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Lindsey Green-Simms

American University, Literature, Faculty Member

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Lindsey Green-Simms’ research focuses on African and post-colonial film and literature. Her particular interests include globalization, technology, gender and sexuality studies, and Nollywood video-film production. Professor Green-Simms’ book, Postcolonial Automobility: Car Culture in West Africa (U of Minnesota Press, 2017), examines how the contradictions of globalization are embedded in the commodity of the automobile and in the ideals of automobility. She is also working on a second book on queer African cinema.

Professor Green-Simms completed her doctorate in Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, and has previously taught at Duke University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in Women’s Studies, as well as at the College of Charleston. She has published articles in Camera Obscura, Transition, Journal of African Cinemas, and Journal of Postcolonial Writing and has book chapters in Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century (Ohio U. Press) and Indiscretions: At the Intersection of Queer and Postcolonial Theory (Rodopi Press).

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Papers by Lindsey Green-Simms

The Emergent Queer: Homosexuality and Nigerian Fiction in the 21st Century

This paper examines the treatment of homosexuality in 21st century Nigerian literature and discus... more This paper examines the treatment of homosexuality in 21st century Nigerian literature and discusses how the Nigerian literary community critiques discourses of homophobia and explores the everyday fears, desires, pleasures and anxieties of those who experience same-sex attraction. It argues that 21st century Nigerian writing can be seen be seen as what Raymond Williams calls “emergent” because it resists the dominant discourses in ways not previously done before and tells diverse stories about same-sex desire that are neither monothematic nor moralistic. This article demonstrates how the work of authors such as Chris Abani, Chimamanda Adichie, and Jude Dibia as well writing published on the Internet in the wake of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act tells queer stories about everyday life and love and about the intersecting struggles queer African subjects must face.

“What’s New in Africa?: African Writing in the 21st Century”

Journal of Postcolonial and Commonwealth Studies. Vol 1.1, Spring 2013, pp 3-12

Edward Campbell, the Oxford-trained Africanist who runs the writers' retreat featured in Chimaman... more Edward Campbell, the Oxford-trained Africanist who runs the writers' retreat featured in Chimamanda Adichie's short story "Jumping Monkey Hill," is first described as "an old man in a summer hat who smiled to show two front teeth the color of mildew" (96) as he welcomes Ujunwa, the Nigerian writer, at the airport. Edward has selected the "posh" Jumping Monkey Hill resort outside of Cape Town, with its black maids and "mah-ve-lous" menu featuring ostrich medallions, as the site for a selective workshop funded by the British Council Arts Foundation. Like the professor Adichie mentions in her famous "The Danger of a Single Story" TED talk-the one who tells the young writer that her African characters are too unbelievable because they are middle-class, educated, and drive cars-Edward seems sure of his qualifications to judge the authenticity of African writing. He thinks that a Zimbabwean story about a Pentecostal minister and a teacher who is concerned with witchcraft is "passé" given the horrible things Mugabe is doing. He says that a story about a Senegalese woman coming out as a lesbian to her family isn't reflective of the real Africa where such an act would never occur. And he doesn't like Ujunwa's autobiographical account of endemic sexism in Nigeria because he thinks, even as he ogles her and makes crude comments, that it surely must be exaggerated. But he does praise a story by the Ugandan writer about the war in the Congo, a story that Ujunwa thinks sounds like a stock article from The Economist.

“Occult Melodramas: Spectral Affect and West African Video-Film.”

Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. Vol. 27.2 80, 2012, pp 25-59.

"The Video Closet: Nollywood’s Gay Themed Movies.”

Transition, 107. 2012, pp 32-49

AbujA, NigeriA. juNe, 2010. Our efforts at phoning first failed. So on a rainy Monday afternoon, ... more AbujA, NigeriA. juNe, 2010. Our efforts at phoning first failed. So on a rainy Monday afternoon, we walked into the Nigerian Censor's Bureau with no appointment and very few expectations. We were hoping that someone there would grant us an interview and that somehow we could get this person to talk to us openly about homosexuality in Nigerian video films. We had already spent the month interviewing directors, producers, and distributors, and we often found it difficult to get people to acknowledge that films about homosexuality were quite popular in Nigeria. Although close to twenty gay-themed films, many quite successful, had been made, most people insisted that films on such a taboo topic wouldn't sell in Nigeria or that the censors would never approve of them. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary-including the endless amount of tabloid chatter about gay or bisexual Nollywood actors-we kept hearing that homosexuality and even discussions and representations of it were "un-Nigerian." So when we arrived at the Censor's Bureau, we knew better than to be direct, that a straightforward approach would simply lead to denial. We told the security guard and then a string of bureaucrats that we were researchers interested in knowing more about the general process behind censorship in Nollywood, as the Nigerian video industry has come to be known.

“Hustlers, Homewreckers, and Homoeroticism: Nollywood’s Beautiful Faces”

Journal of African Cinemas. Vol 4.1, 2012 pp 59-79.

“The Return of the Mercedes: From Ousmane Sembène to Kenneth Nnebue.”

Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: FESPACO Art films and the Nollywood Video Revolution, eds. Mahir Saul and Ralph Austen. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010, pp209 – 224.

“No Danger No Delay: Wole Soyinka and the Perils of the Road.”

Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Previously World Literature Written in English). (March, 2010) Issue 46.1, pp 53-64

“Just to See”: Fanon, National Consciousness, and the Indiscreet Look in Post-Third Cinema.”

Indiscretions: At the Intersection of Queer and Postcolonial Theory, ed. Murat Aydemir. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi Press, 2011, pp203-224.

The Emergent Queer: Homosexuality and Nigerian Fiction in the 21st Century

This paper examines the treatment of homosexuality in 21st century Nigerian literature and discus... more This paper examines the treatment of homosexuality in 21st century Nigerian literature and discusses how the Nigerian literary community critiques discourses of homophobia and explores the everyday fears, desires, pleasures and anxieties of those who experience same-sex attraction. It argues that 21st century Nigerian writing can be seen be seen as what Raymond Williams calls “emergent” because it resists the dominant discourses in ways not previously done before and tells diverse stories about same-sex desire that are neither monothematic nor moralistic. This article demonstrates how the work of authors such as Chris Abani, Chimamanda Adichie, and Jude Dibia as well writing published on the Internet in the wake of the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act tells queer stories about everyday life and love and about the intersecting struggles queer African subjects must face.

“What’s New in Africa?: African Writing in the 21st Century”

Journal of Postcolonial and Commonwealth Studies. Vol 1.1, Spring 2013, pp 3-12

Edward Campbell, the Oxford-trained Africanist who runs the writers' retreat featured in Chimaman... more Edward Campbell, the Oxford-trained Africanist who runs the writers' retreat featured in Chimamanda Adichie's short story "Jumping Monkey Hill," is first described as "an old man in a summer hat who smiled to show two front teeth the color of mildew" (96) as he welcomes Ujunwa, the Nigerian writer, at the airport. Edward has selected the "posh" Jumping Monkey Hill resort outside of Cape Town, with its black maids and "mah-ve-lous" menu featuring ostrich medallions, as the site for a selective workshop funded by the British Council Arts Foundation. Like the professor Adichie mentions in her famous "The Danger of a Single Story" TED talk-the one who tells the young writer that her African characters are too unbelievable because they are middle-class, educated, and drive cars-Edward seems sure of his qualifications to judge the authenticity of African writing. He thinks that a Zimbabwean story about a Pentecostal minister and a teacher who is concerned with witchcraft is "passé" given the horrible things Mugabe is doing. He says that a story about a Senegalese woman coming out as a lesbian to her family isn't reflective of the real Africa where such an act would never occur. And he doesn't like Ujunwa's autobiographical account of endemic sexism in Nigeria because he thinks, even as he ogles her and makes crude comments, that it surely must be exaggerated. But he does praise a story by the Ugandan writer about the war in the Congo, a story that Ujunwa thinks sounds like a stock article from The Economist.

“Occult Melodramas: Spectral Affect and West African Video-Film.”

Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. Vol. 27.2 80, 2012, pp 25-59.

"The Video Closet: Nollywood’s Gay Themed Movies.”

Transition, 107. 2012, pp 32-49

AbujA, NigeriA. juNe, 2010. Our efforts at phoning first failed. So on a rainy Monday afternoon, ... more AbujA, NigeriA. juNe, 2010. Our efforts at phoning first failed. So on a rainy Monday afternoon, we walked into the Nigerian Censor's Bureau with no appointment and very few expectations. We were hoping that someone there would grant us an interview and that somehow we could get this person to talk to us openly about homosexuality in Nigerian video films. We had already spent the month interviewing directors, producers, and distributors, and we often found it difficult to get people to acknowledge that films about homosexuality were quite popular in Nigeria. Although close to twenty gay-themed films, many quite successful, had been made, most people insisted that films on such a taboo topic wouldn't sell in Nigeria or that the censors would never approve of them. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary-including the endless amount of tabloid chatter about gay or bisexual Nollywood actors-we kept hearing that homosexuality and even discussions and representations of it were "un-Nigerian." So when we arrived at the Censor's Bureau, we knew better than to be direct, that a straightforward approach would simply lead to denial. We told the security guard and then a string of bureaucrats that we were researchers interested in knowing more about the general process behind censorship in Nollywood, as the Nigerian video industry has come to be known.

“Hustlers, Homewreckers, and Homoeroticism: Nollywood’s Beautiful Faces”

Journal of African Cinemas. Vol 4.1, 2012 pp 59-79.

“The Return of the Mercedes: From Ousmane Sembène to Kenneth Nnebue.”

Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: FESPACO Art films and the Nollywood Video Revolution, eds. Mahir Saul and Ralph Austen. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010, pp209 – 224.

“No Danger No Delay: Wole Soyinka and the Perils of the Road.”

Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Previously World Literature Written in English). (March, 2010) Issue 46.1, pp 53-64

“Just to See”: Fanon, National Consciousness, and the Indiscreet Look in Post-Third Cinema.”

Indiscretions: At the Intersection of Queer and Postcolonial Theory, ed. Murat Aydemir. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi Press, 2011, pp203-224.