teaching at Makerere University, Uganda Christian University, Uganda Martyrs University, Cornell University and Emory University. Bwesigye views practice and lived experience as forms of knowledge generation and created and runs the Writivism Literary Initiative, the Ubuntu Reading Group, the Arts Managers and Literary Activists (AMLA) Network, Nyanja Football Club, among other projects and initiatives. Additionally, Bwesigye is a member of the Pan-African Activist Solidarity Collective (PAASC) which curates the Pan-African Activist Sunday School (PASS) series of popular political education livestreams on contemporary political issues in Africa and her diaspora. Bwesigye facilitates the O帽gwaga鈥⒚�' Native Writers Workshop in collaboration with the Berkeley Center for Cultural Humility.

Bwesigye鈥檚 academic research, creative and public writing appears in the听Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies听箩辞耻谤苍补濒,听Research in African Literatures,听Journal of the African Literature Association,听The Journal of Leadership and Developing Societies, the听AFLA Quarterly, Africa is a Country, Review of African Political Economy, This is Africa, African Arguments, Chimurenga Chronic, The Johannesburg Review of Books, Africa in Words, among others. Bwesigye has edited anthologies of creative writing, and photography and at least one special issue of an academic journal. Bwesigye has been awarded the 荔枝视频 Instructionally Related 听Activities (IRA) for 2025-2026, earned the Cornell University NextGen Professors program fellowship (2022-2023), Cornell University Library Summer Digital Humanities Fellowship (2018), the African Leadership Centre Fellowship for African Scholars (2015 - 2017), and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Young African Scholars Award (2015), among others.听

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Courses Taught at DH听

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Ongoing Research Work听

Beyond African Literary Activism: Diaspora, Digital, Embodied, Sound and Visual Dimensions听brings together early career African scholars who work in literary and cultural studies to expand the concept of literary activism as the establishment of independent publishing and cultural production infrastructure beyond the text, and the continent, to include the analysis of music and fine art as a tool for political advocacy, the establishment of a free African cinema culture, the erotic dimensions of book fairs, on the backdrop of the diaspora and digital turn in literary activism.听

The Diaspora and Digital Turn of the Next Generation in African Literary Activism听historicizes the post-2012 generation of curators of online African literary platforms by connecting their work to mid-twentieth century Black British / Afro-Caribbean and African American literary movements to develop a political economy of twenty first century African diaspora literary activism.听

Afro-Nationalism: The Transcontinental Poetics of Newly Black Fiction听focuses on the ways in which United Kingdom and the United States of America women-authored immigrant African short stories and novels published after 2000 contribute to a Black Radical Tradition, through a practice of African indigenous nationalism and African diaspora abolition nationalism.

Legal Storytelling听critically engages creative work (poetry, music, drama, fiction, memoir and film) that relate to court processes and themes concerning the law, besides the literary writing by trained attorneys of African descent. Using the Critical Race Theory perspective of counter-storytelling, the project frames this body of creative work as a form of legal practice.听听

Writivism in the Classroom听explores the ways in which the incorporation of creative writing as a pedagogical tool enables the building of community among students, empowers students to reflect on their lived experience, creates a forum for play and thus engenders a practice of freedom.听听

Ugandan Digital Activism听explores the ways in which particular social media platforms namely, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok have been used to organize against military dictatorship in Uganda between 2008 to date.听

Ugandan Prison Writing听brings together poetry and memoirs by formerly incarcerated (or otherwise detained, including "quarantine-isolation") politically active Ugandans, to create a body of abolitionist writing.听听

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Select Forthcoming Articles and Book chapters

"Maya Angelou鈥檚 Worldmaking in Egypt and Ghana (1961-1965)"

"Between African and Black: Literary Activism Beyond听Transition听Magazine鈥檚 Middle Passage"

"The Happening of Manchester: The Intimacies of Class, Gender, Nationalism, Race, and Indigeneity"

"An Afro-Nationalist History of Ghanaian Women Writing: From the Colonial Beyond the Neoliberal"

"Writing Songs for Nawal El-Saadawi: Education as a Practice of Community Building"

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Select Recent Publications (2016 -)

