Hello, I am a Nigerian researcher, writer and artist.
My work has been screened, exhibited and published widely on platforms such as Le Temps (Switzerland), The Brooklyn Rail (USA), The Guardian (UK) and Jameel Arts Centre (UAE).
I was a 2021 journalism fellow with African Arguments, a 2021 artist grantee with the Black Art Joy project (UK), a 2022 writer-in-residence at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (Ghana), an architecture research fellow on the 2022 DOCOMOMO Shared Heritage Africa project, and a 2023 participant of the New York Portfolio Review. I have an academic background in history, literature and cultural theory and degrees from Queen Mary University of London and University of Oxford.
I am passionate about the value and power of research, humanities education and cultural institutions. To this end, I am building Studio Styles: a research, curatorial and creative studio enabling deeper connections to our selves, histories, communities and environments. I earn my living as a freelance writer and multi-media artist creating research-driven stories and insights.
I am available for editorial, documentary and research commissions anywhere.
self-portrait August 2023
Subscribe to my Making a Living newsletter for biannual work updates.
Recent highlight:
My 2022 short film 'You Matter to Me', made under an artist fellowship with the Creating Black Joy project, has been screened at the BFI London for Film Africa festival (UK), the Enugu International Film Festival (Nigeria), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(USA), Jameel Arts Centre (UAE), and the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (Ghana), the the 27th Internationale Kurzfilmtage film festival (Switzerland) and more.
Forthcoming: Lagos.
Grants & Recognitions:
2023 Wasafiri life writing prize longlist (for essay on aftermath of 2005 Sosoliso plane crash)
2023 Best of 2022 Economics Writing, The Republic Journal (for essay on Africapitalism)
2021 Creatives Bootcamp grant, Abuja Literary Festival (for Studio Styles)
2021 Artist grant, under the ‘Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives’ project (to make You Matter to me)
Conference Presentations:
Workshops facilitated:
Academic Publications:
Photo Publications not on this website:
2022 Education of the Tumblr Girl-now-Artist (self-portraits, digital collage), HAPAX Issue 3
2022 Black Women Photographers on International Women’s Day, The Guardian (print)
2019 In The Hands of God We Rendezvous, Saraba Mag
2017 Way of Seeing, Saraba Mag
Group Exhibitions:
2022 Cosmos of Space, of Place and Time (Nlele Institute), Recontres de Bamako
2021 The Wrong Biennale (curated by olakiitan adeola, ftbc)
2018 Off the Track festival, Battersea Arts Centre
2018 QM Visual Arts Collective show, Hundred Years Gallery
Fellowships, Mentorships & Reviews:
2023 New York Portfolio Review
2023 The Nlele Institute, Professional Development Workshop
2022-2023 Shared Heritage Africa architecture fellowship of African modernism
2022-2023 SBMEN and Goethe-Institut Nigeria Art Writing and Criticism Workshop
2022 Writer-in-Residence at Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, Ghana
2022 Lagos Photo Festival x Reuters Portfolio Review (best portfolio prize)
2021 African Arguments Pilot Journalism Fellowship
2021 Tampered Press Workshop with Lesley Nneka Arimah and Mamle Kabu
2021 The Nlele Institute Portfolio Review
2021 Introduction to Photographic Histories, The Photographers’ Gallery
2020 SBMEN Creative Writing Workshop
2020 For Creative Girls, Business Development mentorship with Hallie Haller
2018 Arvon Foundation writers retreat with Malika Booker and Polar Bear
2018 Photo Scratch
2017 Apples and Snakes Writing Room with Roger Robinson
2017 Writivism Emerging Writers program
2017 Digital Photography Summer school, University of the Arts London
2016 Youth Editorial Program at the Royal African Society’s Africa Writes
Previous Editorial Jobs:
2022 Senior Editor at Tech Cabal (Africa’s leading technology publication)
2021 - 2022 Contributing writer for AMAKA Studio (where I wrote about African women in the business of agriculture, art, tech & more)
2021 Inaugural freelance journalism fellow at African Arguments
Academic background:
BA History and Comparative Literature, QM University of London
MSt Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford
Proud member of:
Indigenous Photograph collective
Black Women Photographers
African Photo-Journalism Database, World Press Photo
Here’s a 2023 Q&A.
