Ivoline Budji Kefen

Biography

Kefen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology (minoring in Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies) and a Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame. Her MSc in Anthropology from the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC) Bamenda (2015), focused on the role of language in identity construction, intercultural interaction, and intergenerational transmission of cultural values/norms. Also, as a Chevening scholar, she obtained an M.A. in Cross-cultural Communication and Media from Newcastle University, UK (2018), where she focused on the role of the media in enhancing ideologies and perceptions, especially regarding race and gender, among various cultural backgrounds.

Kefen is very much interested in issues regarding media and communication, processes of identity construction and performance at several levels (local, national, international), and dominance/ power, especially as these pertain to gender, ethnicity/race, and age. Thus, she studies how communities and individuals within them construct, embed, deconstruct, and use language, media, and other forms/means of communication vis-à-vis political and socio-cultural interests and/or ideologies, especially in contexts of conflict and migration. Her current work focuses on media use by (forced and voluntary) migrants especially women, as they construct identities and communicate within their receiving communities and with loved ones in their countries of origin. 

Recent Publications:

Budji, Ivoline Kefen. 2020. “Utilizing Sounds of Mourning as Protest and Activism: The 2019 Northwestern Women’s Lamentation March Within the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon.” Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture 1(4): 443-461.

Nkwi, Paul Nchoji, and Ivoline Kefen Budji. 2021. From Handmaiden of Colonialism to Esteemed Discipline: Professor Paul Nchoji Nkwi on the Reinvention of Anthropology in Africa (Paul Nchoji Nkwi in conversation with Ivoline Kefen Budji). Bamenda: Langaa RPCIG