Patrice Nganang Graduate Studies Director, CLCS Associate Professor Department of CLCS 2124 Humanities Buildinig Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY 11794-5355 patrice.nganang@stonybrook.edu (631) 632-9475

My intellectual work covers scholarly activities, writing and essayistic interventions.

As a scholar, I investigate the diverse ramifications of violence, and I am particularly interested in what is commonly referred to as the "colonial archive" (pictures, books, instruments). I have published and lectured extensively on this topic. I have also published on numerous topics related to postcolonial African literature, theatres and cultures.

In my writing, my goal is to transform the city of my birth, Yaounde, into a library, to reconstruct the voices, smells, tastes and languages of people, animals and plants, in order to create a sense of that city in letters. For after all, one cannot return to the place of one's birth.

My essayistic interventions are, in an attempt to revive the poetry of the essay as a genre, a way through which I address the diverse issues that make it impossible for me to sleep, or when I wake up, to look at myself in a mirror without a little shame.