Doctoral Students

Introduction

Welcome to the directory of active PhD Fellows at the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). This page highlights the scholars currently engaged in MISR’s interdisciplinary doctoral programme, showcasing their diverse research interests and contributions to critical social inquiry. These fellows embody MISR’s ongoing commitment to rigorous, innovative, and contextually grounded research on society.

Meet the PhD fellows

Elias Byamukama

Elias Byamukama

Erasmus Mugisha Mugabo

Erasmus Mugisha Mugabo

His research interests broadly encompass the identity question, minority issues, and political agency in the postcolonial era. Specifically, Erasmus studies the Batwa community of southwestern Uganda, examining how their minority status has been constituted and reproduced, as well as their political agency within the framework of the Ugandan modern state.
Fahad Muganga

Fahad Muganga

My research focuses on the emergence of the Abavandimwe identity among the Banyarwanda Ethnic group in Uganda. This campaign was launched in 2021 by a section of Banyarwanda to move away from the identity Banyarwanda which has long been branded as ethnic strangers in Uganda. Despite being constitutionally recognized as indigenous, the Banyarwanda continue to
face political discrimination and exclusion. I intend to examine how this new identity functions as a political strategy to claim belonging within the Ugandan postcolonial state whose citizenship remains shaped by colonial constructions of indigeneity and difference. I, however, argue that instead of resolving the exclusion, this new identity reproduces the same colonial logic that politicized ethnicity as a requirement for political belonging.
Fred Niringiye

Fred Niringiye

Hamudan Ssenoga

Hamudan Ssenoga

His major specialty is Political Studies, and minors in Cultural Studies engaging themes of: Political Identity, Political violence, State governance, and Nationalism in Uganda and Africa at large.
Jacqueline Adongo

Jacqueline Adongo

Joech Sinthia Atata

Joech Sinthia Atata

Jonathan Mwesigwa S.

Jonathan Mwesigwa S.

His interdisciplinary work focuses on questions of power, social justice, sovereignty, and knowledge production. More specifically, his research interests lie at the intersection of law, religion, politics, history, and society in Africa and beyond. Thematically, he engages with decolonisation, decoloniality, governance, church and state relations, political economy, and the cultural histories of Buganda and Uganda.
Kenneth Chukwuebuka Ugwu

Kenneth Chukwuebuka Ugwu

Kenneth's research as a historian focuses on religion, culture, and everyday life in southeast Nigeria.

Publication: “Iwuewu: Unmasking Simon Odo, the Enigmatic Monarch of Satan, Enugu-Ezike, Southeast Nigeria,” in Interplay: Selected Writing and Art, eds. Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi, Uche-Chinemere Nwaozuzu, Tochukwu Okpara and Ambrose Onu (Enugu: The PanAfrika Press, 2023), 113-129, co-authored with Ngozika A. Obi-Ani & Mathias Isiani. https://www.academia.edu/165758872/Iwuewu_Unmasking_Simon_Odo_the_Enigmatic_Monarch_of_Satan_Enugu_Ezike_Southeast_Nigeria
Lilian Caroline Namugenyi

Lilian Caroline Namugenyi

I am interested in the relationship between the state and religious revivals in Uganda. Particularly, the idea that the modern state is Secular is something that captures my interest.