About

Dr. Nancy Henaku is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Ghana whose scholarship is located at the intersection of discourse analysis, rhetoric, literary studies, critical theory, and sociocultural linguistics. Her work investigates the relationships between discourse, power, ideology, identity, and social transformation, with particular attention to African and postcolonial contexts.

As an interdisciplinary humanities scholar, Dr. Henaku examines how language, representation, and rhetorical practices shape social realities across political, cultural, digital, literary, and institutional spaces. Her research consistently engages questions of gender, subalternity, power relations, public discourse, and decolonial knowledge production. She combines approaches from discourse analysis, rhetoric, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, and cultural criticism to explore the complexities of contemporary African communicative practices. 

In addition to her teaching and research, she contributes actively to scholarly publishing, public intellectual engagement, and literary culture. She has served as Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Writers Project of Ghana and continues to participate in interdisciplinary conversations on language, culture, politics, democracy, and social justice.

Education

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture, Michigan Technological University (MTU)
• Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in English, University of Ghana.
• Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and Political Science, University of Ghana.

Research Interest

Dr. Henaku’s research focuses on the relationship between discourse, culture, politics, identity, and power.

Her major research interests include:

• Discourse Analysis
• Rhetoric and Writing Studies
• Political Communication
• Gender and Discourse
• Feminist Theory
• Postcolonial Studies
• Cultural Studies
• Media and Digital Discourse
• Literary Studies

A central concern of her scholarship is the critical examination of how discourse constructs and negotiates power relations within African societies. Her work explores the ways political, cultural, gendered, and institutional identities are rhetorically produced and contested across different communicative contexts. 

She has also contributed to emerging scholarship on African rhetoric, arguing for analytical frameworks that take African communicative traditions, histories, and epistemologies seriously within global rhetorical and discourse studies.

Publications

Henaku, N. (2023). Examining gendered discourses from an African locale: towards an intrasectional feminist critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 1-17.

Henaku, N. (2023). Navigating the PhD, and Everything Else, in a Pandemic: A Storied Reflection on Precarity, Affect, and Resilience. J. Lindquist, B. Straayer & B. Halbritter (Eds), Recollections from an Uncommon Time: 4C20 Documentarian Tales (pp. 65-78). WAC Clearinghouse/National Council of Teachers of English.

Henaku, N., & Pappoe, R. (2022). African Rhetoric as an Emergent Subfield.  S. Ige, G. Motsaathebe & O. Ochieng (Eds), A Companion to African Rhetoric (pp. 171-194). Lexington.

Henaku, N. (2021). Transnational African Women as Voices of Conscience. R. Sackeyfio (Ed), African Women Writing Diaspora: Transnational Perspectives in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 73-88). Lexington.