Chijioke is a lecturer in the Pastoral and Communication Studies Department at the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He researches the interplay of media, religion, and culture in local and transnational contexts, especially of Africa and African Diaspora and with emphasis on Nollywood, the cinema of Nigeria. His current project combines religious studies and cinema studies analyses to investigate the role of film in constructing the everydayness of life influenced by religion in contemporary Nigeria. A Jesuit priest, Chijioke is also the director of communications for the North-West Africa Province of the Society of Jesus and a consultant at the Nollywood Media and Research Center, Lagos.
- PhD, University of Pennsylvania
- MA, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- MLA, Extension Studies, Journalism, Harvard University
- MSc, Global Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- MA, Global Communication, University of Southern California (Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism), Los Angeles
- BA (Hons.), Philosophy (summa cum laude), University of Zimbabwe
- BA, Communication Science (with distinction), University of South Africa
- BA, Theology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Nollywood
Religion and Film
Cinema and Media Studies
Religion and Popular Culture
Religion in Africa
Film and Gender
• Politics and Publics
• Christianity
• Childhood, Gender, and Sexuality
Fall 2017: Teaching Assistant, “Islam in the Modern World”
Spring 2016: Teaching Assistant, “Love, Sex, and Death”
Fall 2015: Teaching Assistant, “Gods, Ghosts, and Monsters”
- (2021). “Nollywood and Women: Cinema as Development Communication.” Development Communication: Issues, Trends, and Case Studies. Eds. Angela Nkiru Nwammuo and Don C. Adinuba. Adonis & Abbey Publishers. (forthcoming)
- 2021. “Telling Africa’s Story: Chinua Achebe and the Power of Narratives.” Chinua Achebe and the Igbo World: Between Fiction, Fact, and Historical Representation. Eds. Chima J. Korieh and Ijeoma Nwajiaku. Lexington Books. (forthcoming)
- 2021. “Nollywood and Women: Reading Gender in Nigerian Cinema through “Snail-Sense” Feminism.” Journal of African Cinemas. (under review)
- 2020. “Nollywood and Pentecostalism: Preaching Salvation, Propagating the Supernatural.” CrossCurrents 70(3), 206-219.
- 2020. “Ikenga: Reimagining an Iconography of Cultural Achievement.” Igbo Studies Review 8, 37-56.
- 2020. “Prologue: Journalists and Personal Journalism in the Age of Social Media.” In Azuh Arinze, Encounters: Lessons from my Journalism Career, pp. xiii-xviii. Lagos: Yes Ventures.
- 2019. “Chinua Achebe’s ‘“Chi’ in Igbo Cosmology’: Revisiting a Classic,” Igbo Studies Review, 7, 29-46.
International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
International Communication Association
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Igbo Studies Association
African Studies Association
Lagos Studies Association