Stellenbosch University in South Africa has appointed Associate Professor of Literature Anna-Leena Toivanen as an Extraordinary Associate Professor, with her three-year appointment starting on 1 January 2026.
Stellenbosch University’s Extraordinary Appointments give recognition to international scholars who have significant expertise and standing in their field, as well as a solid track record of advancing research within their discipline. These appointments also aim to strengthen research collaboration and other forms of academic exchange between Stellenbosch University and international scholars.
According to Toivanen, the merits underpinning her nomination are largely the result of research made possible by funding from the Research Council of Finland. Research into Francophone African literature, supported by this funding from 2020 to 2025, has created new dialogue between postcolonial literary studies and multidisciplinary mobility studies.
Literary studies as part of border and mobility studies
One of the University of Eastern Finland’s profile areas in research focuses on cultural encounters, mobilities and borders. According to Toivanen, the multidisciplinary BOMOCULT research community has also provided a natural setting for internationally renowned literary studies.
“Alongside border studies, perspectives offered by the humanities have, in recent years, also assumed an important role in mobility studies. It has been extremely inspiring to be involved in these international discussions through African and Afroeuropean literature as well as through postcolonial literary studies.”
According to Toivanen, these perspectives have previously received less attention in mobility studies, and the full potential of these literatures as topics of research and as drivers of theoretical development has not been fully recognised yet.
The appointment opens avenues for new forms of collaboration
Toivanen is currently working on an article on queer mobilities in Francophone African literature for a special issue focusing on mobilities and gender. The issue is co-edited by Dr Gibson Ncube at Stellenbosch University and Professor Tendai Mangena at the University of Leeds. Dr Ncube is one of the leading scholars in queer studies within African literary studies.
“I am also, together with Associate Professor Delali Kumavie, co-editing a journal special section on aeromobilities in African and African diaspora literatures. Currently, what particularly interests me in literary mobility studies are posthumanist and infrastructure-related questions, as well as methodological development.”
Toivanen hopes to be able to explore these areas further with her own research group.
“I am also very much looking forward to the new forms of collaboration with Stellenbosch that this appointment enables.”
