Dr Mitterand Okorie (BA, EMU; MA, Aber; PhD, UKZN)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

My research focuses on the examination of democratization challenges in Africa, delving into the continent’s political aspirations and imaginaries. I explore how the failure of political institutions occasions the fragility of democracy, with a particular focus on South Africa and Nigeria. 
I joined Nelson Mandela University’s Centre for Philosophy in Africa in January 2024, and I am currently interrogating the merits of neo-welfarism as an ideal framework for organizing politics in Africa.  I studied International Relations at Eastern Mediterranean University (first class), Terrorism and International Relations at Aberystwyth University, and hold a PhD in Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. I won the African Studies Centre postdoc award at Rhodes University in 2022 and was an academic visitor at the University of Oxford in 2023. I also have teaching experience in Peace and Conflict Studies from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (2015-2018). Prior to joining Nelson Mandela University, I worked in the international development sector as a research and communications consultant, primarily in West and East Africa.

 

Selected Publications in Journals and Edited Books

  • 2023. Child Trafficking in Africa: Reimagining the Problem, Genealogy 7:64; 1 – 14 (co-authored)
  • 2023. Corruption. Routledge Handbook of African Political Philosophy. London: Routledge
  • 2023. Book Review: Deliberative Agency: A Study in Modern African Political Philosophy, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, pp.1-2
  • 2022. Populism in the ANC. Nationalism and Populism: Expressions of Fear or Political Strategies. De Guytner: Oldenburg.
  • 2021. Boko Haram, Counterinsurgency and Media-Oriented Terrorism. Boko Haram’s Terrorist Campaign in Nigeria: Contexts, Dimensions and Emerging Trajectories. London: Routledge
  • 2021. Like Kwazulu-Natal, Like Rivers State: The Implications of Prebendalism on Electoral Contest. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences 11:1; 41-72
  • 2018. Presidential Amnesty and Resource Militancy in a Petro-state, The Unfinished Revolution in the Niger Delta. London: Routledge.
  • 2016. Language and Class Resistance in Nigeria: A Foucauldian Perspective, Journal of Pan African Studies (JPAS), 9:6; 4-15 (co-authored).