Dr. Uchechukwu Umezurike

MA., PHD

Pronouns: He/Him

Positions

Assistant Professor

Faculty of Arts, Department of English

Contact information

uchechukwu.umezurike@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

portfolio website

Phone number

Office: 403-220-4682

Background

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy English, University of Alberta, 2021

Masters English, University of Port Harcourt, 2014

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

My research encompasses the following areas: Literature of Africa and the African Diaspora, Postcolonial and Global Literatures, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Masculinity Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Creative Writing. I write poetry, short fiction, and children's novels, and I enjoy interviewing writers. My primary research has been funded by the Faculty of Arts, University of Calgary ($12,850/2024); the Alberta Foundation for the Arts ($10,500/2023); and the Edmonton Arts Council ($5,000/2021). I am a co-applicant in four funded transdisciplinary projects, namely: the SSHRC Partnership Grant valued at $2.5M (2024-2029), a CIHR project valued at $400,000 (2025-2027) and $50,000 (2024-2025), respectively, the University of Calgary Transdisciplinary Connector Grant valued at $8,500 (2024-2025), and a collaborator in a fifth project funded by CIHR valued at $2M (2025-2030). These projects focus on literary scholarship, migration, diaspora, health, social justice, and gender, benefiting Black Canadians, Africans, children, and youth.

Projects

Desiring Home: Migration and Belonging in African Literature in Canada

“Desiring Home” My project asks: How do African writers (re)imagine home in Canada? What do these imaginings reveal about Canada? What circumstances enhance or inhibit the flourishing of African immigrants and refugees in Canada? In considering these questions, I analyze selected fiction by six African Canadian writers and track how the stories writers tell about African immigrants and refugees in Canada expand, complicate, and enrich understandings of home and belonging.

Masculinity in Nigerian Novels: Receptivity and Gender

This project examines how Nigerian novelists redefine what it means to be a man or a woman by articulating new ways of doing masculinity and challenging a culture that discriminates against its citizens based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation. Forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press in November 2025

We Survive Until We Could Live

This poetry project examines postwar masculinity, trauma, and domestic violence within the micro space of the nuclear family. Forthcoming from the University of Calgary Press in April 2026.

Awards

Wayne O. McCready Emerging Fellow, Calgary Institute for the Humanities. 2025
Best Book Award (Creative Writing), African Literature Association, USA. 2025
Finalist, Robert Krotesch Award for Poetry, Book Publishers Association of Alberta. 2024
Finalist, Nigeria Prize for Literature, Nigeria LNG Limited. 2024
Grantee, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts. 2023
Finalist, Mary Scorer Award for Best Book, Manitoba Book Awards. 2022
Finalist, Alberta Literary Awards, Alberta Literary Awards. 2022
Grantee, Edmonton Arts Council Grant, Edmonton Arts Council . 2021
Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism , Nigeria LNG Prizes. 2021
Provost’ Awards for Indigenous and Black Scholars, University of Calgary. 2021
Vanier Graduate Scholarship Award, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. 2018