Rate My Professor Nkiru Nzegwu

Nkiru Nzegwu is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she has been a faculty member contributing to Arts and Culture scholarship since 1990. She holds a PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics) from the University of Ottawa (1989), an MA, and a BA (Honors) from the University of Ife. Nzegwu initially joined Binghamton in the Departments of Philosophy and Art History, transitioning to Africana Studies in 1998. She served as chair of Africana Studies from 2003-2006 and 2007-2010 and as Professor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies from 2011-2019. Her international appointments include Professor Extraordinarius in the School of Transdisciplinary Research and Graduate Studies at the University of South Africa and Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa. Prestigious honors encompass the Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship (1989), Senior Research Grant from The Getty (1993-1994), Society for the Humanities Fellowship at Cornell University (1992-1993), and Senior Humanities Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles (1997-1998). She has also been elected to the SUNY Distinguished Academy Board and served on the 2020-2021 University-wide Advisory Council on Distinguished Professorships.

Nzegwu's academic interests center on feminist philosophy, African philosophy, African women studies, and African and African Diaspora art and aesthetics. Her teaching portfolio includes courses such as Artificial Intelligence and Racism, Race, Philosophy & the Law, African Intellectual Traditions, African Art and Aesthetics, and African Women and Feminism. Major publications include the monograph Family Matters: Feminist Concepts in African Philosophy of Culture (SUNY Press, 2006), co-edited The New African Diaspora (Indiana University Press, 2009), and edited volumes Onitsha at the Millennium: Legacy, History and Transformation (Africa Resource Press, 2013) and His Majesty Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe: A Ten-Year Milestone (Africa Resource Press, 2013). Peer-reviewed articles feature “De-Racing Aesthetics: African Art in Deep Time” (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2019) and “‘When the Paradigm Shifts, Africa Appears:’ Reconceptualizing Yoruba Art in Space and Time” (Journal of Art Historiography, 2018). As founder of the Africa Resource Project (1999) and Africa Knowledge Project (2010), she has advanced global access to peer-reviewed journals and archives on Africa. Nzegwu has curated 11 exhibitions and produced seven exhibition catalogs, amplifying her impact in the field.