Prof. Dominica Dipio

Biographical Details

Dominica Dipio is a professor of literature and film. She has published widely in her interdisciplinary research interests in literature, film, folklore, popular culture, audience, and gender studies. Among her notable books are: Moving Back into the Future: Critical Recovering of Africa’s Cultural Heritage (Ed. 2021), Gender Terrains in African Cinema (2014) and a trilogy of other edited books: Performing Community (2008), Performing Change (2009), Performing Wisdom (2013), and numerous journal articles and book chapters. Dipio, who has produced and directed several documentary films also has a wide juror experience at both regional and international film festivals. Her current creative enterprise is adapting African folktales into animation films. She has received distinguished fellowships and academic awards such the East African Commonwealth, Fulbright, African Humanities Program, Cambridge-Africa Programme for Research Excellence (CAPREx). She is actively engaged in research collaborations such as the African Humanities Association/Africa Academy of Science (AHA/AAS 2021); Catholic Sisters Human Development Mapping – Uganda (2021); Historicising the Humanities at Makerere (2019-2022) African Urbanities Research Consortium (2019-2023).

Research interests

• Literary Theory
• Film Studies
• Cultural studies

Teaching and Supervision

Undergraduate courses

• Language and Style
• The African novel
• East African Literature
• Literary Critical Theories
• Scriptwriting
• African cinema

Graduate Courses

• Literature and Human Rights
• African Novel
• Twentieth Century Literary Theories
• Advanced Literary Theory

Post Graduate Students Supervised 

Deusdedit Kansiime, 2018/HD03/581U, MA, ‘Negotiating Social Identity in Makumbi’s Kintu, Isegawa’s Abyssinian Chronicles and Ocen’s The Alien Woman.’

Jacqueline Muhimbise, 2010/HD03/720U, MA: The significance of Oral Tradition in Preserving and Consolidating Culture and Identity in Toni Morrison’s Fiction

Idraku Charles:2005/HD03/1524U, MA. Local peace-building Initiatives: A Case Study of Concerned Parents’ association in Lira Municipality

 Michael Bulitumye: 2007/HD03/11508U, MA. On Selected Ugandan Female Writers

Harriet Nagawa: 2005/HD03/4284U, MA. Topic: Art and Trauma: Drawings of Children Exposed to War in Northern Uganda

Ronald Musanje: 2008/HD) 3/11798U: Constructing Masculinities in Uganda Young Adult Fiction Arnold Wangwe, 2008/HD03/11804U, MA 2018

Peter Muhoro Mwangi: 2007/HD03/4882K, PhD. He graduated January 2015 The Politics of Gender in Gikuyu Nduumo Poetry: A Performance and Gender Perspective

 Simon Peter Ongodia: 2007/HD03/4881U, PhD. Performance of Ateso Oral Narratives Acan Dorah, 2012/HD03/1378U, MA Violence in the Ugandan Novel: the Case of Julius Ocwinyo and Moses Isegawa.

Taabu James Busimba, ‘A Materialist Appreciation of Meja Mwangi's Fiction’ 5 Ssali Frederick, ‘A Feminist Approach to Nuruddin Farah's Fiction’

Magomu J. ‘Feminism Before Its Time?: A Case Study of Bernard Shaw’ Ocen, Laury Lawrence, ‘Narratology in African Cinema’ Kyobutungi, Jossy Alice, ‘Henry Barlow’s Poetry; A Romantist Analysis’

 Kihazo Daood, ‘Purity of Diction in the Verse of Wangusa and Ntiru’ Awio Zenna Kibwanga, ‘A Comparative Study of the Use of Characters and Characterization Among Selected Uganda Drama Groups’

Ongoing supervision

Laurene Manaa Abdallah, 2019/HD03/31040X (PhD)”Colonial Influences on the Construction of West African Anglophone and Francophone Cinema”.

Stella Antwiwaa, 2017/HD03/19258X, (PhD) ‘The Representation of Women in Selected Plays of Euripides and Ghanaian Playwrights’.

Isaac Tibasiima, 2011/HD03/18393U PhD. Song and Nation: A study of Secondary School Music Competition in Uganda.

