Prof Nicki Hitchcott
Head of the School of Modern Languages
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 3636
- n.hitchcott@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Office
- Room 101
- Location
- Buchanan
- Office hours
- By appointment
Biography
I joined St Andrews in October 2016, having held a personal chair at the University of Nottingham. I attended a comprehensive school in Exeter before studying for my BA and PhD at UCL, and was the first person in my family to go to university.
Teaching
Honours modules: FR4161 Antillean Identities; FR4183 African Francophone Fiction; CO3020 Literature and Cultural Memory; CO4003 Issues in Cultural Studies; CO3021 Crossing the Mediterranean; CO4032 Bad Books; CO4031 Experiences of Exile; CO4030 Short Story.
Subhonours modules: FR2204 French Civilisation; FR2206 French Literature from 19th to 21st Centuries; CO1002 Staging the Political.
Postgraduate: ML5002/21 Literary and Cultural Theory; MLitt Postcolonial and World Literatures (School of English); MSc International Development Practice (Graduate School).
Research areas
I am a specialist in postcolonial literatures in French and English, particularly fiction from sub-Saharan Africa. Funded by the AHRC, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, my research has focused on West African women's writing, migrant fiction, and fictional responses to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. I am currently working on two new projects: the Rwandan colonial Metis (with Dr Alice Urusaro Karekezi, University of Rwanda) and ecotexts in the postcolonial francosphere (with Dr Kenneth Nsah, Université de Lille).
From 2015 to 2018, I led the AHRC-funded project, Rwandan Stories of Change in partnership with NGO the Aegis Trust and the Genocide Archive of Rwanda. In 2018, I was a finalist for the inaugural Wellcome Trust/AHRC Health Humanities Medal in the Category of Best International Research.
I have supervised 10 doctoral degrees to successful completion on various aspects of postcolonial francophone studies, including African philosophy and women's documentary cinema, as well as African and Caribbean literature in French. Of my former doctoral students, 6 now have permanent academic jobs (at Lancaster, Melbourne, Newcastle, Trinity College Dublin, UCL and University College Cork) and one is a picture researcher in Paris. I warmly welcome enquiries from potential PhD students.
PhD supervision
- Oladele Madamidola
- Catherine Mackenzie
- Clara Defachel
Selected publications
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Open access
Imperial Fictions: Belgian Novels about Rwanda
Hitchcott, N., 14 Nov 2022, Unfinished Histories : Empire and Postcolonial Resonance in Central Africa and Belgium. Fraiture, P-P. (ed.). Leuven University Press, p. 63-77 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Rwanda: community life in exile
Hitchcott, N., 12 Aug 2022, In: TLS, The Times Literary Supplement. 6228, p. 25 1 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
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Open access
Seeing the Genocide against the Tutsi through someone else's eyes: prosthetic memory and Hotel Rwanda
Hitchcott, N., 1 Oct 2021, In: Memory Studies. 14, 5, p. 935-948 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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After the Genocide in Rwanda: Testimonies of Violence, Change and Reconcilation
Grayson, H. L. (ed.), Hitchcott, N. (ed.), Blackie, L. E. R. (ed.) & Joseph, S. (ed.), 2019, IB Tauris.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
Gender-based violence in Monique Ilboudo's fiction
Hitchcott, N., 1 Aug 2019, Art from Trauma: Genocide and Healing Beyond Rwanda. Gallimore, R. B. & Herndon, G. (eds.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, p. 143-159Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Rwanda Since 1994: Stories of Change
Grayson, H. L. (ed.) & Hitchcott, N. (ed.), 17 May 2019, Liverpool University Press.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
The (un)believable truth about Rwanda
Hitchcott, N., Jul 2019, In: Australian Journal of French Studies. 56, 2, p. 199-215 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
"I am Rwandan": unity and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda
Blackie, L. E. R. & Hitchcott, N., 20 Jun 2018, In: Genocide Studies and Prevention. 12, 1, p. 24-37 5.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Intimate enemies: representations of perpetrators in literary responses to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
Hitchcott, N., 2018, Perpetrating Selves: Doing Violence, Performing Identity. Bielby, C. & Stevenson Murer, J. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 155-176Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Open access
Distinguishing post-traumatic growth from psychological adjustment among Rwandan genocide survivors
Blackie, L. E. R., Jayawickreme, E., Hitchcott, N. & Joseph, S., 2017, Varieties of Virtue Ethics. Carr, D., Arthur, J. & Kristjánsson, K. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 299-317Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review