Research: From Representation to Infrastructure: Canon Formation and the Production of “West Africanity” in Contemporary Anglophone Diaspora Literature (2010–2024)
Tracy Gyimah is a PhD student in the International PhD programme in English Literatures, Language and Translation (SELLT) at Sapienza University of Rome. In 2023, she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Trieste, graduating with honours and presenting a thesis entitled “What was deemed mere food for sharks will become my fable”. David Dabydeen’s Turner: Trauma, the ‘Sublime’ Slave Ship and Historical Amnesia". In 2025, she earned a Master’s degree in English and Anglo-American Studies from Sapienza University of Rome, graduating with honours (110 cum laude), with a thesis entitled "The Diasporic Imagination of Abdulrazak Gurnah and Bernardine Evaristo: Migration, Identity, History".
Her doctoral research investigates how “West Africanity” is produced and established as a category of literary value in the contemporary Anglophone literary field through the interaction of narrative form, publishing practices, paratexts, prize culture, professional criticism, and digital reception. Her research interests include Anglophone postcolonial and diasporic literature, contemporary African literatures, and the sociology of literature, with a particular focus on processes of canon formation, publishing practices, and literary reception.