Biography

Peter Tirop Simatei is a Professor of Comparative Literature. He teaches African literature, Diaspora studies, literary theory and African Cinema in the Department of Literature, Theatre & Film. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of Nairobi, M.Phil from Moi University and a PhD from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Prof. Simatei is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. He has been a German Research Council (DFG) Post-doctoral Fellow (Postcolonial Studies Program) at the University of Munich (LMU) and a fellow of the Five College African Scholars program at the University of Massachusetts, USA.
Peter Simatei works in the broad fields of Postcolonial studies, Anglophone literatures, and Diaspora studies (all of which intersect). His focus is on negotiations of diaspora, migration, and gender and popular culture. His research enjoys international standing in postcolonial literary and cultural studies with specialization in the areas of East African, African and Indian diaspora literature and popular culture. His work aims to understand the ways in which diaspora and diasporic identities work within, against, and/or around national identities. Published in reputable journals Simatei’s work makes an important intervention in theories of diaspora that sometimes all too easily discount the centrality of the nation-state to diasporic consciousness. His future emphasis will be on the visions of the future that have been generated in Africa and its diasporas.