Naminata Diabate


Naminata Diabate is an Ivorian scholar, author, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Her interdisciplinary work spans African and African diaspora studies, gender and sexuality studies, biopolitics, and visual culture. She is known for her research on embodied agency, protest, and the politics of nudity in African contexts.
Diabate is the author of Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa and has been described as having fluency in Malinké, French, English, Nouchi, Spanish, and Latin, informing her comparative and transnational scholarship.

Education

Diabate earned her undergraduate degree from the Université de Cocody in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. She later completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, with concentrations in African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Academic career

Diabate is an Associate Professor at Cornell University, where she is affiliated with multiple departments and programs, including, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Africana Studies and Research Center, Literatures in English, Romance Studies, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, Performing and Media Arts and Visual Studies.
She held the Robert and Helen Appel Fellowship for Humanists and Social Scientists at Cornell in 2020, recognizing excellence in teaching and scholarly promise.
Diabate is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Africa Institute in Sharjah, UAE, and served as an Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow from 2021 to 2023.
In 2024, Diabate was named one of the “10 African Scholars to Watch” by The Africa Report, alongside Simukai Chigudu, Toyin Ajao and Satang Nabaneh.

Critique of Naked Agency

Diabate’s book, Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa, has been recognized for its innovative approach to African feminist theory and protest politics. The work explores how acts of insurrectional nudity and genital cursing function as embodied strategies of resistance, particularly among women, rooted in indigenous spiritual beliefs in African contexts.
A review in Feminist Africa praised Diabate’s “nuanced reading of female protest” and her ability to “reframe nudity as a site of power rather than vulnerability.” The review highlights the book’s interdisciplinary rigor, blending literary analysis, political theory, and cultural studies.
Naked Agency has been cited as a significant contribution to African feminist scholarship and biopolitical studies, offering new frameworks for understanding protest, embodiment, and power. Naked Agency also won the African Studies Association Best Book Prize and the African Literature Association First Book Award in 2022, affirming its scholarly impact.

Selected publications

Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa.