People

Lightness Kokwijuka Herman

All People

  • Role in Center:

    Co-pilot at Core Partner Institution

  • Discipline:

    Literary and Cultural Studies

  • University:

    University of Dar es Salaam

  • Country:

    Tanzania

Dr. Lightness K. Herman is a lecturer and researcher focusing on urban dynamics through literary and cultural discourses at the University of Dar es Salaam. Her doctoral research examined how neoliberal migratory movements reconfigure postcolonial African urban spaces, reshaping their social, spatial, and cultural dynamics while fostering new forms of urban agency and imagination among marginalized communities. She currently serves as an Assistant Researcher with the SMUS II Science Communication Project, funded by Technische Universität Berlin, focusing on “Solid Waste Management as a Wicked Urban Problem in Urban Tanzania”. Dr. Herman is also developing a new research project on the ecological impacts of informal urbanization and survival economies in rapidly growing African cities. In October–November 2025, she participated in a two weeks training program on sustainable urban development at the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI) in Hyderabad, India.

Selected Publications:

  • “Neoliberal Migrants and ‘Bongoland’ in Elieshi Lema’s In the Belly of Dar es Salaam”: UMMA: The Journal of the Contemporary Literature and Creative Arts, Vol.11 No. 1(2024), pp. 126-151. https://dx.doi.org/10.56279/ummaj.v11i1.6

  • “Imagining the Postcolonial African City: Neoliberal Migrants and Urban reconfiguration in Selected African Fiction”, PhD Thesis, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2025

  • “Politics of Informality and Anti-Urban Discourse in Postcolonial Nairobi in Meja Mwangi’s Going Down River Road”, (Forthcoming, 2025)

Areas of Expertise:

  • Postcolonial Urban Dynamics
  • Rural-Urban Migration
  • Urban governance
  • Cultural Studies
  • African Studies

Current Position(s):

  • Lecturer in urban dynamics from literary and cultural discourses
  • Assistant Researcher with the SMUS II Science Communication Project

Past Position(s)

  • PhD Fellow at University of Dar es Salaam
  • Assistant Lecturer at University of Dar es Salaam

Prizes & Awards:

  • Recipient of a scholarship grant for PhD studies at the University of Dar es Salaam.
  • Recipient of a SIDA-SAREC scholarship grant for Master’s Degree at the University of Dar es Salaam