Frieda Ekotto

Dr. Frieda Ekotto is the Chair of DAAS and has been a Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies  and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan since 1994. She holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Ford Foundation seed grant for research and collaborative work with institutions of higher learning in Africa. She is the author of six books and numerous articles in professional journals. She has lectured throughout the United States and in Australia, Algeria, Cameroon, Cuba, Canada, England, France, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria Tunisia South Africa, and Singapore, among other countries.

Dr. Ekotto has developed and taught a wide range of innovative courses on literature and law in France; literature and film in Africa, the Caribbean and Maghreb; postcolonial narratives by Francophone women and minorities; and representations of family and friendship in Francophone film and literature. Her curricular contributions have been critical to the emergence and consolidation of Francophone studies at the University of Michigan and to the teaching of race and ethnicity in the context of French-speaking cultures. Professor Ekotto is highly regarded by students and colleagues who praise her intellectual generosity and her success in motivating students to think critically.

Select Publications:

•  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.
• Ekotto, F.2012, « Cinéates femmes d'Afrique, créatrices d'images poétique aux pluriels » in Loin des yeux près du corps : entre théorie et création.Galérie de l'UQAM : Editions du remue-ménage. Montréal : Canada. pp.111-116.
• Ekotto, F. 2012, « Jean Genet, penseur de la Négritude » in Jean Genet: Lectures en héritage. Méthode : Vallongues, France. pp.133-138.
• Nouvelles francophones. Ed. Frieda Ekotto and Benedicte Boisseron. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2011.
• Race and Sex across the French Atlantic: The Color of Black in Literary, Philosophical, and Theater Discourse  Massachusetts: Lexington Press, 2011.
• Rethinking Third Cinema: The Role of Anti-colonial Media and Aesthetics in Postmodernity. Ed. Frieda Ekotto and Adeline Koh. Germany: LIT Berlin, 2009.
• Toutes les images du langage: Jean Genet, Presse de l'Université de Paris.  Della Ricerca, Transatlantique 9. Sorbone/Biblioteca, 2008. Ed. Frieda Ekotto, Aurélie Renaud  and Agnès Vannouvong.
• “Calixthe Beyala ou la réécriture de la littérature coloniale Française.” Paris : Présence Francophone, No. 75 (2010) pp.120-135.
• « Cousin Kalati’s Tale » Short Story in The Africa Report’s Last Word. Bimonthly. No 18 (September-October 2009).
• “ Femmes cinéastes d’Afrique et des Caraïbes : le dur désir de créer dans un monde effarant” in Revue Cultures Sud (Février 2009).
• “La Mondialisation, l’immigration et le cinéma  africain d’expression française : Pour un devenir moderne,” in Nouvelles Études Francophones. Volume 24.1 (Printemps 2009).
• Ama Ata Aidoo, Bessie Head, Flora Nwapa, Monique Ilboudo, Nathalie Etoke in  Dictionnaire Universel des Femmes Créatrices. Paris: Editions des Femmes, 2009.
• “Perversion du discours juridique chez Jean Genet,” in Ralph Heyndels et Ghazi Karmaoui, Politique et poétique du désir : Jean Genet, Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris Sorbonne / Fasano: Schena Editore, Series: Transatlantique 10 (2010).
• “Lettre à Jean Genet” in Toutes les images du langage : Jean Genet. Sous la direction de Frieda Ekotto, Aurélie Renaud, Agnès Vannaouvong, Presse de l’Université de Paris Sorbone/Biblioteca Della Ricerca, Transatlantique 9 (2009).
• “Singulier donc solitaire” in Nimrod. Autre Sud.  (Cahiers trimestriels, Mars 2009, No. 40.) pp 39-42.
• “The Erotic Tale of Karmen Gei: The Taboo of Female Homosexuality in  Senegal” in Sex and The Spirit, Edited by Robin G. Vander and Keith Mitchell (New Orleans: Xavier University of Louisiana, 2007), pp.74-80.
•  Ekotto, F. and Koh, A. “Frantz Fanon in Malaysia: Reconfiguring the Ideological Landscape of Négriture in Sepet.” in Land and Landscape in Francophone Literature: Remapping Uncertain Territories. Ed. Magali Compan and Katarzyna Pieprzak (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), pp. 121-141.
• “Our Ancestors the Gauls: Gide, Genet and Rimbaud in Africa” in Les Afriques de Rimbaud, textes édités par David Ellison et Ralph Heyndel  (Biblioteca Della Ricerca, 2006) pp. 99-111.
• 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 Delvaux, M., 1998, Special issue of L'Esprit Créateur on the topic of "Narrative and Confinement."

Affiliation(s)

• Comparative Literature
  Center for Afroamerican and African Studies