Françoise Ugochukwu

Habilitée à diriger des recherches and a Chartered linguist, I lectured in Higher Education in Nigeria, France and the UK for more than forty years. An Africanist and a Research Fellow at the Open University (UK) with special interest in Nigerian (Igbo), Nollywood and Intercultural Studies, I authored the first Igbo-French dictionary (a Franco-Nigerian joint venture), several books on oral and written literature and more than hundred book chapters and articles in journals worldwide. My qualifications, professional career path and area of expertise have placed me at the crossroads between language Studies, literature, translation, anthropology and cinema, as evidenced by my publications, PhD supervision and external examinerships. I have active links with several research groups - in particular, I have been contributing to the Paris CNRS-LLACAN team research and publications 1993-2017. In 2006, I started exploring the Nigerian Nollywood films, published two books on these in 2013 and 2022, while publishing on the linguistic and cultural impact of these films in Europe, I have also contributed chapters (in French and in English) to several books on the African cinema. A member of several Learned Societies, I am a Senior Fellow, IFRA (Nigeria), and a Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy. My pioneering work in the field and her longstanding contribution to the strengthening of cultural and educational ties between France and Nigeria awarded her the national distinction of Chevalier des Palmes Académiques in 1994.