Staff profile

Anna Adima is a historian of modern East Africa, specialising in cultural, literary and women's histories of the region. She is currently working on her first monograph, based on her PhD, which examines the history of women's writing after independence in Uganda and Kenya. Other research interests focus on the histories of race in East Africa, and conceptualisation of development and its intersections with culture.

At Durham University, Anna Adima teaches on a wide range of modules, including Power in Africa;  History on Trial: The Mau Mau Rebellion in Colonial Kenya; The State We're In: New Histories of Modern Britain; and Developing Africa.

Before joining Durham University, Anna Adima worked in Uganda in the cultural sector and also as a journalist. She regularly provides historical consultancy services to projects focussing on Ugandan and East African history, and has collaborated with film producers, publishing houses, and cultural institutions. Anna Adima holds a PhD in History (University of York), an MA in African Studies (SOAS, University of London) and a BA in International Studies (Leiden University).

• East African studies
• Women's histories
• Cultural and literary histories
• Histories of race

Book review

• A popular history of Idi Amin’s Uganda by Derek Peterson, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2025, 376 pp., £25 (hardback), ISBN 978030027838
  
  Adima, A. (2026). A popular history of Idi Amin’s Uganda by Derek Peterson, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2025, 376 pp., £25 (hardback), ISBN 978030027838. The Round Table. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2026.2623146

Chapter in book

• How to Search for, Find and Read Colonial Sources for Gender
  
  Adima, A. (2024). How to Search for, Find and Read Colonial Sources for Gender. In Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives. AM.
• Using Historical Sources to Analyse Black Bodies as Sites of Violence
  
  Adima, A. (2024). Using Historical Sources to Analyse Black Bodies as Sites of Violence. In Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives. AM.
• Makerere's English Department: The Cradle of East African Literature
  
  Adima, A. (2024). Makerere’s English Department: The Cradle of East African Literature. In I. Tibasiima, H. Byamugisha, D. Dipio, J. Ahikire, & A. Kasozi (Eds.), Makerere’s Century of Service to East Africa and Beyond, 1922–2022. Makerere University Press.

Journal Article

• Mixed-ish: race, class and gender in 1950s–60s Kampala through a life history of Barbara Kimenye
  
  Adima, A. (2022). Mixed-ish: race, class and gender in 1950s–60s Kampala through a life history of Barbara Kimenye. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 16(3), 355-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2022.2163469
• Exposed Inequalities: Emancipation and Constraint in the Experiences of Kenyan Women Students Abroad (1950s-1960s)
  
  Adima, A. (2021). Exposed Inequalities: Emancipation and Constraint in the Experiences of Kenyan Women Students Abroad (1950s-1960s). Diasporas: Circulations, Migrations, Histoire, 37, 61-77. https://doi.org/10.4000/diasporas.6188
• The Sound of Silence: The 1929-30 Gikuyu 'Female Circumcision Controversy' and the Discursive Suppression of African Women's Voices
  
  Adima, A. (2020). The Sound of Silence: The 1929-30 Gikuyu ’Female Circumcision Controversy’ and the Discursive Suppression of African Women’s Voices. Gender and Research.