鈥淛immy Spire Ssentongo鈥檚 Malaki Shoes鈥�, Afterword to the second edition of听Quarantined: My Ordeal in Uganda鈥檚 Covid-19 Isolation Centers听by Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, Makerere University Press, Kampala (2024).听
With Ainomugisha M. 鈥�#WeAreRemovingADictator: The 2021 Uganda Election Crisis and the Possibilities and Limits of Youth, Diaspora and Digital Activism鈥�, in听Handbook on Youth Activism,听edited by Jerusha Conner, (2024) Edward Elgar Publishing.
Book Review:听Singing the Law: Oral Jurisprudence and the Crisis of Colonial Modernity in East African Literature听by Peter Leman,听Journal of the African Literature Association,听(2023) Vol 17, No. 1, pp. 229 - 231.
鈥淲hat is Literary Activism? (Or Who keeps the housekeepers鈥� house?)鈥�,听Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, (2021) Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, pp. 10 - 22.
With Madhu Krishnan 鈥淐reative Writing as Literary Activism: Decolonial Perspectives on the Writing Workshop鈥�,听Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, (2020) Vol. 7, Nos. 1-2, pp. 97 - 115.
Book Review Forum:听Written Under the Skin: Blood and Intergenerational Memory in South Africa听by Carli Coetzee, 鈥淭he Bloods of Literary Activists鈥�,听Journal of the African Literature Association,听(2020) Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 146 - 148.
With E.M Mirembe 鈥淚ntroduction鈥�, in听No Roses from my Mouth: Poems from Prison, Ubuntu Reading Group, Kampala, (2020) pp. vii - xiii.
鈥淏eyond the Afropolitan Postnation: The Contemporaneity of Jennifer Makumbi's听Kintu鈥�,听Research in African Literatures, (2018) Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 103 鈥� 116.
With Madhu Krishnan (2018) 鈥淚ntroduction鈥�, in听Odokonyero: A Writivism Anthology of Short Fiction by Emerging Ugandan Writers, Black Letter Media, Yeoville, p. ix.
"Righting land wrongs with the pen: The leadership of Ngugi wa Thiong鈥檕 and Ken Saro Wiwa",听The Journal of Leadership and Developing Societies, (2016) Vol 1, No. 1, pp. 29 - 57.

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Select Recent Popular Writing (2017 -)

Faith in native consciousness,鈥澨�Africa is a Country, February 22, 2023.
鈥淲hat is the role of radical intellectuals in Uganda?鈥澨�Review of African Political Economy Online blog, February 13, 2023.
With Kuukuwa Manful, 鈥淎 poem about the president gets you jailed in Uganda,鈥澨�Africa is a Country, June 16, 2019.
鈥淲hy, exactly, are Ugandans so proud of Daniel Kaluuya鈥檚 Oscar nomination?鈥澨�Quartz, February 6, 2018.
鈥淲hat happened to Ngugi wa Thiong鈥檕鈥檚 Makerere University?鈥澨�This is Africa, March 17, 2017.
鈥淭he Strong Breed: The Rise and Fall of Africa鈥檚 great literary leaders,鈥澨�African Arguments,听February 13, 2017.

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Select Recent Presentations (2022 -)

2025: "Mapping Writivism's Digital and Diaspora Turn," African Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 22, 2025.

2025: "The Community of the Hashtag: The #FreeStellaNyanzi Experience," African Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia,听November 21, 2025.听

2025:听"The Political Economy of Literary Activism: Pandemic-era African Immigrant Digital Magazines鈥� Practice of the Black Radical Tradition," Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present Annual Conference (ASAP/16), Rice University, Houston, Texas, October 25, 2025.

2025: "Maya Angelou's Worldmaking in Egypt and Ghana 1961-1965", The Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia - September 24, 2025.听

2025: "Through Maya Angelou's Eyes: From Black Internationalism to African and American Nationalisms," the 荔枝视频 Dominguez Hills (荔枝视频) Research Symposium, March 6, 2025.听

2024: 鈥淜intu鈥檚 Self-Determination: Indigenous African Nationalism in Newly Black Fiction,鈥� Carter G. Woodson Institute (CGWI) African Studies Colloquium, University of Virginia - November 13, 2024.

2024: Roundtable by African Poetry Book Fund 鈥� February 22, 2024.

2023: Roundtable 鈥� 鈥淢ovement as Method: Bridging Scholarship and Activism,鈥� African Studies Association annual conference, November 30 鈥� December 1, 2023.
2023: 鈥淭he Practice of Indigenous African Nationalism in the Diaspora,鈥� Cornell English Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) Annual Conference, Cornell University, April 27, 2023.
2022: 鈥淎frican Indigenous Nationalism: From Serumaga鈥檚听Amayirikiti听to Makumbi鈥檚听Kintu,鈥� Institute of African Studies Fall Seminar, Emory University, September 29, 2022.
2022: 鈥淭he Blackness of Immigrant African literary initiatives based in the US and UK,鈥� African Literature Association Annual Conference, May 18-21, 2022.
2022: 鈥淣assolo and Nabulya,鈥� Symposium on "Words Walking Without Masters": Conversations on the Creative-Theoretical at Cornell University April 21鈥�22, 2022.
2022: 鈥淎 History of Ghanaian Literary Cosmopolitanism: From the Colonial beyond the Neoliberal,鈥� 4th Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) co-hosted by HUMA 鈥� Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, April 11鈥�16, 2022.
2022: 鈥淧an - Africanism, Black Britishness and the Transcontinental Poetics of听Manchester Happened,鈥� Histories of Race Workshop, the University of Cambridge, February 23, 2022.