Uju Anya Biography
Uju Anya born (1977) is a Nigerian-American Feminist, Author and Assistant Professor of Second Language Learning at the Pennsylvania State University. She is also an associate professor of second language acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Modern Languages, where she also teaches classes and conducts research.
| Name | Uju Anya |
| Date of Birth | 1976 |
| Age | 45 years (2022) |
| Sexual Orientation | Lesbian |
| Profession/Occupation | Assistant Professor of Second Language Learning Feminist Author |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (2007–2011), Brown University (1999–2001), Dartmouth College (1994–1998) |
| Nationality | Nigerian American |
| Religion | Atheist |
| Place of Birth | Enugu, Nigeria |
Uju Anya Background
Uju Anya was born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1976 to a Nigerian father and Trinidadian mother. According to her, she moved to the United States when she was 13 years of age with her mother and older brother.
In an interview about her early life, she said;
My parents’ marriage was chaotic. My dad was a philanderer, an absolute whoremonger. He had a bunch of women. One was more regular than the others. Eventually, he married and brought her into the house.
At first, my mum was not okay with him having these other women, but she turned a blind eye to it. However, when he married her and demanded that she live in the same house which they built together, she couldn’t take it. My mum plotted her escape for two years.
In 1986, she secretly took me and my brother, who was 13, to the United States. My older siblings were older than 18, so she didn’t take them. We all reunited later in the US when they came to live with us. I wrote a whole Twitter thread about it.
Uju Anya Career
Dr. Uju Anya is an expert on black multilingualism and language learning.
Her main research areas are applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and critical discourse studies. She uses the multilingual experiences of African American students to examine race, gender, sexual orientation, and social class identities in new language learning.
Additionally, she has experience with applied linguistics as a tool for social justice, intercultural communication, service-learning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in instructional practices and curriculum design. She also has knowledge of language study abroad.
The 2019 American Association for Applied Linguistics First Book Award honors a scholar whose first book represents outstanding work that makes an exceptional contribution to the field. Dr. Anya’s book, Racialized identities in second language learning: Speaking blackness in Brazil (Routledge 2017), examines how African American students shape and negotiate different identities in multilingual contexts.
The articles “The taquito hot seat: Socializing monolingual bias through error correction practices in a Portuguese language classroom,” “Critical race pedagogy for more effective and inclusive world language teaching,” and a co-edited book titled “Racial equity on college campuses: Connecting research to practice” are a few upcoming publications.
Uju Anya Awards
Uju Anya has a number of awards to her name. Some of these awards include;
- Penn State College of Education Outstanding Teaching Award, 2020
- American Association for Applied Linguistics First Book Award, 2019
- ACTFL/Middlebury Research Forum Invited Scholar, 2019
- USC Rossier School of Education Faculty Teaching and Mentoring Award, 2015
- Centro Latino for Literacy Manos Amigas Volunteer of the Year Award, 2008
Uju Anya On Queen Elizabeth Death
Following the passing of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, Uju Anya stated her views controversially on Twitter. She did not show any sympathy for the British throne as she aired her views just few hours after Queen Elizabeth’s death hit the news.
Uju Anya statement was referring to the Nigerian-Biafran civil war of 1967 that massacred 3 million Igbos.. Uju Anya stated the role the British government had in the war and how it enabled the genocide.
She said,
If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.
Uju Anya, 2022
After airing her views, people took to their timeline to express their disdain for the professor who couldn’t sympathize with the royal family.
Here are some reactions below
Uju Anya Husband
Uju Anya once had a husband, not anymore as she divorced her husband in 2021 after identifying as a lesbian and part of the LGBTQ community. She had already separated herself from her former husband since 2017.
Uju Anya Net worth
Uju Anya has an estimated net worth of $2 million. She is an Assistant Professor of Second Language Learning at the Pennsylvania State University.
