Ms. Mbasughun Ukpi successfully defended her PhD thesis at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) on Monday, 19 January 2026, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., at MISR Seminar Room 1 and via Zoom.
Her dissertation, “Beyond Representation: Generational Memories and a Contemporary Making of Nigerian Middle Belt Consciousness,” examines how ethno-religious minority groups in Nigeria’s Middle Belt contest historical erasure within dominant national and sub-national narratives. The study traces generational shifts in political meaning from the colonial period to the present and highlights how contemporary Middle Belt identity is articulated through cultural production, including digital media, music, festivals, and literature.
A key contribution of the thesis is the development of a decolonial memory web, a conceptual framework that positions memory as a networked process grounded in archives, narratives, space, and performance. The research demonstrates how, in 'post-conflict' contexts, Middle Belt communities reconfigure memory as a resource for political legitimacy and collective self-imagination.
Her opponent was Prof. Samaila Suleiman from the department of History, Bayero University, Kano. The thesis was supervised by Assoc. Prof. Lyn Ossome, Assoc. Prof. Ernest Okello Ogwang, and Dr. Andrea Cassatella , and chaired by Dr. Joseph Kasule.
The successful defense marks a significant contribution to decolonial memory studies and African political thought.