PhD Student
Africa
Chukwudi is a PhD student and Chancellor Fellow in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining UC Berkeley, Chukwudi was a graduate student, Benjamin Franklin Fellow and a finalist at the 8th annual TED Talk at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was trained as an expert in Africana Studies. Chukwudi’s broad research interests include African history, with a particular focus on the architectural and urban history of twentieth-century Onitsha, Nigeria—the first colonial settlement area in Eastern Nigeria. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Nigeria and an MA in African Economic History from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, with distinction and as the top student in the Department of History. His doctoral research focuses on stories about housing, urban spacecraft, and architectural designs, as well as what colonial-created city spaces reveal about African social and urban life. Chukwudi pays attention to oral history and comparative intellectual history of everyday urban life in the colonial past, combining historical and anthropological methods to explore the politics and power in his study area. To further share his research with a broader audience, Chukwudi produces historical documentaries that foster visual conversations about Africa’s colonial past. Beyond colonial history, he is interested in postcolonial urban violence in Southeast Nigeria, examining themes of urbanization, migration, and settlement. Chukwudi has published in several academic journals, including African Affairs, Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, and Cities, on topics such as urbanization, migration, violence, and housing. He has received prestigious grants and fellowships, such as ASEMA, NEEDS, and the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, to support his research. Additionally, he has held teaching assistant roles at the University of Pennsylvania and faculty positions at the University of Nigeria, reflecting his dedication to education and knowledge sharing. Chukwudi is happy to speak with prospective students in African history or those interested in his research.
Research Interest
1. African history
2. Urban and Housing history
3. Architectural and visual history
4. Enivironmental history
5. Violence
Awards and Fellowships
Chancellor Fellowship Award, University of California, Berkeley (2025)
Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Washington, DC (2024 - 2025)
Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (2022)
NEEDS Assessement Graduate Award, University of Nigeria (2018)
Selected Publications (Book reviews, journal articles, book chapters)
Book Reviews
2024. Tasha Rijke-Epstein. Children of the Soil: The Power of Built Form in Urban Madagascar, Durham: Duke University Press, 2023. African Studies Quarterly | Volume 22, No 4| December 2024. https://journals.flvc.org/ASQ/article/view/137782/143212.
2024. Jonathan Silver. The Infrastructural South: Techno-Environments of the Third Wave of Urbanization, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2023. African Studies Review, Cambridge University Press, September 2024. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2024.134.
2023. Wale Adebanwi (ed.), Everyday State and Democracy in Africa: Ethnographic Encounters, Athens: Ohio University Press, 2022. 427pp. African Studies Quarterly | Volume 21, Issue 4| July 2023. https://asq.africa.ufl.edu/current-issue/.
Journal articles
° 2024. ‘Dark humour, social media, and everyday violence in Nigeria: gbaa ya ọkụ in Onitsha City’, African Affairs, Oxford University Press, 1 – 22. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adaf013.
° 2024. “City of boys: An ethnographic survey into the experiences of apprentices and urbanization of Onitsha city, Nigeria,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, 104, 1 – 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103399.
° 2020. “Urbanization in Nigeria: The Onitsha Experience,” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, 104, 102744, 1-16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102744
° 2021. “Creativity, spirituality, and society: A study in preservation of ikenga and ofo sculptures in contemporary Igbo society,” Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 13(4), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-12-2020-0178.
° 2021. “Socio-Economic Transformations in Nigeria: The Role of Church Missionary Society (CMS) Schools and Social Stigmatization in Onitsha Province, 1904-1975”, Cogent Arts and Humanities, 8(1), 1-17. https://doi.10.1080/23311983.2021.1922154.
° 2019. “War and Gender: Socio-Economic Reflections of the Sierra Leone War”, Cogito: Multidisciplinary Research Journal, XI (3), 133 – 159, https://cogito.ucdc.ro/COGITO%2029%20septembrie%202019.pdf
A complete list of my other publications is available on my publication page: https://bit.ly/Mathiaspublications.
Academic Associations
Urban History Association (UHA)
African Studies Association (ASA)
Lagos Studies Association (LSA)
Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN)
Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA)
