On May 21^st Comparative Literature candidate Martha Ndakalako successfully defended her dissertation, “Borders of the Global Anglophone: Locality, Language and Feminist Futures in Namibian Literature.” Directed by Prof. Michael Allan, Martha’s study treats Namibia and Southern Africa as paradigmatic sites for the consideration of women’s writing and literary publics.

She is the author of “’All This Drama’: Intervening Narratives and Precarious Performances in the Namibian Online Fictional Diary The Dream of a Kwanyama Girl.” The essay appears in the volume African Women and Their Networks of Support, which she co-edited with Elene Cloete and Mariah C. Stember. Her other publications include “Changing Dresses: Owambo Traditional Dress and Discourses on Tradition, Ethnicity and National Identity in Namibia” (Journal of Folklore Research 57) and Digital Diaries, Dreams and Drama: Southern African New Media Literatures and The Dream of a Kwanyama Girl” (Postcolonial Text, Digital Africas).

In fall of 2021 Ndakalako-Bannikov will assume the position of assistant professor of English and African Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College.