Harry Kiiru

Harry Kiiru earned his PhD in African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a minor in African American Studies. His dissertation, The Culturally and Racially Body in Motion: How Sub‑Saharan African Immigrants Become Black in the United States, examines the racialization of African immigrants from the 1959–63 East African Students’ Airlift through the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, post‑independence migration, and the contemporary Black Lives Matter moment. His research combines archival work, textual and film analysis, and self‑ethnography to explore how members of the new African diaspora negotiate and redefine racial and ethnic identities.

During his graduate career, Kiiru served as a project assistant for the African Studies Program, supported community engagement for the Mandela Washington Fellowship’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), and contributed to Africa at Noon and the Crawford M. Young Conference. He also taught undergraduate courses in African cultural expression and African literature.

A long‑time racial justice and equity practitioner, Kiiru spent nine years facilitating cross‑race dialogue and leadership development in UW–Madison’s Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement (DDEEA). He also served on the Graduate School’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Funding advisory board and was an active member of the Decoloniality Dialogues Collective.