Leopold Mvuezolo

Leopold Mvuezolo is a scholar of French and francophone literature, media, cinema and cultural studies. Two questions underlie Professor Mvuezolo’s research and teachings: how do Francophone African cultural productions depict social and environmental externalities arising from climate change in the extraction-driven “sacrifice zones” of Africa? And how do “extractivist narratives” critique systems of exploitation, injustice, and capitalism while fostering an ecological consciousness that reimagines humanity’s relationship with the environment?

Mvuezolo’s current book project, Extractivist Narratives: Environmental Colonialism in Francophone African Literature and Cinema, examines “resource predation narratives” in Francophone cultural production from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Focusing on environmental and social injustices within “sacrifice zones,” the study critiques dominant pro-extractivist paradigms. It advances counter-narratives that interweave ecological awareness with broader concerns such as exploitation, capitalism, migration, environmental (in)justice, ecofeminism, and the future of humanity, promoting a critical environmental consciousness.

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

M.A., University of Toronto

B.A., Carleton University

Licencié, Université Pédagogique Nationale

Specializations

Extractivism

Environmental Humanities

Ecofeminism

Climate (Speculative) Fictions (Cli-Fi)

Media, Technology, and Critical AI.

Law, Migration, and Diaspora

Global Black (Urban) Experience

Selected Publications

La migration face aux enjeux identitaires et juridiques dans « Mur Méditerranée » de Louis-Philippe D’Alembert, Présence Francophone : Revue internationale de langue et de littérature, vol. 102, no. 1, 2025, article 7, pp. 126-145.

Disrupting Normativity: Representation of the Female Body in Maryse Condé's "Moi, Tituba Sorcière noire de Salem". (Under review).

Selected Conference Papers

La migration face aux enjeux identitaires et juridiques dans « Mur méditerranée » de Louis-Philippe Dalembert. 41st Annual 20th & 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, Villanova University, Philadelphia, PA, February 22-24, 2024.

Mineral Extractivism: The narratives of Sacrifice Zones in Frank Poulsen’s Blood in the Mobile documentary. 40^th Annual 20th & 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April 13 – 15, 2023.

Écriture et Representation du corps féminin dans«Moi Tituba, sorcière noire de Salem.» 47th Conference of the African Literature Association (ALA), (Virtual), May 19 -21, 2022.