Chijioke Onah

Chijioke Onah

image of Chijioke standing outside, smiling
Graduate Resident Fellow
Ph.D. Candidate in Literature-in-English

Chijioke is from Nsukka, Enugu State of Nigeria, and has lived in Ithaca since 2020. He joined the Bethe House team in the Fall of 2021.

Chijioke received a Combined Honors Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and History from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Prior to Cornell, he studied at Goethe University of Frankfurt, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He specializes in African and African Diaspora Literature, Anglophone Postcolonial Literature, and Environmental Humanities. At Cornell, his dissertation focuses on the (Bio)Politics of toxic waste and pollution in Africa and the African diaspora.

Apart from his graduate studies, Chijioke has found Ithaca to be an amazing community for his young family. He spends his free time with his amazing wife, Sandra, and their beautiful daughter, Kamsi, visiting the gorges, the parks, and telling everyone who cares to listen about Nigeria.