People

Dr. Makau Kitata

All People

  • Discipline:

    Literature

  • University:

    University of Nairobi

  • Country:

    Kenya

Dr. Makau Kitata lectures at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. His research works focus on narrative, artistic performance analysis and fieldwork primary data. He evaluates the intersection between literature and new approaches to housing, mobility, transport and infrastructure, national identity, individual and community aspirations, and ecology.
His publications include: The Challenges of Naming in the Kenyan Fictional Narratives (East African Literary and Cultural Studies Journal); Sexualizing the Dance, Objectifying the Performer: The Twerk Dance in Kenya, in (Agenda) and Re- narrating the Eastern Africa Coast through YouTube: Vitali Maembe’s Little Town Bagamoyo. (African Identities.) and Situating Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Theatre and its Afterlives, (Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics.) Together with Kenny Cupers, he is a lead researcher in the Kamirithu Afterlives Project.

Selected Publications:

    • Makau Kitata. The Challenges of Naming in the Kenyan Fictional Narratives. East African Literary and Cultural Studies Journal. Volume 6, 2020- issue 1 African Identities. 2021.
    • Makau Kitata. Sexualizing the Dance, Objectifying the Performer: The Twerk Dance in Kenya. Agenda (Empowering Women for Gender Equity) Journal. June 2020. Online.
    • Makau Kitata. Re- narrating the Eastern Africa Coast through YouTube: Vitali Maembe’s Little Town Bagamoyo. Afican Identities Journal, 2021.
    • Alfred Ong’ang’a, Henry Indangasi &Makau Kitata. Manipulation of Narrative paradigm in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wrestling with the Devil. Hybrid Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies. 2021.
    • Alfred Mugambi Ong’ang’a Henry Indangasi and Makau Kitata. Adoption of Adult Voice and the Integrity of the Child Narrator in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Dreams in a Time of War. Journal of Language, Technology & Entrepreneurship in Africa Volume 13, No.1, 2022
    • Makau Kitata &Kenny Cupers. Situating Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Decolonial Theatre: Insurgent Architecture and its Afterlives in the Postcolony. Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics. Upcoming.
    • Makau Kitata. Satire in der afrikanischen Literatur Afrika. Bulletin Nr. 189 – Die Macht der Satire. 9/2/2023.

Areas of Expertise:

  • Literature
  • Performing arts
  • Cultural studies

Current Position(s):

  • Lecturer, Department of Literature, University of Nairobi
  • Principal Investigator, Kamirithu Afterlives

Past Position(s)

  • 2004 –To date: Lecturer, Department of Literature, University of Nairobi.
  • 2020-2021: Lecturer, Eager Trans-Net collaborative Programme, The University of Nairobi, Humboldt,Karatina and Dar es Salaam Universities.
  • November- January 2022: Research Associate, Basel University, Critical Urbanisms.
  • October 2022: Visiting Researcher. Institute of Sociology, Technical University of Berlin.

Memberships & Networks:

  • International Society for Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA)
  • Eager Transnet: East African German Transdisciplinary University Network for research – based Learning on Urban – rural transformations (EAGERlearn)