Dr. Izuu Nwankwọ is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies. He has taught theatre, drama, and performance studies at universities in Gombe and Igbariam, Nigeria. As a theatre scholar, teacher, playwright, and essayist, Dr. Nwankwọ's research interests focus on African and African diaspora theatre, performances, and popular culture. Some of his works explore taboo, self-censorship, and the limits of humor in African (diaspora) stand-up and online humor acts. Others bother on performance traditions of African and African diasporas both online and on stage.

He was a research fellow at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies (IFEAS), Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, where he explored the global dissemination of African popular arts through social media under the CEDITRAA project. He is a Georg Foerster Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, and an Iso Lomso Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS), South Africa. He is also a double recipient of the American Council for Learned Societies’ African Humanities Program (AHP) fellowships for dissertation-completion and post-doctoral research.

Dr. Nwankwọ received the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency at the Bellagio Center, Italy in 2017. He is also a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and the Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Etudes Postcoloniales (CEREP) at the University of Liège, Belgium.

He has an extensive publication record, including notable works such as:

·       "Yabbing and Wording: The Artistry of Nigerian Stand-up Comedy" (NISC Press, 2021)

·       "Stand-up Comedy in Africa: Humour in Popular Languages and Media" (ibidem-Verlag, 2022)

·       "Humour and Politics in Africa: Beyond Resistance"(Bristol University Press, 2023), co-authored with Daniel Hammett and Laura S. Martin

His research articles have been published in various esteemed journals, including the Journal of African Cultural Studies, European Journal of Humour Research, and Journal of African Cultural Studies. Some of his recent articles include:

·       "Incongruous liaisons: Routes of humour, insult and political (in)correctness in Nigerian stand-up jokes"(2019)

·       "Self-censorship and shifting cognitions of offence in the stand-up acts of Basket Mouth and Trevor Noah"(2022)

·       "Dismantling Colonial Laughter: Tracing Emergent African Diaspora Stand-Up Comedy in French and German" (2024)