PROF. PAMELA MUHADIA NGUGI

Prof. Pamela Muhadia Ngugi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kiswahili and African Languages at Kenyatta University, Kenya. Her research focuses on Kiswahili language, literature, and sociolinguistics, with particular interest in children’s literature, cultural identity, and language use in multilingual African contexts. She is currently involved in the Hadithi Zetu project, which promotes Kiswahili literacy and cultural preservation through digital storytelling for rural primary school children.

Dr. Pamela is a scholar of Kiswahili and a faculty member in the Department of Kiswahili at Kenyatta University, Kenya. Her academic work focuses on Kiswahili language studies, Swahili literature with a particular emphasis on children’s literature and the sociolinguistic dynamics of East Africa.

Her research in Kiswahili children’s literature examines how the genre supports linguistic development, literacy, cultural identity, moral education, and socialization. She explores how these texts function as tools for shaping societal values and reflect evolving ideas about childhood, education, and nationhood.

Beyond children’s literature, Dr. Pamela teaches and supervises students in adult Kiswahili literature, engaging with themes such as literary analysis, gender representation, postcolonial narratives, and oral traditions. Her work highlights the role of Kiswahili literature as a medium for social commentary, cultural preservation, political expression, and identity formation in contemporary society.

Her sociolinguistic interests focus on how Kiswahili functions as a lingua franca, national language, and official language within the multilingual contexts of East Africa. She examines how language attitudes, language policy, and broader sociopolitical forces shape language development, educational access, and communication equity.

Dr. Pamela is also engaged in digital language promotion through her collaborative project Hadithi Zetu with scholars from the University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain. The project involves developing a mobile application featuring culturally grounded Kiswahili stories and interactive reading exercises designed to support early literacy in rural Kenyan primary schools.

Her scholarly trajectory aligns strongly with the mission of the Kansas African Studies Center. Through affiliation with KASC, Dr. Pamela seeks opportunities for collaborative research, teaching, joint publications, and presentations, as well as avenues to engage students and faculty in Kiswahili literature and sociolinguistics through guest lectures and workshops.