Patrick Nyakuta BA.Philo: (PUU), (2014/HD03/2201U), MA Peace Journalism: An Investigation into Community Radio in a Post-war Era in Northern Uganda. Case Study of Radio Pacis

Leonard Amanya, (MAJC) (MAK) 2014/HD03/2585U), MA The Role of the Media in the Development of the Film Industry in Uganda: A case Study of NTV and Bukedde Televisions

External Examiner

Joshua Usman, PhD, 2019, ‘Oral Narratives as Inter-texts in Selected Nigerian Films’, (2019), Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

Onike Kanyowana, MA, 2018, ‘Representation of Race, Class, and Gender in Kagiso Lesego Molope’s Dancing in the Dust, University of Dar-es-Salaam

 Aaron Agbeshie Agorsor, MA, 2018, ‘The Representation of the Self in the Collective Consciousness and Lessons for Nation Building: A Comparrative Study of the Autobiographies of Kwame Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela’

Josephine Ekuwa Saighoe, MA, 2018, ‘Construction of Female Identity in the Neo-Slave 6 Narrative: A Comparative Study of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Mercy.

 Kwame Osei-Poku, PhD, 2018, ‘Ideology and Identity in Selected African Authored Travelogue in West African Review Magazine of the Pre-independence Period’

Joseph Brookman Amissah-Arthur, PhD, 2017, ‘Towards a Theory of the Colonialist Novel: Caving, Caging, Theft, and Voicing as a Structural Grammar’

 Rosemary Chikafa, PhD, 2017, ‘Representation of Black Womanhood in Tyler Perry’s and Ousmane Sembene’s Films’, University of Zimbabwe’

Sospeter Bothoha Ntiruhave, MA, 2017, ‘The Portrayal of Single Motherhood in Elieshi Lema’s Perched Earth’, University of Dar-es-Salaam

Bilenjo Mgaya MA, 2017, ‘Examining the Influence of Gender Construction in the Search for Identities in Elieshi Lema’s In the Belly of Dar-es-Salaam, University of Dar-es-Salaam

Spemba Elias Spemba, MA, 2017, ‘The Portrayal of Women in Selected Bongo Fleva Songs’, University of Dar-es-Salaam

Yohana Mung’aya, MA, 2017, ‘Narratological Significance of Journey Motif in Severine Ndunguru’s a Wreath for Fr. Mayer’, University of Dar-es-Salaam

 Earnest Ainembabazi MA, 2014, ‘A Sociological Critique of Materialist Fetishism in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941)’, Kyambogo University

 Nakacwa Susan, MA, 2013. ‘Please don’t show me on Agataliiko Nfuufu or my husband will beat me like engalabi (long drum): young women and tabloid television, Uganda’, Rhodes University

Japhet Belinda MA, 2013. ‘They make me feel that I am at home: Nigerian Migrants in Port Elizabeth and the meaning they make of Nollywood films’, Rhodes University

Agatha Ukata, PhD, 2010, ‘The Image(s) of Women in Nigerian (Nollywood) Videos’, University of Witwatersrand

Sylvia Violet Katende, PhD, 2010, ‘Expression of Children’s Life Experiences through Visual Art: The case of Orphaned Children in Uganda’ Makerere University, 2010. I was the “opponent” member at the public defense.

2017 to date: External Examiner, University of Ghana, Graduate programme. 2015-2018: External Examiner for the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Undergraduate

2017-2020: External Examiner for Mkwawa University College of Education (MUCE) (A college of the University of Dar-es-Salaam)

 2004-2008: External Examiner to Kyambogo University for Literature, English Language Teaching, and Language Education, Undergraduate.

2010-2013: External Moderator and Examiner to St. Augustine University of Tanzania, Mwanza.

Master’s students

Selected grants

East African Commonwealth, Fulbright, African Humanities Program, Cambridge-Africa Programme for Research Excellence (CAPREx).

African Humanities Association/Africa Academy of Science (AHA/AAS 2021)

 Catholic Sisters Human Development Mapping – Uganda (2021)

 Historicising the Humanities at Makerere (2019-2022)

 African Urbanities Research Consortium (2019-2023).

Current projects

Catholic Sisters Human Development Mapping – Uganda (2021)

 Historicising the Humanities at Makerere (2019-2022)

 African Urbanities Research Consortium (2019-2023).