The MERLIT Research project warmly welcomes Elizabeth “Lisa” Abena Osei ̶ an interdisciplinary researcher, game designer, and cultural theorist ̶ for a Spring/Summer 2025 research residency exploring Afrofuturist/Africanfuturist storytelling, memory, and speculative cartography.
Lisa focuses on Postcolonial Studies and African Literature, and specifically on Black Speculative Fiction. She holds a masters in Comparative English Studies, Literature and American Culture from Heinrich-Heine Universität, Düsseldorf, and an MPhil in English Literature from the University of Ghana. She has published peer-reviewed articles on Black speculative fiction, specifically Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, in The Journal of African Literature Association (JALA), Critical Studies in Media and Communication journal and the Global Africa Sciences. She is also the winner of the Best Graduate Student Essay Award at the 2022 African Literature Association Conference. She is also an MLA Edward Giuliano Global Fellow 2024 awardee. Overall, she is interested in the ways Postcolonial African literatures can be used in transformative ways to explore and challenge the complexities of race, identity, and power.
During her research stay, Lisa will be leading a series of workshops and conversations centered on Sankofa’s Cosmic Adansikro; an interactive web-based game that draws on Africanfuturist and Afrofuturist traditions to construct a digital map of speculative futures.
The project engages deeply with four seminal texts:
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
Combining narrative design, cultural memory, and African diasporic philosophies like Sankofa, the game invites participants to time-travel through layered storylines, embodying roles that shape their journey through a richly imagined cosmic landscape.
Upcoming Activities Include:
Hands-on Twine (Game Design Software) storytelling and world-building workshops
Talks on speculative mapping and media archaeology
Conversations on Black futures, cultural technology, and digital memory
