UNIMA’s Scholarship Excellence: Prof. Tembo Wins Hogan Prize
If anyone ever seeks proof for University of Malawi’s claim to connect with excellence, one area that may be highlighted is the fact that the institution’s faculty comprises many award-winning academics. One of these is Professor Nick Mdika Tembo of the Department of Literary Studies, who has been selected as the eighth recipient of The Hogan Prize, awarded annually by a/b: Auto/Biography Studies for an outstanding essay published in the journal. The prize was named in honour of two of the journal’s founding editors, Rebecca and Joseph Hogan, who worked tirelessly and creatively to expand the field of auto/biography studies. This award recognizes ingenuity in scholarly research and supports critical work that advances the field of life writing. The prize includes an award of $750. This award is generously supported by Routledge Journals.
Tembo’s winning essay, “Confronting Apartheid’s Revenants: Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and/as Traumedy,” was published in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies’ special issue on Comic Lives. In her remark for nominating the essay, guest judge Prof. Kari Winter noted how Tembo’s work is richly informed by theories of trauma and life writing. “Tembo contributes powerful new insights into how humour can infuse hope into desperate situations,” she said. Prof. Winter was particularly impressed by how the author brilliantly shows how Noah survives his traumatic childhood by simultaneously leaving unspeakable things unspoken and developing exceptional fluency in multiple languages and social codes. For Winter, Tembo’s analysis reveals how Noah’s comedic “testimony of pain” unveils the quotidian horrors and intrusive revenants of apartheid while offering the possibility of healing and pleasure through the laughter he shares with his readers.
“I feel so humbled that one of the leading journals in life writing studies has decided to recognise my contribution to the field. I don’t take the award for granted,” Tembo said.
He believes that scholarship on life writing is deeply connected to trauma and memory studies—his area of specialisation—because both fields explore how personal experiences, especially those of suffering and survival, are represented, remembered, and processed over time. Life writing—whether in the form of memoirs, autobiographies, diaries, letters, or even biographical works—often serves as a space where individuals reflect on their pasts, including traumatic events, and attempt to make sense of those experiences.
Tembo’s edited collection, Trauma in the Age of Social Media: Narrative and Representation, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan this year. He is currently at work on another book tentatively titled Digital Trauma: Virality, Technology, and Mental Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.
