Dr. Binaisa is a Research Associate in the Department of War Studies, working on the research project, Mapping Injury, led by Professor Vivienne Jabri, and selected by the ERC Advanced, funded by the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee. The project investigates ‘injury’ in its multiple sites and manifestations in the Global South, and its impact on political agency and global mechanisms of response.

Naluwembe’s research on the project focuses on Nigeria, drawing on her expertise as an interdisciplinary scholar who seeks to understand mobilities of belonging, identity, and unequal citizenship within Africa and her diaspora. Her research focuses on a rapidly urbanising Africa to explore the everyday experiences of people through their aspirations, material culture, livelihoods and digital ecosystems.

Prior to joining Kings, Naluwembe researched photography, citizenship and political imaginaries in Nigeria as a member of the PHOTODEMOS Collective at University College London. Nigeria was also the focus of her research fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany, where she led innovative research on the impact of mobile phones on urban life in Lagos.

At the University of Oxford, she worked on two projects, the African Mobility in the Great Lakes project leading teams in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Uganda, as well as on the African Diasporas within Africa project. Naluwembe holds a PhD in Migration Studies, MSc in Social Research Methods and a BA(Hons) in Communication Studies.

Naluwembe is also a writer and creative practitioner with past projects at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and Ditchling Museum. On the project Mapping Injury, Naluwembe will focus on the Niger Delta region as a long-standing site of multiple intersecting forms of ‘injury’.

Research interests:

• Identity, citizenship, gender and generation dynamics
• Visual material culture, digital and diasporic landscapes
• The socio-political and socio-cultural landscape in Nigeria
• Migration, mobilities and narratives of belonging

Selected peer reviewed publications:

• Binaisa, N., Sept 2023, “We are moving with technology”: Photographing, Voice and Belonging in Nigeria. In: Pinney, C. et al. (eds.) Citizens of Photography: the Camera and the Political Imagination, Duke University Press, p.234-272.
• Binaisa, N., Oct 2020, Picturing women: Identity, Power, and Photographies in Urban Nigeria. Photography and Culture 13(3-4), p. 267-278.
• Binaisa, N., Oct 2019, Lagos: Negotiating Urban Mobilities in an Age of Mobile Telephony. In: Eyebiyi, E.P. and Mendy, A.F. (eds) Mobilités, Circulations et Frontiers: Migrations, mobilités et développement en Afrique • TOME I. Daraja Press/LASDEL, p.137-152.