Cajetan Iheka Wins ASLE 2022 Ecocritical Book Award

Cajetan Iheka, professor of English and chair of the Council on African Studies, has won the 2022 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Ecocritical Book Award for African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics. 

"What became clear to me as I was researching for the book is Africa's centrality to media production and distribution, whether we are thinking about natural resources, such as coltan and oil, or the actual repatriation of discarded objects back to Africa," said Iheka.

The judges commented "Cajetan Iheka’s African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics foregrounds Africa’s media objects, including 'oil, uranium, coltan, and banana,' as the absent presence of contemporary media studies, waste studies, and the energy humanities. The book begins and ends with a piercing analysis of the film Black Panther and discloses the centrality of African ecomedia to the workings of global capitalism, communication technology, and popular culture. Iheka’s book stands out among a growing body of environmental media studies by drawing attention to African art, history, and Black diasporic culture in making network forms—forms, Iheka argues, that are always political and extractive. It is a remarkable book, distinguished by excellent research and writing, that offers a much-needed shift in media studies and environmental criticism."