Christopher Wise, PhD

Professor

About

Christopher Wise is Professor of English and Comparative Literature.  He has taught at Western Washington University since 1996.  Professor Wise teaches world literatures, including African, Middle Eastern, and European literatures.  His research interests include the African Sahel, especially Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Senegal, the Maghreb, and the Middle East, France and former Francophone colonies.  He also writes translations; non-fiction critical theory and philosophy.  

A four-time Fulbright scholar, Professor Wise has lectured in universities and embassies throughout Africa and the Middle East.  From 2001 through 2003, Professor Wise taught at the University of Jordan, Amman, developing programs in American Studies and Islamic Studies.  Prior to that, he taught on a Fulbright Award at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso in 1996-1997.  Recent books include À la recherche de Yambo Ouologuem (Les Éditions de Philae), Sorcery, Totem, and Jihad in African Philosophy (Bloomsbury) Archive of the Umarian Tijaniyya (Sahel Nomad) and In Search of Yambo Ouologuem (Chimurenga).  

Professor Wise has also edited and translated numerous books by African writers, including the Tuareg poet Hawad’s In The Net (University of Nebraska Press), The Manuscripts of Timbuktu (Africa World Press), The Timbuktu Chronicles, 1493-1599: Al Hajj Mahmud Kati’s Tarikh al fattash (Africa World Press), The Yambo Ouologuem Reader (Africa World Press), and Norbert Zongo’s The Parachute Drop (Africa World Press).  He recently edited and translated The Writings of Al Hajj Sekou Tall (Sahel Nomad).  In addition to his books, Wise has authored numerous articles on African, the Middle Eastern, and other Global literatures during his career.  Every year, Professor Wise takes 15 students to Senegal on a WWU faculty-led Global Learning Program. He is originally from Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Muskogee Nation.