Work done outside of Studio Styles
Recognitions & Grants:
2023 Abebi Afro-Nonfiction Award (for The Fire in My Memory)
2023 Rising Star Award, S16 Film Festival (for You Matter to Me)
2023 Wasafiri life writing prize longlist (for The Fire in My Memory)
2023 Best of 2022 Economics Writing, The Republic Journal (for essay on Africapitalism)
2021 Artist grant, under the ‘Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives’ project (to make You Matter to me)
Previous Editorial Jobs:
2024 Project consultant for Archives of the Nigerian Left (nigerianradicalism.net) (3 months)
2021–2023 Freelance journalist
2022 Senior Editor at Tech Cabal (3 months)
2021–2022 Contributing writer at AMAKA Studio (on African women’s contributions in agriculture, art, tech & more)
2021–2022 Inaugural journalism fellow at African Arguments
Fellowships, Workshops & Residencies:
2024 Zeitz MOCAA x University of Western Cape museum fellowship (did only 2/12 months, life happens)
2023 Abebi Award Writing Residency, Lagos
2023 New York Portfolio Review
2023 The Nlele Institute, Professional Photography Development Workshop, Lagos
2022–2023 Shared Heritage Africa DOCOMOMO (African modernism) architecture research fellowship
2022–2023 SBMEN and Goethe-Institut Nigeria Art Writing and Criticism Workshop
2022 Writer-in-Residence at Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, Accra
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 (portfolio review/exhibition)
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
Selected Photo Publications:
2022 Education of the Tumblr Girl-now-Artist (portrait/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
Academic background:
BA History and Comparative Literature, QM University of London
MSt Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford
Conference Presentations:
Panels:
Workshops facilitated:
Academic Publications:
2023 Abebi Afro-Nonfiction Award (for The Fire in My Memory)
2023 Rising Star Award, S16 Film Festival (for You Matter to Me)
2023 Wasafiri life writing prize longlist (for The Fire in My Memory)
2023 Best of 2022 Economics Writing, The Republic Journal (for essay on Africapitalism)
2021 Artist grant, under the ‘Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives’ project (to make You Matter to me)
Previous Editorial Jobs:
2024 Project consultant for Archives of the Nigerian Left (nigerianradicalism.net) (3 months)
2021–2023 Freelance journalist
2022 Senior Editor at Tech Cabal (3 months)
2021–2022 Contributing writer at AMAKA Studio (on African women’s contributions in agriculture, art, tech & more)
2021–2022 Inaugural journalism fellow at African Arguments
Fellowships, Workshops & Residencies:
2024 Zeitz MOCAA x University of Western Cape museum fellowship (did only 2/12 months, life happens)
2023 Abebi Award Writing Residency, Lagos
2023 New York Portfolio Review
2023 The Nlele Institute, Professional Photography Development Workshop, Lagos
2022–2023 Shared Heritage Africa DOCOMOMO (African modernism) architecture research fellowship
2022–2023 SBMEN and Goethe-Institut Nigeria Art Writing and Criticism Workshop
2022 Writer-in-Residence at Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, Accra
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 (portfolio review/exhibition)
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
Selected Photo Publications:
2022 Education of the Tumblr Girl-now-Artist (portrait/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
Academic background:
BA History and Comparative Literature, QM University of London
-
history dissertation on the consequences of The Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on colonial state priorities 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
Conference Presentations:
- Aug 2021 ‘Politics of control and consumption of colonial commodities: guns and alcohol in Southern Nigeria (1890- 1945),’ Institute of Historical Research (IHR London) Graduate Conference.
-
Jan 2019 ‘Economic nationalism and masculinities in late colonial Nigeria,’ Africa and World War II conference, Queen Mary University of London.
Panels:
- July 2024 Breaking New Ground in Igbo Language Cinema, Centre for Memories/NZUKO, Enugu.
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, 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.
*the photograph in the background was taken in 1911 by N. W. Thomas, the first ‘Government Anthropologist’ for the British Colonial Office in Igboland, close to present-day Enugu.
I wrote about the photograph for The Brooklyn Rail
here.
Unless otherwise stated, every text and image on this website was made by Immaculata Abba.
Copyright: Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2024)
Web design: Immaculata Abba/Cargo Collective
Copyright: Immaculata Abba (2017 - 2024)
Web design: Immaculata Abba/Cargo Collective