2023 Wasafiri life writing prize longlist (for essay on aftermath of 2005 Sosoliso plane crash)
2023 Best of 2022 Economics Writing, The Republic Journal (for essay on Africapitalism)
2021 Creatives Bootcamp grant, Abuja Literary Festival (for Studio Styles)
2021 Artist grant, under the ‘Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives’ project (to make You Matter to me)
Conference Presentations:
- Aug 2021 ‘Politics of control and consumption of colonial commodities: guns and alcohol in Southern Nigeria (1890- 1945),’ paper presented at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR London) Graduate Conference
-
Jan 2019 ‘Economic nationalism and masculinities in late colonial Nigeria,’ the only paper presented by an undergrad at Africa and World War II conference (funded by the British Academy), Queen Mary University of London
Workshops facilitated:
- Nov 2021 Oral History training session Nigerian Railway Heritage Project, run by Nigerian Railways Corporation/University of Oxford/Legacy 1995. (press)
- Dec 2021 Doing Oral History at Home, for Crater Literary Festival, Enugu.
Academic Publications:
- Abba, I. (2022). Conflicting Temporalities in the Struggle for Independence in Late-Colonial Nigeria (1945-1960). KUJUA: Journal of the African Studies Students' Association 2022, 2(1), 8-28.
Photo Publications not on this website:
2022 Education of the Tumblr Girl-now-Artist (self-portraits, digital collage), HAPAX Issue 3
2022 Black Women Photographers on International Women’s Day, The Guardian (print)
2019 In The Hands of God We Rendezvous, Saraba Mag
2017 Way of Seeing, Saraba Mag
Group Exhibitions:
2022 Cosmos of Space, of Place and Time (Nlele Institute), Recontres de Bamako
2021 The Wrong Biennale (curated by olakiitan adeola, ftbc)
2018 Off the Track festival, Battersea Arts Centre
2018 QM Visual Arts Collective show, Hundred Years Gallery
Fellowships, Mentorships & Reviews:
2023 New York Portfolio Review
2023 The Nlele Institute, Professional Development Workshop
2022-2023 Shared Heritage Africa architecture fellowship of African modernism
2022-2023 SBMEN and Goethe-Institut Nigeria Art Writing and Criticism Workshop
2022 Writer-in-Residence at Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, Ghana
2022 Lagos Photo Festival x Reuters Portfolio Review (best portfolio prize)
2021 African Arguments Pilot Journalism Fellowship
2021 Tampered Press Workshop with Lesley Nneka Arimah and Mamle Kabu
2021 The Nlele Institute Portfolio Review
2021 Introduction to Photographic Histories, The Photographers’ Gallery
2020 SBMEN Creative Writing Workshop
2020 For Creative Girls, Business Development mentorship with Hallie Haller
2018 Arvon Foundation writers retreat with Malika Booker and Polar Bear
2018 Photo Scratch
2017 Apples and Snakes Writing Room with Roger Robinson
2017 Writivism Emerging Writers program
2017 Digital Photography Summer school, University of the Arts London
2016 Youth Editorial Program at the Royal African Society’s Africa Writes
Previous Editorial Jobs:
2022 Senior Editor at Tech Cabal (Africa’s leading technology publication)
2021 - 2022 Contributing writer for AMAKA Studio (where I wrote about African women in the business of agriculture, art, tech & more)
2021 Inaugural freelance journalism fellow at African Arguments
Academic background:
BA History and Comparative Literature, QM University of London
-
history dissertation on value and anti-colonial resistance in the use of firearms and liquor in southern Nigeria 1890-1969
-
literature dissertation on writing tyranny on the body in Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’ and Uzoma’s ‘Quasi School of Taught’
MSt Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford
- dissertation on the economic lives and thought of Kumasi market women 1970-1995
- long essay on time, temporality and anti-colonial movements in Nigeria 1900-1945
Proud member of:
Indigenous Photograph collective
Black Women Photographers
African Photo-Journalism Database, World Press Photo
Here’s a 2023 Q&A.
I wrote about the photograph for The Brooklyn Rail here.
Copyright - Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2023)